Resurrection and Beginnings

Holy Week Day #9 – Easter Sunday! – You made it through to the end, only to find it’s the beginning. The angels direct us to look at Life and we do – to find it Resurrected! Final directions for the Lenten Journey.
Music: “Govya Yerousghem” by Vazkenian Seminarians at Lake Sevan; Speghani Children’s choir; “Birdsong Medly” by Armen Chakmakian; “About God” by Gor Mkhitarian. Cover: “Rise!” by Gregory Beylerian for In His Shoes Ministry. (available in the Epostle Shop)
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Easter Eve – ‘Before the Dawn’

Holy Week Day #8 – Easter Eve – It’s always darkest before the dawn, but the Light cannot be contained. It’s radiating from the Tomb of Christ, as we anticipate the Good News of Resurrection; Matthew 28;
Music: Selections from “Ornyal eh Asdvadz” by Students at the Vazkenian Seminary at Lake Sevan; Cover: Easter Morning at the Hollywood Bowl, 2003.
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Download

Great Friday – Crucifixion & Burial

Holy Week Day #7 – Great Friday – a mediation as this Lenten and Holy Week Journey culminates, at the foot of the cross with Christ, Mary and St. Nersess. The Cross is Unavoidable.
Prayer: “Lord Have Mercy”;
Music: Rendition of Der Voghormya by System of a Down; “Stairway to Heaven” (Led Zepplin) Symphonic Kashmir; “John Nineteen Forty One,” Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber;
Cover: Holy Apostles Armenian Church in Kars, now converted to Mosque. 2014 Fr. Vazken
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Downloa

Great Thursday – Darkness: Life without Christ

Holy Week Day #6 – Great Thursday – the Passion continues to unravel as Christ enters the Garden of Getsemane. We walk with Christ through this Amazing Story, where we encounter every human emotion, until we stand still in darkness – a Life without Christ.
Music: Diramayr, DerVoghormya and Oor es Mayr eem by Lucine Zakarian; Cover: Salvador Dali’s “Sacrament of the Last Supper”
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Download

Holy Week – Great Wednesday

Holy Week Day #5 – The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ begins to unravel from the Last Supper where he instructs by action, the lesson in humility. Washing the feet of the Disciples, he invites us to a call for social justice and action.
Prayer: St. Nersess Shnorhali’s Aysor Anjar;
Music: Selections from Armenian Duduk Sounds from the Ages;
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Download

Holy Week – Great Tuesday (10 Maidens)

Holy Week Day #4 – Great Tuesday – The parable (Matthew 25) can be and must be turned into a story reflecting its message of preparedness. The Christian is always ready with good works and solid faith, in preparation of answering to God.
Song: “Stargazer” by Armen Donelian;
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Download

Holy Week – Great Monday

Holy Week Day #3 – The Farewell Discourse, John 14, Trust in God, Make Sense of the Chaos, Understand with your Heart and wipe away confusion – Comfort for the Passion Traveler.
Music: “Heru M’ertar” and “Lullaby for the Sun” by Night Ark in Wonderland, Cover: Death Valley at Spring

Direct Link for Download

Holy Week – Palm Sunday

Holy Week Day #2 – Cleansing the Temple – The players are in place as the Passion Play begins. The invitation is extended to stand in the Procession to Jerusalem and to open the portals to our hearts, as Jesus cleanses the temple and the remnants of evil within us.
Song: “In the Moneylender’s Temple” by Ian Anderson and “Patz Mez Der” by Lucine Zakarian. Photo: Palm Sunday at Youth Ministry Center, Glendale 2005
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Download

Holy Week – Lazarus Saturday

Holy Week Day #1 – Reflections on the death and resurrection of Jesus’ friend Lazarus (John 11) and the question: “Do you believe this?”;
Song “At Their Father’s Knee” by Ian Anderson; Cover: Dali-e
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for ePostle.net

Direct Link for Download

Lenten Journey Day 40 – Worship


Lenten Journey Day 40 – Worship

What a beautiful day today is. It is day 40 – forty days ago we began this Lenten Journey. We feel a sense of accomplishment. It is a good feeling. It has been 40 days of fasting – abstaining from certain foods. It has been 40 days of intensifying our prayer life. It has been 40 days of charitable giving, not merely by writing out checks but giving pieces of ourselves. We have counted our blessings and our talents, contemplating our purpose and function within life and our world. It has been a time of reflection.

It is perfectly natural for us to look back today, perhaps even revisit some of the themes that we explored during this Season. In looking back, though, we must be honest. If not, we will be betrayed by our attitudes and actions.

Today as we gather on this 40th day of Lent we arrive as new creatures. We have been transformed. We have changed, perhaps not to the exact place we would like to be, but the change is noticeable. In particular we have a new outlook. We see ourselves differently, as individuals and within the structure of our communities and the world.

The one topic that follows, naturally is “Worship.” It is the one area that we have not explored. It is the most extraordinary and natural. It is the final step we need to take during this Lenten Season.

In worship we understand ourselves in relationship with God in a rather unique manner. Worship is not prayer . It is praise. Worship is not asking. Worship is giving. It is giving ourselves and humbling ourselves before that which is greater than ours self. And so, Worship is the final step in the Lenten period.

It has been a beautiful journey this year because we have grown, both individually and together. By listening, by talking, by sharing, by extending ourselves, that is, by Loving! Think of it for a moment. The Love that we share with others defines who we are in, for and around life itself. And we have a new definition today. We have a new lease on life today! We have opportunity to come face-to-face with this holy season, to look at the resurrection with new eyes. Our eyes are focusing beyond crucifixion and we see the empty tomb. We witness and become part of the Tomb.

Imagine that…. Sitting in the Tomb of Jesus. Imagine waking up after the torture of crucifixion. Imagine waking up after a burial. We can now share properly what we were intended to share from the very beginning – to become participants in the salvation process. It is not a question of being saved, but one of being a participant. And that is where worship grants us a perfect model.

Worship in the Armenian Church is participation. It is an act of participation. It is not witnessing, but throwing yourself into it holistically with all your senses. To visually see what is around you – the visual delights, the colors, the candles, the flowers. To smell the aroma of the flowers at the altar as well as the incense that takes our prayers to heaven. To be able to hear the beautiful tones and tonalities of the angels. Not saying I don’t understand so let the angels come to me, but rather asking, how can I fly with the angels. How can I participant? Our sense of touch is also important in the Worship services. We have to touch each another. We have to physically love one another. We have to kiss each other to say “You are important in my life just as I would like to be important in yours.” In that touching process we begin to understand what it means to put our feet in the shoes of others. In the shoes of our brothers and sisters, of our people, of others who are struggling. We place our feet in the shoes of others and we understand their difficulties. Perhaps the loss of a job? The loss of a loved one? Perhaps they have an inability to process the spirituality, to process the love that God has put in our heart. And so we reach out to one another physically.

Finally we appeal to our sense of taste. We participate by communicating, by communing with the Holy Eucharist, with the precious body and blood of Jesus Christ.
So we see that worship really is that final step in the Lenten Journey. It is a step that allows us to go beyond Lent, so that taking what we learned during these 40 days, we can apply it and make it a reality in our life, every single day and every single moment, in our relationships with one another, to draw on what we learned in the past, but not to stay there in the past, and to say that the life before me is so beautiful that I’m ready to walk. I am ready to take on the challenges. I am empowered by God. I have been given a new lease on life with Jesus Christ as my savior.

Jesus Christ. Love incarnate. I have been given a new lease on life through Jesus, through love.

We conclude with a meditation on John chapter 15, Jesus, the True Vine. Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Amen.
This concludes the Lenten Journey.

The daily messages continue tomorrow with the Holy Week series at Epostle.net