From the Facebook page of Turkey’s Armenians Patriarchate, on December 24, Thursday, the holy offering mass that realized in Galata St. Krikor Lusavoriç Church and then the Last Sunday sermon of Patrik Sahak II broadcasted live on 27 December 2020 Sunday.

While the Holy Offering Mass in the Galata Surp Krikor Lusavoriç Church was held by Father Şirvan Mürzyan on Thursday, December 24th, the deacon and its readers served the Lord’s table. Edvin Galipoğlu, Hovsep Kuyumcuyan, Artür Bağdasaryan and Sercan Gazeroğlu performed the hymns. At the end of the mass, where Father Natan Arabyan was also present, Hokehankist (Spiritual Mass) prayers were read for all those who sleep in the Lord.

Patriarch Sahak II gave 2 sermons in Armenian and Turkish in the last Sunday of 2020. In his Turkish sermon, he summed up, inspired by the Bible readings of the day (Luke 19: 11-17) (Matthew 25: 14-30):

“It is time God distributes to all of us equally. We are all in the same time and time is precious, you have to run it. As far as time is concerned, all we have is now and we need to evaluate it. What did the Lord Jesus Christ say to us in the Lord’s prayer? <Give us our daily bread today.>

God loves a lot of variety. There is nothing trivial to God. He equips us with abilities to complete a large whole. When these come together, the richness of life is created. We are all valuable. Our body was created in the same way. We shouldn’t be jealous of anyone else. S/he doesn’t have what we have, we don’t have what s/he has. We must evaluate what is given to us.

God has given you values. What have you done with them? He gave them to you to make use of them, to increase them. What did you do what he gave you? This is also a reliability test. The day of the accounting will definitely come. There is no world without accounting. We must prepare for that accounting that will be the last day. Are we preparing for universal judgment? What was given to us was given to us to reproduce. We were born to bear fruit. It pleases God that we bear fruit. We came to this world to bear fruit permanently. Permanent fruit are those that will remain forever. Only the spiritual can remain for eternity. In this world, we have to turn the material and physical into the spiritual. Our permanent reward is about how we treat the temporary things that have been given to us in this world. If we are worthy, the permanent in the afterlife will be given to us. This is a matter of faith. Sometimes we cannot evaluate anything because of fear. It shows that faith does not come to the heart. But fear and faith cannot coexist in the same way as light and darkness. Fear paralyzes us. We can’t do anything. The heart is strengthened by faith. It also overcomes fear.

“Fear Knocked the Door, Faith Opened the Door”

FEAR KNOCKED ON THE DOOR, BELIEF OPENED THE DOOR, BUT THERE WAS NO ONE!

The only sin of the believer is laziness. A bad believer is the lazy one. We must increase the capital given to us. One day, it is duplicated to be given back to us. With the investment made in people, we can increase what is given to us. We can create value, for ourselves and others. We shouldn’t be indifferent. Indifference makes us bad. It turns it into the kindling of hell. Even in this world we experience this perturbation.

The new year is full of new hopes. But that hope is about your new decision. You have to run what has been given to you. You must be better than you were yesterday. You have to give, you have to distribute; while there is time already. There is an eye watching what has been given to you. Increase it. Give what you have. When you give, you will be saved, you will be blessed and you will be increased. You will have understood the biggest lesson in life. The hand that gave us will one day take it from us. Let’s give it with our free will, before it will be taken. Let’s get increased and increase. Let’s increase the goodness and not get tired of doing good. As the goodness increases, goodness rains on you.

I congratulate you all on the new year. May your talents and all the beauty God has given you increase. Peace and quietude be with you. Amen.”