This past weekend, I returned to Holy Virgin Mary and Shoghagat Armenian Church in Belleville, Illinois, in the greater St. Louis area, where I began my ministry in America in 2015. On Saturday, members of my parish family joined me in the kitchen to prepare Nushkhar, the bread of Holy Communion. For two years, preparing Nushkhar was part of my Sunday morning rhythm. Even now, whenever I make this sacred bread, I remember the words of St. Paul: “Because there is one bread, we

Good morning, friends. Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God, her passage from earth to heaven. The Church tells us that after her peaceful dormition, her soul was received into the divine hands of her Son and carried up into heaven. Her body was laid to rest by the apostles in Gethsemane, and on the third day, she was raised and taken into glory. In our Armenian tradition, we speak of the Ննջումն Ս. Աստուածածնի, the Dormition of the Mother of G

A tree grows in two directions at the same time. It reaches upward toward the light, and it reaches downward into the earth. The branches are visible. The roots are hidden. We admire the leaves, the blossoms, and the fruit, but no one stops to praise the roots. Yet without the roots, there would be no fruit. Before a tree can grow upward, it must first grow downward. Its roots must push through dark soil, damp ground, stones, and resistance. Long before anything beautiful app