Advent: Preparation

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent
Advent: Preparation

Preparation is important to the success of any life event. From something as common as your next meal, to milestones such as graduating school, preparation is fundamental to the success and enjoyment of that event. Likewise for events we commemorate in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church offers us times for preparation so that we can come to better appreciate, and thereby enjoy, the message of the Gospel in our lives.

Christmas comes and goes as an event of the Winter. Noting the commercialization or the secularization of the Christmas holiday is only tied to our lack of being prepared for the Mystery we proclaim on Christmas: Christ is born and revealed.

The Church has given a period of times, called “Advent” which means “Coming.” In the Armenian Church this period is called hisnag designating a 50-day time period before Christmas. Prior to Easter we count of 50 days as well (he 40 days of Lent along with the Day of Good Living and Holy Week, add up to 50 days). And that period, commonly referred to as Lent, has a certain notoriety which is missing from the pre-Christmas season. The Advent season is equally important in preparing ourselves to fully participate in the Christmas joy.

The Advent preparation is one of tuning the body, soul and mind to wonders that await us in the manger, under the tree and at our church service.

Beginning today, we will be journeying together toward the day we greet one another with the merriest of Christmas messages, “Christ is born and revealed.” I invite you to join along and follow us in that journey, with our daily messages under the banner, Armodoxy for Today: ADVENT. It will be a different Christmas for sure. Preparing to meet Jesus at his nativity, you’ll come to understand how God interacted with our world in a manger in Bethlehem then, but even more important, how He interacts at the places of our lives today, wherever they may be. We will journey through the 50 days along with the special “12 days of Christmas” at the end.

I look forward to taking this journey with you.

We pray, Heavenly Father, as we begin this season of Advent, open our hearts and our souls to the wonders you have shared with us. As we prepare for the blessed Birth and Revelation of your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, we ask that you keep us focused on the opportunity to prepare, so that we can fully participate and enjoy the celebration of Christmas. May we be led by the Holy Spirit and begin this day on this journey in faith. Amen.

Thanksgiving Expressed

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In the United States we have a beautiful tradition holiday called Thanksgiving. It recollects the gratitude of the first pilgrims in America. In the Church, the tradition of Thanksgiving is as old as Christianity itself. Here is a special Thanksgiving presentation of AC101, an episode where the Thanksgiving service of the Armenian Church – the Eucharist or Badarak – is shown to parallel the traditional holiday outing and dinner. Happy Thanksgiving to all….

No Thanks

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Armodoxy for Today

No Thanks

In our series of messages leading to the celebration of Thanksgiving, we discussed the joys of gratitude and a joyful spirit.

Given the state of the world, some may argue that there is very little for which to be thankful. Regardless of current circumstances, there are those who do not see the purpose of giving thanks. Even during more tranquil and prosperous times there are many who suffer unbearable pain, are held as prisoners, are caught in the crossfire of wars and terror, others who are abused or who have been condemned to horrendous illnesses both physical and emotional. Suggesting to raise a word of thanks might be as if putting salt on a wound.

One of the most important precepts of religion is that how a person comes to terms with their god is their personal business.

In all things we are instructed to give thanks. We have learned the importance of gratitude but this understanding is in the context of a mature Christian faith, where even in our struggles and sufferings we can find a moment to be thankful for the breath we take, the smile on a loved one’s face, the spray of the ocean or the beauty of a small flower bud. Still, that decision to give thanks is in the domain of the individual. Ours is not to inspect neither the method nor quality of another’s thanksgiving prayer.

Christianity in Armenia has survived many different political assaults and wars and still remained faithful to the love, hope and faith in Jesus Christ. Armenian Orthodoxy has not evangelized nor converted through force nor by philosophical debate. Instead, Armodoxy’s witness has been silent but effective.

Thanksgiving affords us an opportunity to evangelize in a quiet manner. In thanking God for the blessings we have, others will take note. Even when blessings may seem spread thin and few, the thankful heart becomes a source of hope and inspiration to those struggling with in their daily lives.

We pray, Lord our God, we come to you in a spirit of gratitude, thanking you for the many blessings we enjoy. Accept from us our offerings of thanks on behalf of ourselves and on behalf of our brothers and sisters who may have lost hope and find it difficult to look up in thanks. May we be conscious of the pain of others, so that our prayers resound the voice of those stand in silence. Thank you, Lord. Amen

 

Worship to Celebration

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Armodoxy for today
Worship to Celebration

The act of giving thanks, we have learned, is the greatest expression of humility and love. Gratitude becomes the first step on the path toward selflessness and true love. Worship is the formal act of thanksgiving. The Divine Liturgy, or Badarak of the Armenian Church is the main act of worship which is celebrated every week. It is the oldest community worship in all of Christianity. Each celebration of the Divine Liturgy is an opportunity to travel back to the time of Christ himself and an chance to add to the celebration.

Often the word “Eucharist” is used to express the act of the Divine Liturgy namely the preparation and transformation of the wine and bread into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The word, eucharist, comes from the Greek word meaning grateful or thankful. The Holy Eucharist, the Holy Divine Liturgy, is the central act of worship of the Church and is the ultimate act of thanksgiving. It is the acknowledgement of God so loving the world that He gives His Only-begotten for the salvation of the world. (John 3:16). After acknowledging God’s love, we thank God, or worship Him, and then partake in the celebration, that is, we receive the Holy Body and Blood, the Holy Eucharist, the Holy “Thanksgiving.” For this reason, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated, and never performed. Performance is reserved to scripted plays, concerts, ballets, operas and the like. The Divine Liturgy, the Holy Badarak, is worship and each celebration is unique and brings in new elements from the participants, the priests, deacons, singers, congregants, adults and children, each adding to the celebration with a unique whisper or a shout. And Armodoxy is the assurance that everyone brings his or her own flavor to the mix, their own gestures of thankfulness, so that each Liturgy is a celebration and never a performance.

Is it any wonder that we celebrate Thanksgiving and wish one another, a “Happy” Thanksgiving?

We pray from the hymn of thanksgiving in our Divine Liturgy, “We have been filled with your good things, O Lord, by tasting of your Body and Blood. You who continually feed us, send down upon us your spiritual blessing. Glory in the highest to you who have fed us at your table of immortal life; distributing your Body and your Blood for the salvation of the world and for life to our souls.” Amen.

Thanksgiving and Worship

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Armodoxy for Today
Thanksgiving and Love

In the spirit of the times, just as retailers have extended Black Friday to the entirety of the month of November, we have extending thanksgiving beyond the traditional one-day commemoration to a series of thoughts on the subject. Over the last several days we’ve spoken about the need to be unashamedly thankful, to avoid comparison shopping and optimizing our thankfulness. We even spoke about thanksgiving as a remedy to ego inflation. Today we will look at the receiver of our thankfulness, God.

Thanksgiving is not prayer. Thanksgiving is an acknowledgement of something greater than yourself. As such, it falls into the category of worship. In the Armenian Church, worship takes place seven times a day. From the early morning hours to the moments before restful sleep, there are seven hours of worship. For a people who have known very little peace and prosperity, that have been attacked, raped and murdered, it is extremely unusual to this group of people offer so much thanksgiving. It is unusual, unless viewed under through the lens of Armodoxy. Thanksgiving, and therefore worship, is not about stroking God’s Ego. The Evangelist John tells us God is love. Accordingly, love has no ego-issue. Love is giving and sacrificing. When we worship and give thanks, we are acknowledging the power of love. The words of the apostle (I Corinthians 13) come to life, “Love is patient; love is kind,” and we are forced to come to terms with the power of love, as St. Paul writes, “Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

Love is God, God is Love. Thanksgiving is, in fact, about acknowledging God, and therefore acknowledging the power of love.

Let us pray, Bless us with Love, O Merciful God; that we may Love as you Love. That we may show patience, tolerance, kindness, caring and love to all. Amen.

Ego Remedy

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Armodoxy for Today

Ego Remedy

Throughout the gospels, our Lord Jesus calls us to a life of selfless living demonstrated by giving and doing unto others. It may seem like this call is an extra difficult challenge given the pressures of the day, but mastery of the discipline of selflessness – losing one’s ego – has always been the end game of true religion. Given the harsh conditions of life in which Armodoxy developed, discipline of body, soul and mind was, and is, essential for survival.

Selflessness yields inner peace and spiritual contentment.

Thanksgiving prayers are the true prayers of selflessness. The act of giving thanks implies that there is something greater than our self, and in fact, thanksgiving is the first step in losing ego, and understanding the self as part of a community, a community where we share our talents in an expression of love and care. It is us, following in the example given to us by Jesus Christ, himself.

This entire week, as a prelude to the Thanksgiving holiday, our “Daily Messages” looked at the joy of thanksgiving from different angles, and today see it opening a path to peace, one which is in our grasp and for us to create.

We pray for the strength and courage to thank God for the bounty, for the life, and the joy we enjoy. Amen.

Optimized Thankfulness

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Armodoxy for Today
Optimized Thankfulness

What does a prayer of thankfulness, that is, a thanksgiving prayer, sound like?

By reviewing the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collection, we learned in yesterday’s message, that giving thanks, cannot be built on comparing our blessings with the blessings of others. (Daily Message: Comparison Shopping).

If we try to “comparison shop” as a means of thanking God, we will always come out on the short end of the scale. We may thank God for the beautiful house we possess, but next to God, who creates the valleys and mountains, and the gardens of trees and forests, our house is dwarfed. We can thank God for the luxurious cars we own, only to be reminded that the measurement of “horsepower” is meaningful because God has created the animals that move the land and inspire humans to gracefully count our movements. We may thank God for the beautiful airplane on which we fly, only to be reminded that God creates the wings, the feathers and birds that spark our imagination to create the machines that take flight. We can thank God for the art of the great painters, the words of the writers and the music of the minstrels, only to watch them pale next to a seascape hosting a sunset with clouds of deep reds and yellows that pull our imagination below the horizon.

The things we possess will always pale next to the wonders of God. Our prayer, the one of thanksgiving, is a simple one: Lord have mercy. In the Armenian Church, it is recited, chanted and sang, throughout all of our services, Der Voghormya. It is optimized thankfulness, with no excesses and packed with meaning. In asking God for His mercy, we acknowledge the greatness of the One who supplies and replenishes our lives day-to-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute. In Armodoxy, this is the acknowledgement of God as Life-giver, Creator, the All. It resonates the words, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

Pray this simple prayer of the Armenian Church and be mindful of all the wonders around you. Der Voghormya, Lord have mercy. Amen.

 

Comparison Shopping

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Armodoxy for Today
Comparison Shopping

Jesus shares this story with us, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’”  Jesus then tells us, “This man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14)

The lessons of this parable are many, but for this Thanksgiving season, we focus on the prayer of the first man, the prayer of the Pharisee, who, by the way, was a learned man. He knew Holy Scriptures backwards, forwards and all around. His prayer, you will notice, is a prayer based on comparison. “I thank God that I am not like the other man…” he says.

If you’re listening to this podcast, it means you have some degree of electronic access, which means that you’re better-off than most people on the planet. It is easy to say thank God I am better off than most, just as the Pharisee thanked God in his prayer. Unlike comparison shopping thankfulness is not about comparing things we do or do not have with those things that others have or do not have. It’s easy to look at the blind man and be thankful for our sight. Or hear of hunger in countries menaced by famine or war and be thankful of our food and peace. Thank God, we might say, that I am not like them!

In the history of the Armenian Church, you find that the prayers of thanksgiving are offered at times of abundance as well as times of scarcity, at times of peace and at times of war and even genocide. Thankfulness is the ability to put the ego on hold, in check, and understand yourself as a part of something greater. It is the beginning of religiosity and ultimately peace.

We pray with the Psalmist (26) Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart. For Your loving kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth. I will wash my hands in innocence so I will go about Your altar, O Lord, That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works. Amen.

Unashamedly Thankful

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Armodoxy for Today

Unashamedly Thankful

In an effort revive or resuscitate the slowdown of “Black Friday” sales and give sales a boost, several years ago, retailers came up with some alternatives buying days, including Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, and No-tax Sunday. Perhaps out of guilt for the constant push to buy goods and services, alternatives such as Giving Tuesday and Social Saturday were offered as means of boosting the economy (read spending money) while giving the consumer an altruistic feeling of goodness. Retailers and their advertising consultants unashamedly have usurped the thanksgiving spirit of the holiday with a collection of spending opportunities, the latest of which is Black Friday sales throughout the entire month of November!

The one truly universal religious holiday in America, that is, Thanksgiving, has now been marred with spending opportunities that feed our financial anxieties – never sure if we are getting the best deal or not, on this or that product, and never sure if we need or not, this or that product.

Thanksgiving transcends religious brands. It is the beginning of all true religions and religiosity. It is the wondering of the human spirit that looks up to the heavens and contemplates his existence, realizing that there has to be something more than the human consumption of tangible goods, and coming down on his knees, is thankful for the bounty of life. At that point, the self – the ego – has found its place behind that which is bigger and greater.

Unashamedly, Armodoxy is about thankfulness. Thanksgiving is the first prayer of the Armenian Church and for this reason, not only is the month of November dedicated to thanksgiving, but every day of every year, begins with a prayer of thanksgiving.

We prayer, today the prayer of the Psalmist, (95) “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods.”

Empathy

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Armodoxy for Today
Empathy

On the last evening of a visit to Armenia, I sat at sunset staring out the window of my room. The room was high enough to give me a panoramic view of Yerevan, under the majestic shadow of Mt. Ararat. During my trip, I had met with people doing work on the cutting edge of technology. I spent time with people who were challenging the norms and excelling for the betterment of themselves, their families and their country. There was real hope in the air.

I remember looking out the window and praying for peace. It was simple wish: If this small but potent country could only have peace, miracles could happen. The miracles we would see would not be from any outside source, rather, they would come from within, if only there was peace. It was possible, it had been nearly 30 years that this country, which had known centuries of oppression, massacres and even genocide, was now living in peace. I looked out at the Yerevan skyscape and knew we would see the best of miracles, if only there was peace.

It is now 2022. A friend called me from Armenia this morning. At the end of our conversation he said, “If only we have peace, we can do anything, we can aspire to the best and be the best. If only we have peace.” It was as if my prayer from a few years ago was recorded and being played back to me in the voice of my friend. His prayer was more current, though, and had a more urgent tone to it. After all, the 44 day war in 2020 had taken place and the war in September of this year, initiated by the Azeris, has left everyone on edge, to say the least.

It is difficult to understand the pain and suffering of others from a distance. One of the core tenants of Armodoxy is a call to walk in the shoes of others. It is the expression of empathy, that is, to fully understand the pain and suffering of others, we must walk in their shoes. And small exercises can help us place our feet in the correct place.

Those of us living in the United States might not fully understand the prayer for peace in Armenia, but we might begin by imagining a world where we were constantly being attacked by our neighbors in Mexico and Canada, to the point that we live with the uncertainty of maintaining our independence, day-in and day-out. Perhaps the example is not fair considering the size, power and geography of the US. Those of you in Europe, in Africa, or in the Middle East, where countries are so much closer and intertwined with one another, can consider a country such as Switzerland, if its landlocking neighbors, France, Italy, Austria and Germany had only one intention, to annihilate and destroy that relatively small country.

And if still difficult to imagine, sit in your own home, in your house or apartment and picture all of your neighbors – every one of them, next door and across the street – wanting only one thing: to overpower, overcome and rid you from the neighborhood.

Walking in the shoes of others is a call to empathy. It is understanding that the only real and true miracle that we must pray and work for is peace. Walking in the shoes of others gives us the capacity to understand and once in the shoes, we must walk towards resolution.

Appropriately, today we pray the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.