A common image runs through the Gospel readings for the upcoming Sunday of Great Lent: the Sunday of the Judge. Two stories show Jesus talking about the end of the world, the coming of God’s kingdom, and the judgment of all mankind.
“It was one of the most moving, powerful, and emotional days of my whole life. When I left, I felt love. I didn’t know whether to cry or dance,” said the Eastern Diocesan Primate, the Very Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan with obvious emotion.
Dr. Christopher Sheklian, the director of the Eastern Diocese’s Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, participated in the first meeting of the Seminar on Orthodoxy and Human Rights, at Fordham University on March 20-22.
The steward is a figure who comes up in many of Jesus’ parables—a “stock character,” we might say, who would have been very recognizable to Christ’s listeners.
What did stewards do, in the time of Jesus? What made them so interesting to our Lord?
Perhaps the holiest moment in the Armenian Divine Liturgy is when the congregation fills the church with the singing of the Lord’s Prayer. We begin with the words Hayr Mer—“Our Father”; but what really do we mean by referring to God as a “father” Do we mean that God brought us into this world? That He is responsible for our welfare until we can go off on our own? Do we think of God as a stern disciplinarian, who will punish us if we go astray? Or do we expect Him to treat us with fatherly favoritism, and turn a blind eye to our faults and misdeeds?
