20
Jan 2019
We were recently blessed to host His Eminence Mor Grigorios Melki Urek, Metropolitan Patriarchal vicar of Adiyaman Turkey, to participate in our Holy Liturgy and provide the Sunday sermon. Here is a general English translation of the key parts of his sermon from Turkish. My dear brethren, I am not sure how to say it, but since I know many in this group have come from Diyarbakir, Adiyaman and Mardin, and the surrounding areas, that is why I am going to speak in Turkish. But of course, some people may not understand.......
Read More
13
Jan 2019
In today’s reading, John the Baptist is preaching all over the world about the coming of the kingdom of God. When he heard that John was in prison, he started preaching to repent. Because the kingdom of God is at hand. (Matthew 3:2) To talk about the kingdom of God, we talk about two ideas. To be in the presence of God, or He is with us. It is not just the afterlife, it starts from the coming of the Lord to save us. And the condition is to repent. To have......
Read More
06
Jan 2019
May God guide you and protect you in 2019, and whatever is in your mind. And we pray God will visit the sick people and do miracles, those who need a touch of healing, physically, emotionally, spiritually – and He will be with them and protect them. We must realize that we are very unique, and we are very different. Otherwise, we lose the opportunity to serve the heavenly Father, and receive the blessing. Today, we celebrate the very important feast, the Epiphany. It is equal to Christmas and the Resurrection, because......
Read More
30
Dec 2018
New Year’s is an opportunity to ask God for forgiveness and take all the iniquity and sins, and make this the year of the blessing, healing, peace and reconciliation, and the year for each one of us to walk with God and accept God as savior for his/her life. Another year from your life will pass, but you still have another opportunity for years to come to be with Him, walk with Him, and be according to His heart. It is not easy to be faithful, Galatians says one of the fruits......
Read More
25
Dec 2018
Merry Christmas. Like the angel who came to the shepherds and declared upon the birth of Jesus “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14) After that, a multitude of angels came to tell the good news of the savior. This feast is a feast of the most important event to happen on this earth. Since Adam and Eve left paradise, God said the seed of the women would come and crush the hate of the serpent. God then chose a very special woman,......
Read More
16
Dec 2018
I ask our heavenly father to be with you and open our hearts as Joseph did so Jesus could become our savior. But when we talk about the revelation of Joseph, we speak about a righteous man. The Bible does not speak about him a lot, nor does the Bible record any single words attributable to him. But at the same time, he played an important role in the journey of Jesus Christ. This sermon I direct towards men. After he found that Mary was pregnant, Joseph began to see the change......
Read More
02
Dec 2018
Today, we are celebrating the visitation of the Virgin Mary to her relative Elizabeth. Last Sunday, we spoke of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, when we spoke about the good news of the son who will deliver salvation for the whole world. In her age, Elizabeth was old, but she is holding a 6-month old baby, and at that time Mary arose in great haste to deliver the joyous news. She was running. And if we want to talk about the joy, we should seek a lot of things in our......
Read More
25
Nov 2018
I ask Jesus to be with us and in our heart and among us this morning. This Sunday is the 4th Sunday of the church calendar, where we celebrate the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. We usually celebrate this on March 25, 9th months before Christmas. We also read this now before Christmas for our spiritual journey as preparation for Christmas. When we talk of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, we talk of the good news sent from heaven by the angel Gabriel to share the good news with humans, by......
Read More
18
Nov 2018
A lot of time we talk about God and people think he is up in heaven and we are here on earth. And we don’t know if he hears us, especially for those things we really need dearly in our life. Then we feel there is a distance between us and him, and slowly our spiritual feeling becomes harsh, and we don’t feel his presence anymore. But remember — The Bible says he is always with us, and he said he will be with us all the days of our life and......
Read More
11
Nov 2018
This Sunday, which is the second Sunday in our Liturgical calendar, we call The Renewal of The Church. Last Sunday was the consecration of the Church. This is not about the physical church. A lot of times in our life, we try to have everything while forgetting to renew our relationship with God. But we never know when our life will be done. We need to renew our spirit in the same way we renovate our homes. In order to renew our homes, we have to do several things: Destroy the old......
Read More