Repayment – Daily Message

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Armodoxy for Today
Repayment – Daily Message

Jesus instructs, “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you” (Matthew 7:12). This is often called The Golden Rule. Social psychologists categorize this rule under the principle of reciprocity, that is, in different social situations we pay back what we received from others. In other words, if someone does you a favor, you’re likely to do a favor in return. It’s common for organizations to send a gift – labels, calendars, cards, etc. – with an envelope expecting that the principle of reciprocity will kick in and you’ll send back a donation.

In Armodoxy, our actions are not based on the actions of others. We are called to give and share our God given talents without expecting in return. The Golden Rule is a proactive rule for conduct, but in terms of repayment, Jesus points to a hirer rule when he says, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” (Matthew 6:44).

The higher expectation is in fulfillment of Christ’s invitation and challenge to, “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 6:48). In fact, to repay goodness with goodness is only human. To repay goodness with evil, is diabolic. But to repay evil with goodness, is divine.

So much of our life is built as a reaction to the actions of others. The challenge is to live proactively, not waiting for repayment, but doing what is good and the way we would expect others to treat us.

Let us pray from the Book of Hours of the Armenian Church, “Receive, O God, these prayers and our service. Make Your light of righteousness and wisdom shine forth upon us and make us children of light and of day, so that in godliness we may lead our life and fulfil it without offence, for you are our helper and Savior and to you is befitting glory and honor. Amen.

Small Steps – Daily Message

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Armodoxy for Today
Small Steps – Daily Message

Richard Dawson was a popular game show host during the 1970s. In one episode of the “Family Feud,” he came out to the cheers of the studio audience and in front of the millions who had tuned in to the weekly show. He took a long puff from a cigarette, exhaled, threw the butt on the floor, stamped it out, turned to camera and exclaimed, “That was my last cigarette!” The audience cheered even louder. And then, without missing a beat, he add, “… for the rest of the show.”

Often we are overwhelmed with the size and magnitude of our dilemmas and problems. Sometimes the solutions seem overwhelming and out of reach for us. We have heard the Chinese proverb, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” but our gaze is usually stretched out so far ahead that we succumb to the feelings of disappointment and abandon the run.

Armodoxy is discovered in the long run. It has been cultivated through a history which has run the course of human history. Armodoxy came from a people who thanked God for the day and found themselves in continuous prayer for millennia. It is the small victories, the day-to-day accomplishments that add and make the entire story of life. Take a moment to enjoy the victory of a single minute, hour, day, year and you’ll find that the prize is a life filled with meaning and purpose.

Today we pray a prayer from the Armenian Church’s Book of Hours, Jamakirk, “Lord our God, we give thanks to You, for You have granted us to pass this day in peace. Grant us, O Lord, to pass this evening and the night before us without sin and stumbling, and to stand firm and abide steadfastly in faith, in hope and in love and in the observance of Your commandments. Give peace to the world and stability to Your holy Church and salvation to our souls. For to You is befitting glory, dominion, and honor, now and forever and ever. Amen.

Amen – Daily Message

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Armodoxy for Today

Amen – Daily Message

Letting go, for many people, is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do. Letting go means an end has come to a relationship and continuing life with that relationship is no longer an option. We are emotional creatures and continuity, as the word relationship implies, gives us stability. Letting go threatens that stability and therefore is often mixed with painful feelings.

Interestingly enough, we end our prayers with a statement that proclaims we have let go. The word, “Amen” is our resignation to the fact that we have turned over our cares to God. Amen is an affirmation of our trust, our hope and our faith in God. We end each prayer saying, “So be it” or “Let it be so.” Amen. It is the ultimate statement of letting go. We relinquish control.

Letting go is essential, particularly in this age of information. Being bombarded day in and day out with news, it is easy to become distraught and lose hope. In fact, most of the news items we are given fill us with information and not much more. And so, it becomes exceedingly important, for us to admit that certain events and issues are beyond our immediate control. Turning to Armodoxy – you find that relinquishing access of those things you cannot control allows you to sort out your life and be more productive and spiritually alive. We end our prayers with the word “Amen” as an outword profession that we have turned over matters to God: Let it be.

Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr authored a short prayer that is often used in 12 step programs.  It allows us to place issues and events in context. It turns over to God what we cannot do and confesses “Amen” or “let it be.”

Therefore, join me in prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the thing I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Amen.

Listening with the Heart – Daily Message

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Armodoxy for Today

Daily Message – Listening with the heart

In our Daily Message about prayer, we defined prayer as a conversation involving speaking as well as listening. The art of listening is not limited to a function of the ears. For instance, in the Lord’s prayer, the request to forgive our trespasses, or sins, is dependent on our ability to forgive others who trespass against us.

The act of listening, in this case, requires that we contemplate our pattern of forgiveness. To listen, means we reflect on all those who have hurt us, “trespassed” against us, and ask ourselves sincerely, if we have forgiven them. For the condition of forgiveness from God is dependent on our forgiveness of others. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Did we forgive them half of their debt? Then we can expect God to forgive half of our debt. In other words, by saying “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” we are responsible for our own reward or condemnation. By our own mouth we write out a ticket of peace or a path of torment. In fact, so great is this condition, that Jesus reiterates it at the conclusion of the “Lord’s Prayer.” In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus adds these verses to the Lord’s Prayer, “If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Listening is the act of introspection. God talks to us on a multitude of levels – think of them as different frequencies and bandwidths. Don’t expect to hear the thunderous voice of God, if you first haven’t heard His soft whisper in your heart. It’s a voice that says look within, forgive and move forward. Converse with God and remember to listen, especially with your heart.

I share with you the prayer of St. Nersess Shnorhali, from the 23rd hour:

All merciful Lord, have mercy on all Your faithful, on those who are mine and on those who are strangers, on those whom I know and on those whom I know not, on the living and on the dead, and forgive all my enemies, and those who hate me, the trespasses that they have committed against me, turn them from the malice which they bear towards me, that they may be worthy of Your mercy.

Prayer – Daily Message

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Armodoxy for Today

Daily Message – Prayer

We hear it all the time: I’ll pray for you. You’re in my prayers. Keep me in your prayers. Pray for better days. Pray for good health. Pray for safety from enemies.

Before teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus took a moment to teach them how not to pray. He said, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”

Most of our ideas about prayer are compiled from different ideas we’ve heard throughout our lifetime, primarily along the lines that prayer is a conversation with God where we present Him with a list of our needs. In turn, we expect God to answer our prayers with a yes, no or maybe.

Clearly, Jesus tells us, that’s not what prayer is, since our “Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.”

If prayer is a conversation with God and not a monologue, nor a soliloquy, but a conversation, it is implied that talking and listening are involved. You see, God knows our needs, but perhaps we may not know our needs. Listening, as part of a conversation, allows to hear our request, to focus on them and find the solutions that are within our grasp.

For this reason, Jesus instructs us with a prayer that asks of God, and demands that we listen.

From Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, “Pray then like this, “Our Father who is in heaven, may Your Name be holy, may Your Kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever. Amen

Translating Hope – DM#6

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Limits – DM#4

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Armodoxy for Today

Daily Message #4: Limits

Jesus was often criticized by people who knew the law and commandments better than most.  They themselves understood their prowess and had convinced others of it as well. Mark the Evangelist recalls that some “teachers of the law” were accusing Jesus of blasphemy because he dared to forgive sins. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” they reasoned.

Jesus turned the question on them. “Which is easier,” he asked them, “To say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’”  Jesus went beyond the standards that others imposed on him and when it came to loving others, he refused to limit himself. (Mark 2:6-12)

Often, we find ourselves trapped and confounded with our circumstances. We contemplate braking out of our confinement, but that contemplation takes the form of over analysis, leading to paralysis. All that’s necessary is to extend ourselves, to poke out of our confinement and discover a world out there we never knew existed.”

The power of Armodoxy has been tested in a land and with a people who did not live by limits imposed on them by others, rather they tapped into the limitless potential that comes from God.

A prayers from St. Nersess Shnorhali,

Fountain of immortality, make the tears of repentance flow from my heart, like that of the adulterous that I may wash away the sins of my soul. Have mercy on me, a great sinner. Amen.

Peace – DM#3

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Armodoxy for Today

 

Daily Message #3 – Peace

The journey through and to Armodoxy is a simple one. It does require, however, the openness of mind. Stories, clichés, phases, and general conversations are filled with idioms that are seldom questioned, but instead are repeated as part of unbridled conversation. For instance, when we say someone “Spilled the beans” we mean they gave away a secret and not that they were clumsy with a pintos or favas. The expression, “Under the weather” has nothing to do with rain, sleet or snow, rather it’s a way of saying a person is feeling ill. There are thousands of these expressions that have made their way into daily conversations.

Some of these expressions have permeated our reasoning capabilities and we begin to think of them as truths or axioms. For instance, the expression, “You fight fire with fire,” means to fight against an opponent by using the same methods or weapons that the opponent uses, but if we were to think about it for a moment, we would quickly understand that it is fueling the kindle, which make bigger and bigger fires, which is certainly not a means of fighting a fire! When the same thoughtlessness is applied to bigger “fires” we quickly see that we have the ingredients for war.

Armodoxy comes from Armenia, a land and people that have fought fire with water. Here is a group of people that has been attacked and killed by barbarians. They have witnessed the rape and pillage of their country and people, and yet, they have survived and dare to talk about peace… lasting peace.

Armodoxy demands that we have an openness of mind, and a sense of reason to see the ends apart from the means. To understand that that end is Peace.

Jesus says, ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:38f)

We now begin to understand that the goal of life and ultimately our relations is to bring Peace to the hurting world.

Humanity – DM#2

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Armodoxy for Today by Fr. Vazken

 

 

Humanity – Daily Message #2

Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, who had studied various and many societies throughout the world, taught and advocated for cultural relativism, as a means by which we as people can better understand one another. With all the differences marked by cultures and society, the main ingredient for humanity is a basic one.

The story is told that one of Margaret Mead’s students asked her what she considered to be the first sign of civilization. The student expected the anthropologist to point to clay pots, tools for hunting or various societal or religious artifacts. Instead, Mead pointed to a healed femur found in an archeological site, dating back 15,000 years. This was the first evidence of civilization, she claimed.

A femur is the longest bone in the body, linking hip to knee. Take away some of the benefits of modern medicine and it takes about six weeks of rest for a fractured femur to heal. This particular bone had been broken and had healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, you cannot drink or hunt for food. In fact, if you were wounded in this manner, you became food for other animals. If you were to stand still for your bone to heal, you’d definitely be the main course on some other animal’s dinner menu. Another animal… that’s right. The question being asked was what separates us – humanity – from other animals? Why was this healed bone the key to understanding when we moved from animal to caring people?

A broken femur that has healed, explained Mead, is evidence that another person took time to stay with the injured person, bound the wound, carried the person to safety and tended to them through recovery. A healed femur indicates that someone has helped a fellow human, rather than abandoning them to save their own life.

“Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts,” explained Margaret Mead.

Armodoxy has roots in untouched Christianity. Christ instructs us, “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.  And you will be blessed.” You see, Christ’s invitation is an invitation to humanity.

Let us pray a prayer from St. Ephrem (4th Century)

I gaze upon You, Christ my Lord, and open my heart before You through fervent prayer, O Son of God, for humbling Yourself before Your creatures and taking on the role of a servant. You possess such love for humankind that we may attain divine wisdom. Have mercy on me, O benevolent God.

2,085 Broken Femur Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Simplicity – DM#1

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Armodoxy for Today by Fr. Vazken

 

Daily Message #1: Simplicity

Jesus Tweeted.  That’s not meant to be funny, neither is it meant to shock you, nor to make Jesus contemporary. God forbid. Jesus and his message are always contemporary and therefore, relevant to us. Rather, “Jesus tweeted,” is merely to use a contemporary term to describe a very effective means by which Jesus communicated with us. His messages were concise, simple and to the point.

“Unless a grain of wheat die, it remains a single seed,” is a Tweet. (John 12:24)

“My family are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Another Tweet. (Math 12:50)

“Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you,” and “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you,” are two more examples.  (Matt. 7:12, Matt. 5:44)

When Twitter first came out, users were limited to 140 characters to the articulate an idea, a thought or a message. Now the limit has doubled to 280 characters, but the challenge to simplify the message is put upon the user. We’re invited to do the same with our Faith, to find God’s voice in the simplest expression. The petal of a flower, the smile of a child or the touch of a friend in need, are starting points in Armodoxy.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me… for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 19:14)

Let us pray the first and simplest prayer that a Christian must know: Lord, have mercy on me. Amen.’