On August 13, the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church very solemnly celebrated the Feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this joyful day, the congregates of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and believing pilgrims participated in a Holy Mass served by Director of the Christian Education Center of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, His Grace, Bishop Vardan Navasardyan at the Mother Cathedral of Etchmiadzin, reported the information system of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin to Hayern Aysor.

Touching upon the symbol of Assumption Day, His Holiness emphasized that, for Christian believers, the memory of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not only a simple and ordinary memory, but also a wonderful occasion to empower the faith and renew the covenant.

“This Assumption Day conveys a major message to you, dear believers!

The first message is to be modest and submit to God’s call to achieve enjoyable rest

Since childhood, the life of the Virgin Mary was mainly a pious life. At every milestone of her life, the Virgin Mary submitted to the oracles of God and always worked hard and fulfilled His sacred will. Evidence of this is the statement that the Virgin Mary addressed to Archangel Gabriel. When she found out about the Almighty God’s plan in her life, she said the following: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to be me fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).

With her example of meekness and submission, the Virgin Mary gained the trust of God and many graces with which she became the bearable pavilion of the Word of the unbearable God. Within her womb she carried Him of whom the powers were afraid, and even the Seraphs and Cherubs were afraid to look at Him.

Near the end of her life, she was assumed from this transient land to the heavens for her obedience. We, too, dear believers, following the example of the Virgin Mary, have also been called for serving God, fulfilling His will and for becoming the bearers of the light of God and the disseminators of that light so that we and the world don’t remain in darkness. We have been called for moving from the lands of the God’s graces to other lands, through the path of meekness and simplicity. After all, we have been called to become the witnesses of the Holy Trinity with the example of our lives. Just as the Lord lived within the Holy Virgin, the Lord is waiting us to look towards Him so that He lives within us and turns us into the temples for the residence the living God.

The second is to not wait for remuneration for our faith in God

In our materialized world today, a human being expects material or moral remuneration for any act that he performs. He tries to take every step under a condition or with the expectation of compensation. However, faith is the invisible gift from God, and the real perception of that gift is only the inmost feeling of love, warmth, service and sacrifice towards others. A righteous Christian believer does not expect or receive remuneration since he has already received his remuneration and has nothing to expect later besides pain and sorrow. Throughout her life, the Madonna never thought about remuneration because the important thing was not remuneration, but submission to the Sacred Will of God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ asks us to make sure the left hand “doesn’t see” what is in our right hand. In which direction are we moving? Do we commit good deeds for remuneration or do we commit good deeds so that we can please our Creator. If we have selected the second path, our Lord is the one who will lead the way, and every step we take is pious.

So, the calling of every Christian must be to submit to the Sacred Will of God and show dedication to Him without expecting anything in return, being well aware of the fact that every person has his image of God and compares him with something. This is the path of our religion. This is the example of the Virgin Mary for us all, that is, to trust God to care for us and dedicate ourselves to Him with unconditional faith,” His Holiness Vardan stated.

At the end of the sermon, His Holiness urged the following to the attendees. “Let us ask the Virgin Mary to renew the feeling of the love of a real parent, family and fraternal loyalty, reconcile us with ourselves and renew the relations between us and the Lord in order to overcome sin, and transform our souls into cognitive occurrences which reaffirms within us the feeling of struggle to never break down, but to expect and look forward to heavenly remuneration.”

The Holy Mass was followed by the solemn ceremony of Blessing of Grapes performed by His Grace, Archbishop Voskan Galpakyan at the St. Trdat Open Altar. During the ceremony, the evangelical section devoted to the symbol of the day was read after performances of psalms, and St. Nerses Shnorhali’s “Blessing of the Grape” prayer was said.

At the end, grape rhizomes were distributed to the believers.