Somehow the cross is a powerful moral and spiritual invitation that is presented to us in the significant occasions of our lives and every single day.  It is as if at the funeral of a loved one, or our children’s weddings and baptisms, we are to peer beyond the emotions of the day, to find…

“The nail that stands up gets hammered down,” said the principal of the primary school where I taught for two years in Armenia.  He shared this insightful proverb to explain why my new students gasped when I wrote on the board with my left hand, and why I was the only lefty in the entire…

Today’s reading from the letter of Paul to the Galatians is not a feel good Bible verse quoted a lot for motivational speeches or weddings. I won’t be reading it at Hagop and Angie’s wedding later today, and you won’t be seeing it cross-stitched on any pillow or t-shirt any time soon.  Yet the verse…

Christianity has had a hard time adjusting to the modern scientific age because of its lack of evidence-based testing.  Why do you believe this or that?  I just do.  Why does your faith matter? It just does.  Some of this is due to the nature of life and religion. Not everything is testable or provable,…

That’s why Jesus, unlike the founder of any other religion, does not encourage any form of sacrifice, except the sacrifice of the ego, the false self. “The sacrifice pleasing to God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart.” His cross is the mysterious means of healing for all of mankind because it shows us…

But just as our tendency to lose our way effects all people in all times, so too does our chance to find our way.  Jesus gives us this profound hope in the verses right before Matthew’s end times reading, where he puts the suffering all around us in perspective, saying ‘all this is but the…

Today on the exaltation of the Cross, through mid November, we bring out the oldest and most powerful reminder of who we are  in the Season of the cross.  This reminder is in words, in ritual and in deed. As Confucius said “Tell me, I forget; show me, I remember; involve me, I understand.” His…

I know many of you hate me saying this.  But remember, hate is the flip side of love. God hates Armenian pride, he doesn’t hate Armenians.  He loves Armenians, but he hates our tendency to worship ourselves and not him.  He hates that we worship the gift of our Armenianness rather than He, the Giver. …

We probably all have stories to share of getting in over our heads and needing rescue as kids, but its much harder to come up with examples as adults. Why is that?  Do we still get in over our heads as adults but are embarrassed to admit it?  Do we simply learn to avoid risk…

A sermon by Bp. Daniel Findikyan on August 25, 2022.