St. Vartan Armenian Church of Mississauga

P.O. Box 53010, 5100 Erin Mills Parkway, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 5A7

Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan, Pastor

Telephone (905) 549-2711 stvartan@cogeco.ca

(905) 617-7888

Third Sunday After Pentecost

Barekendan of the Feast of St. Gregory the Illuminator

St. Gregory the Illuminator was the son of Prince Anag, who assassinated King Khosrov of Armenia in the city of Vagharshabad in about 240 A.D.  Gregory and his brother were saved by their Christian nurse Sophia who took them to Caesarea. In Caesarea, Gregory was christened and brought up as a Christian. When Gregory was of age, he married a Christian girl named Mariam, with whom he had two sons, Vrtanes and Arisdages.

Soon after, Gregory headed for Armenia to serve as King Drtad's (son of King Khosrov) secretary.  He pursued his duties faithfully over a period of several years. The relationship between King Drtad and Gregory deterior-ated when Gregory refused to worship at the altar of the pagan goddess Anahid, following Drtad’s great victory over the Persians.  Gregory remained firm in his faith in Christ and confessed that he feared God and worshipped the Holy Trinity. The king tortured him, then had him thrown into a very deep pit reserved for notorious criminals condemned to death.  The bottom was a muddy mire where snakes thrived. It is reported that Gregory survived in the pit for 13 years thanks to the charity of a widow who lived in the fortress where the dungeon was located.  She had received a command in a dream to prepare a loaf of bread everyday and throw it down into the pit. At the site of the pit there is now a monastery, called Khor Virabi vank, facing Mount Ararat near the border of modern Turkey.

During Gregory’s imprisonment, the King martyred the Hripsimeyan nuns, an act so brutal that it caused him to lose his sanity. Through the intervene-tion of the King’s sister, Gregory was called from the pit in order to cure the king whom no one dared approach. With his saintly power, Gregory cured the king and converted him to Christianity. Upon the king’s recovery, the whole of the royal court was baptized and Christianity was declared the national religion in the year 301 A.D. Thus Armenia became the first Christian nation.

After the great conversion, Gregory was ordained priest and Bishop by Leontius of Caesarea in 302, and then Catholicos, becoming the first Catholicos of the Armenian Church. St. Gregory preached throughout Armenia, putting aside paganism and spreading the holy light of Christian-ity. St. Gregory built churches over the relics of the Hripsimeyan nuns and, while in the province of Vaspouragan, had a vision that the "Only Begotten" had decended with a golden hammer, showing St. Gregory where to build His great cathederal. Thus, in the year 303 A.D., St. Gregory built Holy Echmiadzin which is the Mother Cathederal of the Armenian Church to this day. St. Gregory established the first canon laws, and wrote many prayers, and put order to many of the church services.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Divine Liturgy @ 1 p.m. with Celebrant Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan.

Sunday School @ 1:30 p.m. The children will be learning about St. Gregory the Enlightener with teachers Houri Simonian, Katrin Yaldizciyan, Ani Altounian, Taline Paroyan and Christine Ermarkaryan.

“If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:8

Welcome to St. Vartan Armenian Church

If you are a newcomer to St. Vartan, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our Soorp Badarak this afternoon. Thank you for making time in your busy schedule to be with us. We believe that you will sense God’s Spirit among us as we worship together today.

Requiem services (hokehankist) can be requested for the next church service by calling Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan. A requiem may be requested following the death of a loved one, 40 days after their death (karasoonk),the yearly anniversary, name day, birthday or Mother’s Day.

Requiem services have been requested for today by:

† Mrs. Jenik Mirzaian, Mr. and Mrs. Andranik and Aida Mirzaian and family, Armine Mirzaian and family, Mrs. Seda Petrosian and family, Mr. and Mrs. Mike and Aida Sosa and Mardirosian family, Mr. and Mrs. Armik and Debbie Mirzaian and family for the loving memory of their uncle Ishkhan Mirzaian (40 days) and their husband, father and grandfather Artash Mirzaian (37 years). May God bless their souls.

FATHER’S DAY

LUNCHEON AND TALENT SHOW TODAY

Join us in celebrating FATHER’S DAY today, immediately after Soorp Badarak, in the church hall. Lunch will be available at the St. Vartan Duo Idol competition. Fathers will show off their talents with their children by a song, a dance, a poem or playing an instrument. Luncheon tickets may be purchased at the door.

You are Dearly Loved

Make no mistake—you are dearly loved. I’ve crowned you with loving-kindness and compassion. Imitate Me, making love the motto of all your actions. Experience the joy of treating others as you’d like to be treated yourself. Remember, you’re an ambassador of My amazing grace!

Compassionately,

Your God of Love

--From Psalm 103:4; Ephesians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 16:14; Matthew 7:12.

Are You New to St. Vartan Armenian Church?

At St. Vartan, we understand how being a newcomer can be a bit intimidating. It is our goal to make your time with us comfortable and enjoyable. Immediately following the service today please join us in the church hall for a Father’s Day Luncheon and Talent Show. This is our last service before the summer break. Soorp Badarak and St. Vartan’s church activities will resume in September.

Celebrating the Eucharist

The Lord is at the center of all things and yet in such a quiet, unobtrusive, elusive way. He lives with us, even physically, but not in the same physical way that other elements are present to us. This transcendent physical presence is what characterizes the Eucharist. It is already the other world present in this one. In the celebration of the Eucharist we are given an enclave in our world of space and time. God in Christ is really here, and yet his physical presence is not characterized by the same limitations of space and time that we know.

The Eucharist can be seen only by those who already love the Lord and believe in his active, loving presence to us. But is that not true of every good relationship that we have? Friendship is like that, human love is like that. The bonds that unite us with those we love are invisible bonds. They become visible only indirectly, only by what we do as a result of them. But the bonds themselves are invisible. The presence of friends to one another is very real; this presence is palpably physical, sustaining us in difficult or joyful moments and yet invisible.

Contemplative life is a human response to the fundamental fact that the central things in life, although spiritually perceptible, remain invisible in large measure and can very easily be overlooked by the inattentive, busy, distracted person that each of us can so readily become. The contemplative looks not so much around things but through them into their center. Through their center he discovers the world of spiritual beauty that is more real, has more density, more mass, more energy, and greater intensity than physical matter. In effect, the beauty of physical matter is a reflection of its inner content. Contemplation is a response to a world that is built in this fashion. That is why the Greek fathers, who were great contemplatives, are known as the dioretic fathers. Diorao means to see into, to see through. In celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, we celebrate the presence of the risen Christ among us, at the centre of our lives, at the center of our very being, at the heart of our community, at the heart of the creation…

The Genesee Diary, Henri J.M. Nouwen, p. 36.

Are You On Our Mailing List?

Please fill out the forms you can find on clipboards at the doors of the church today. The Parish Council needs your help to keep its mailing list up-to-date. Sign up to receive church news by email.

We hope to see you at our summer events and again in September when church services and Sunday School resume at St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church, Oakville. Happy summer!