Your Obligations During Lent

1. Fasting

• Weekdays:  Abstain from eating foods derived from living creatures, except for honey.
•  Sundays: Moderate fast is recommended, with some exception.
• See "What Can We Eat During Lent??

2. Almsgiving; Making contributions toward some meaningful charity or humanitarian mission of the church, ie. ~ CAMPAIGN 2008 ~   Donations - a sacrifice for the good of others. Ie. Valentine basket (not from your abundance)
3. Prayer and self examination:

• Church Attendance: Attend both Wednesday evening and Sunday morning church services with the entire family to maximize opportunity for spiritual growth and renewal.  See the pastor for private Confession. 
• Social Activity: Social activities should be limited to private, quiet, and fellowship gatherings.
• Home-Life: Use the Lenten Season to renew the practice of prayer upon awakening and retiring, and before all meals. Gather the family for evening dinner, followed by reading and discussing a short Bible passage.

During the period of Great Lent, the Altar Curtain of the Sanctuary is closed symbolic of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise -the Kingdom of Heaven. this is done in Jerusalem on the Saturday eve of Poon Paregentan, the first Sunday of Lent, but traditionally in many parishes at the conclusion of the Sunday Liturgy in America. 

The Main Altar symbolizes the Throne of God. The faithful, like Adam and Eve, are "expelled" from Paradise, and experience a 40-day period of penitence, which is emphasized by the closing of the Altar Curtain. At the end of Great Lent, on Palm Sunday, the church celebrates the service of the Opening of the Great Doors (Toor 'un Patzek) whereby the faithful beseech God to admit them back into Paradise. It is here that through Christ, the doors are opened to salvation and eternal life in the Kingdom of God. The service of Toor'un Patzek is performed on Palm Sunday, commemorating Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

With the launch of Great Lent, St. Mary Armenian Church will invite the faithful to gather for prayer at 6:00 p.m. to participate in the Peace and Rest Services, which feature many eloquent penitential prayers and hymns.  Following the Service, Der Hayr will be available for discussion.

We encourage all the faithful to use these evenings of Lent as a way to unwind from the often stressful hustle and bustle of everyday life.  By making that special effort to recharge of our faith, we provide the opportunity to bring tremendous value to our spiritual life.

Lenten Services 

During the period of Great Lent, the Armenian Church conducts the services which reflect this penitential season. They are part of the Armenian Church's cycle of seven daily hours of worship, but are used especially during Great Lent to remind us of the effort we are making to restore our purer and joyous relationship to God.

Peace and Rest Services are done on rotating basis on Wednesdays of Lent from 6:00 - 7:00pm.

• The Peace Service, (Khaghaghagan) performed late in the evening, contains prayers for peace, praises to God, thanks for passing this day without tribulation, and reminds us that God is always with us in the face of trial and temptation.   - 
• The Rest Service, (Hankusdyan) offered before retiring for the night, requests God to watch over us throughout the night. This service contains the eloquent prayer of St. Nerses the Graceful.
• The Sunrise Service, (Arevakal) performed at daybreak, reminds us that God is the giver of the morning light and Light of Salvation.    -   Sunday at 9:45am.

1. Sunday of Good Living - Poon Paregentan - Adam and Eve in Paradise communicants and recipients of God's Presence, abundance and immortality
2. Sunday of the Expulsion - Adam and Eve disobey God and are expelled from Paradise and excommunicated from the Tree of Life.
3. Sunday of the Prodigal Son - The Prodigal Son like us finds himself in despair after squandering his father's riches.  He repents and seeks access to his father's home as a slave but the father forgives him and takes him in as a beloved son.  Shows God's forgiveness for the repentant sinner.
4. Sunday of the Steward - Jesus like the unjust steward grants us an unmerited treasure at His Father's expense to provide us the "currency" of fellowship with Him in the terrible Last Day.  GRACE - God's Riches At Christ's Expence
5. Sunday of the Judge - An elderly woman symbolizes the essentiality of consistent and unceasing prayer to God, showing that even as an unrighteous judge will hear the petition and case of a persistent woman, so will God the Righteous Judge hear our calls and lend His ear, granting not a fair trial, but Absolute Mercy.
6. Sunday of the Advent - Nearing the end of the Lenten journey we recall the Second Coming of Christ who will come again to judge the living and the dead.

1.       Lazarus Saturday - Foreshadowing both the impending death of Christ and His Resurrection and thus prophetically the general Resurrection of the Dead at his second coming we recall Christ's miraculous raising of Lazarus. 

2.       Palm Sunday - Christ's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, the Holy City, ushering in the Messianic Age, tempered with His rejection by the Pharisees and custodians of the "Holy Things," the chief priests and scribes.

3.       Holy Thursday - The Washing of the Feet or the Vodenluvah is the remembrance of the great example of humility and love that Christ taught His astonished disciples when after supper He "laid aside His outer garments, and girded Himself with a towel, and began to wash His disciples' feet," (Jn. 13:4-5)  After He had done this He gave them a new commandment, saying "A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another."  (Jn. 13:34)  For this reason, Holy Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday, the Day of the Mandate or Command, "to LOVE."

The Khavaroom (Darkness) is in observance of Christ's Passion, beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane where He endured in solitude and in prayer, the sleepless night ending with   the agony of His betrayal, trial    and death by Crucifixion. (See: Luke 22:39-46)

4.       Holy Friday � SERVICE OF THE ENTOMBMENT OF THE LORD

Holy Friday is a most solemn day for Christians, a day of bitter sweetness.  It is the day that we are bound in penitence to recount the suffering and death of our Lord on the Cross.  The representation of Christ's burial with the Tomb of Christ at the center of our worship, reminds us of His love and life-giving sacrifice, made on our behalf.  This service is the essential contrast which brings clarity to the celebration of the Resurrection at Easter when we can proclaim, "Christ is Risen from the Dead!" "Krisdos haryav ee Merelots".   But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  (Rom. 5:8)

5.       On Holy Saturday, and into Sunday morning, the mystery of Salvation is revealed by the Light from the Empty Tomb!  The unsurpassed joy of Easter has illumined the "hour of shadows."  Come and be a companion to our Lord throughout Holy Week and retrace the footsteps of our Lord's Passion from Palm Sunday through to Sunday morning where we greet each other at the Lord's Table with open hearts saying

Christ is Risen from the Dead.

Blessed is the resurrection of the Lord.