Dear faithful,
I congratulate you wholeheartedly on the upcoming feasts of New Year and Christmas. Our joyous festivities started with the celebration of western Christmas with our fellow brothers and sisters on 25th December. Our celebrations will conclude with the festivities of Sourb Dznound on 6th January.
2016 passed very quickly. We celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Independence of Armenia. We worked hard and have had several great community events, which strengthened our bonds as a united and cohesive community. There were also precious losses for us as we lost many beloved brothers and sisters in Artsakh and in the Middle East, Syria and Iraq as a result of ongoing conflicts.
When Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem three wise men visited him from the East. The Magi gave Him gifts; gold, myrrh and frankincense. Second century church fathers originally said that they brought him “gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to the God.” Jesus is the King and God, but became one of us and mortal, even vulnerable in the manger of Bethlehem. There is one message. It shows the life of Jesus who is a king and who suffered, and at the end triumphed with His resurrection. Pain and suffering do not have a place in God's ultimate plans. The triumph will come and human suffering will end as we embrace the journey of hope, faith and love.
Christmas is an invitation to renew ourselves with this message and to follow the way He showed us. It is an invitation to remember His commandments, the greatest of which is taught by our Lord Himself: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
Charles Dickens in his famous novel on Christmas, wrote “that man must be a misanthrope indeed in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused - in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened - by the recurrence of Christmas.” Indeed, our spirits are filled with the joy of merriments and there is no one who cannot share in this joy.
We have a jovial spirit and do believe strongly that 2017 will be a year of peace and of great achievements. With this festive spirit let us welcome the New Year and Christmas. I wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year and a merry and blessed Christmas!
Christ is born and revealed amongst us!
Good tidings to you all!
Bishop Hovakim Manukyan
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment