Easter Sunday - The weather warmed up on Easter Sunday to make the celebration of the resurrection of Our Lord more joyful! Hundreds of faithful came to Holy Martyrs to take part in the Badarak, receive Holy Communion, light candles (so many of them that there was almost a fire!) and hear Fr. Abraham proclaim the Good News of His resurrection. It was beautiful to see some many young children from our community present in the sanctuary for this special day. "God is carrying us on His shoulders during our life journey. Our Lord is giving us the gift of eternal life through His resurrection," said Fr. Abraham during his homily. "Just as the gates were opened to let Him in, we need to open up our hearts and move away our stones and receive Him into our lives."
Following Badarak, Fr. Abraham and a procession of the choir and altar servers went outside to the church plaza and then to the church auditorium for the traditional Home Blessing service. A festive Easter table with colored eggs and choereg was enjoyed by all who stayed for the blessing and fellowship.
Easter Eave - "We are here to follow His light and trust Him with all of our heart. He gives us strength to fight against evil," said Fr. Abraham during his sermon on Easter Eve. "We all walked through His journey during Holy Week and experienced the pain that Our Lord felt. Today we are here to proclaim His resurrection together. Jesus is the light and we need to follow Him." Following the traditional Jrakalooyts Badarak, the faithful received the symbolic "light" from Fr. Abraham as he lit the candles in a darkened sanctuary. What a beautiful sight to see the sanctuary aglow with His light on Easter Eve. Many thanks to the dedicated deacons, altars servers, choir members and volunteers who helped Fr. Abraham during the Holy Week services.
Holy Thursday - “Jesus Christ act of washing the feet of His disciples is the greatest example of humility," said Fr. Abraham, as he reenacted Christ’s actions on Holy Thursday evening. This year the following fathers and sons had their feet washed: Haig and Suren Anastasian, Armen and Douglas Aprahamian, Lucas, Ari and Aram Ciamician from HMADS, Christopher and John Cetin, Garo and Garo Tateosian from Sunday School, Sarven and Daniel Akdemirian, Arto and Arad Cinoglu from HMALS.
Holy Tuesday - On Holy Tuesday, ten young girls from our schools represented the ten maidens from the parable of the Wise and Foolish Maidens (Matthew 25:1-13). The ten maidens waited for their bridegroom. Five of the maidens foolishly took their lamps with no extra oil and when the bridegroom was delayed, could not go out and meet him. The wise maidens went prepared and joined him in the marriage feast. Similarly, we must pray and wait in a state of perpetual preparation, to receive Christ. Before the Holy Tuesday service, the girls drew lots to see who would be "wise" and who would be "unwise." This year's maidens were Mariana Mkrtchyan, Shela Ozbilir and Hasmik Sargsyan from HMALS, Anayis Ciamician, Gianna Salur and Melody Salur from Sunday School, Anoush Bakirdjian, Lucine Ciamician, Nectar Mouradian and Talar Saraydarian from HMADS.
