THE MYSTERY OF SELFLESS JOY

The month of October carries a unique message to Armenians all over the world. It is known as the month of Culture. What a special approach, embellishing a whole month with an unperishable value that reflects individual and collective creativity, love, sorrows, joy, aspiration!

The poet who has inspired me the most since my elementary school is Misak Medzarents, a twentieth century lyric poet, who departed from this earthly life in his early twenties. His poem entitled “The Hut” sounds like a prayer, “On a road in the plain or at the foot of the mountain, I would be the hut and wait for the wayfarer to come. And I would call to my embrace the unbidden traveler on his lonely road, on the winding road of gold; to greet my guests I’d be the rising cloud of the chimney’s smoke.”

What a selfless wish where the source of joy is not possessing but sharing! We don’t lose something when we share it. The more we share, the more what is being shared miraculously grows and fills our inner world with bliss.

With this positive note, I would like to conclude my thoughts and say that like the poet of a century ago, we have amid us parishioners and friends who embody this selfless joy by sharing their God-granted bounties with our brothers and sisters suffering in Lebanon. As of today, with the cooperation of our communities, we have raised $80,075 for the Lebanon Relief Fund.

May God increase our material, intellectual and spiritual gifts to share with those who are deprived.