Saturday - 10:00
An investigation into central fundamental issues such as the meaning of life, our calling, the search for truth, the choice of the spiritual way. Additionally, we investigate other themes such as dogmatic purity and the recognition of one’s own tradition. All these and more are discussed by the participants of Spiritual Discussions.
What are the Church’s responses to these challenging questions? What is the relationship between the spiritual and material aspects of life? Is it possible to reach perfection in this life? How does one carry out the commandments of Christianity? What should be our attitude towards various sects? How should we protect our children and ourselves from “spiritual deformations”? Thorough responses and discussions to these questions and other important issues will be heard in Spiritual Discussions.

- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
Why does the Lord say that He and His Father are one? Does He allude to serving the same purpose or does He mean the sameness of persons? Or how to understand the words: "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father"? What is oneness? What is the difference between the oneness of Jesus with the Father and the oneness of Jesus with us? How to become one with the Lord?



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
What is a temptation? When can a temptation become a trouble? How does our temptation by God differ from the temptation by Satan? How to recognize who is our tempter, God, Satan or we ourselves? How should a Christian behave in case of any temptation?



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
Why did the Lord condemn Satan's offer to make stones bread, a sinless offer at first sight? Why did the Lord show that the Word was more important than bread? In which cases can a human being be subjected to such temptation by the evil one?



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
In the early Christianity, the individual public confession was the accepted form of confession of sins. Why did people confess their sins publicly? Didn't this cause problems between the confessors and their environment? What does confession, in particular the individual confession, give the believer?



- Fr. Nshan Alaverdyan
When we speak about the fall of the man expelled from the Paradise, what do we think about the reason of his fall? What diminished in him? What did his physical and spiritual body change into? Does not Satan promise the same to humans today as what he promised to the first man in the Paradise? Don't modern people attempt to become almighty, that is gods, without God? Where will this lead humanity?



- Fr. Nshan Alaverdyan
What is unchangeable in God's plans and in relations between God and humans, humans and Church, and the Church and God? How should the Church be renewed or reformed so that God's word and God's essence may not be distorted?



- Fr. Ghazar Petrosyan
What is holiness? Who are the dogs in spiritual context, and in which cases holiness is considered to be thrown before dogs? The Lord Himself commanded to preach the Word of God to unbelievers, but He doesn't allow to throw what is holy to dogs and swine. How to understand this?



- Fr. Dajad Davidian
What is a vow according to the Holy Bible? Is breaking vows punishable? How did people go on pilgrimage in the past and how do they do it nowadays? What does pilgrimage give humans, particularly the pilgrimage to Jerusalem?



- Fr. Mikael Nurijanyan
Can people be comforted only by each other, or perhaps it is not enough? What is comfort, and in what ways impossible for humans can the Lord comfort us? How were Simeon the God-Receiver and other Biblical characters comforted? Do we all have the need for comfort? How can the same Lord comfort us if we are comforted by different things?



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
Which are the characteristic features of the virtuous wife in the Bible? Do they change over time? What does the virtue of the wife give her husband? What is the reason that the Bible doesn't have a description of the virtuous husband but has one for the virtuous wife? Why is the one who was called "the blessed among women" considered the criterion for a virtuous woman? Can a wife who lost her virtue regain it?



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
What is the traditional Armenian family like? What was its predecessor, the patriarchal family, like? What relations were there between elder and younger members of family, man and woman, father and son, mother and daughter? What rules of Christian conduct did the traditional Armenian family have, and what edifying lessons can it offer to contemporary families?



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
Why are most tragic and intolerant human relations in the history those between fathers and sons, becoming a serious theme in literature? Nietzsche developed an entire theory on this topic. What Biblical examples do we have for these relations? If there is Christian atmosphere in a family, is it possible that children educated and raised in this environment would later become a shame for their parents? What educates children in the family and bonds them with warm family ties, and what alienates children from their families and makes them disrespectful toward family?



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
Mustn't we first find out what marital fidelity is if we want to find out what marital infidelity is? What components does it have? Doesn't "fides" ("faith") lie in the basis of this word? Can the couples united in spiritual union be unfaithful to each other in body? Why do some differentiate spiritual and bodily infidelities?



What is repentance as a spiritual reality? What is the ratio between sin and repentance? Is it possible to repent fully without awareness of one's own sins? Did Cain and Judas repent? What produces repentance, and what are its consequences and fruits?
- Fr. Mikayel Nurijanyan



- Fr. Smbat Sargsyan
Is the perception of the Christian model of family subject to time-related change? Should family members have relation with each other on the basis of superiority of rights or exerting the free law of love? Why do the hearts that were once close to each other become alienated? Must interference with family relations be used and if so, who must interfere?



We know from the Bible that God is all in all. How to understand this? The Lord said that our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit, while the human being shares God's image and likeness. Does this mean where there is a human, there is also God, regardless of the condition of that human? How to understand which of our actions are led by God and which are not led by Him?
- Fr. Dajad Davidian



- Fr. Dajad Davidian
Are there standards that we could consider to be indicators of the true Christian life and could decide accordingly whether we live that true Christian life or not? Why do unbelievers react to Christians' shortcomings and wrong behavior so actively? What to do so that Christ may not be discredited because of His followers?



- Fr. Ghazar Petrosyan
Why did the Lord harden the Law by considering the verbal offense against brothers equal to murder? Are "neighbor" and "brother" synonymous in the Gospel? Who is the neighbor and who is the brother? Who is the neighbor and who is the enemy? Which virtues are demonstrated in brotherly love? Must Christians be reconciled with everybody or only with them who do the word of God? What is the difference between brothers in flesh and in spirit?



- Fr. Nshan Alaverdyan
Why has never anybody managed to bypass sadness? What condition of soul is it and what is the difference between God-pleasing and God-resisting types of sadness? Why does the sadness required by God lead to repentance while the sadness coming from the world, to death?



Why doesn’t Bible mention anything about the birth of the Virgin Mary and about her parents? Why was Mary born of a barren woman whom the Lord wished to grant a child after many years? What did that birth give to the humanity? What example is the life of the Lord’s Mother for Christian women? Is the birth of any human as important to God as was the birth of the Holy Virgin?
- Fr. Nshan Alaverdyan



Why did Jesus revealed His divinity through transfiguration, and why did this happen only in front of three disciples? Why did Elijah and Moses appear before Him and how did the disciples of Jesus recognize them? Can transfiguration happen not only to Jesus but also to Christians that walk the road of holiness? How to transfigure the old man inside us to become sons of God?
- Fr. Nshan Alaverdyan



- Fr. Ghazar Petrosyan
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, and as a result, the Church was established. Did also the gifts of the Holy Spirit rest on the believers and started to act on that day, or had they already acted before that? When are the gifts of the Holy Spirit actively distributed, and can a human being hinder that distribution? Are all the gifts of the Holy Spirit equally important, or is there hierarchy? Can one person have all the gifts of the Holy Spirit?



Why did God destroy only Sodom and Gomorrah, if the whole world was in sin and abomination? Why do people have the unnatural desire of homosexuality? What was the attitude of the ancient world toward homosexuality, and what is it in the modern world? What attitude should Christians have toward this phenomenon as citizens of countries that have legalized it?
- Fr. Nshan Alaverdyan



Christianity is often accused of being a non-practical teaching and religion. It is difficult to understand what we as Christians must do, which Christian commandment we must observe, to conform to Christianity in different cases. How reasoned are these concerns? Practical life supposes areas of practice. Is there an area where it is possible to act as a non-Christian? How must Christians demonstrate themselves in practical life?
- Fr. Arnak Harutyunyan

