In line with the organizational plan for the Jubilee Year of Hope, and on the occasions of Palm Sunday and the World Day of the Youth, a general pilgrimage of young people was organized to the Armenian Catholic Cathedral Church of Holy Martyrs of Gyumri on 12th of April, after which a meeting event took place in Diramayr Hayastani center of the Armenian sisters of Immaculate Conception. These events were made possible thanks to the cooperation of the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate and the Armenian Sisters of Immaculate Conception. Almost 300 young people from Armenian Catholic communities of Armenia and Georgia took part in the event, together with their parish priests. The enchanting ceremony of the opening of the Holy Doors took place at the Cathedral Church, presided over by H.E. Kevork Archbishop Noradounguian. Passages from the Gospel and the letter of St. Paul to the Roman were read, from which Pope Francis has taken the main theme of his bull: “Hope never disappoints…”, Rom. 5:5. A prayer of repent was uttered in unison in the Cathedral Church. Then the solemn Holy Mass commenced with the song “Hrashapar”, celebrated by H.E. Noradounguian and with the assistance by Rev. Fr. Nerses Galstyan, the Deacon of Armenia and Fr. Anton Antonyan, the parish priest of Heshtia, Georgia, with the concelebration of other priests, who were leading the pilgrimage of the young people. During the sacred ceremony, the young participants also had the opportunity of receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation.

In his paternal homily, His Excellency asked the young people to pay attention to two gospel passages: the resurrection of Lazarus and the dialogue of Jesus with a rich young man. He saw these two stories in a logical relationship. Dead Lazarus was risen with the words of Jesus: when the Lord approached to his tomb, Lazarus had already been dead for 4 days, but the Lord called him as though he was alive: “Lazarus, come out!”, and Lazarus heard Him and returned to life. But, in contrary, the rich young man couldn’t come out from his dead state and found himself in even worse situation, when the Lord asked him to sell all his possessions and follow Him. He couldn’t reach up to the ideal, which was put before him by the Lord, he couldn’t let his possession go, but instead, remained attached to them. The Archbishop wondered, how could a modern day young man/woman reply to that call of the Lord, in his/her concrete situations of life: whether he/she would come out from the stagnation or would resemble the one, who didn’t want to refuse his attachments. It seems to him, that nowadays there are many who are much like that rich young man.

“But Jesus loves you from His Holy Altar, when He comes into your hearts. When He looks into your eyes, much like He looked into the eyes of that young man, it is the greatest happiness in the world, the greatest joy and the greatest success! If something lacks in your life, then do not be afraid to complete your life the way the Lord wills!”, His Excellency said.

Peter the Apostle also was troubled with that question: what will we have after leaving everything and following You? Jesus replied saying, that whoever has left everything, will have everything multiplied even in this life and will have the life everlasting in the future. His Excellency called the young people to take courage and follow the calling of Jesus, to take bold steps.

After the Holy Mass, all of the pilgrims gathered in the center of “Diramayr Hayastani”, where they were divided in groups to prepare their questions to ask the Ordinary Archbishop. After the group discussions, sisters offered the pilgrims with dishes and drinks, prepared by their apprentices of their cooking school. Then the day continued with a dialogue between the Ordinary Archbishop and the young people, asking their questions to him:

-how can You explain the meaning of the suffering, especially the suffering of children?

-how can we orientate in the modern world, where values are in constant change, what is the orienteer?  etc…

The young people were also interested in the priestly vocation story of the Archbishop Himself. He made efforts to meet all the inquiries of the young, after which an opportunity to make an appeal to the young was given to Arthur Galstyan, a member of the association of the young parishioners of Gyumri, a Paralympic weightlifter, a psychologist by specialization, a staff member of Armenian Caritas. Arthur, though having been born with disability, has overcome many social, psychological and educational hardships thanks to his strong will, especially, his faith. He told about his faith pathway, which commenced with the help of “Faith and Light” and his baptism in the Armenian Catholic Church, passed with the Lord through the same Church and has gained meaningful successes in the education, sport and now in his job taking his part in the social mission of the Church, and encourages hundreds of young people to never give up hope and always trust the Lord, because, as he puts it, the Lords knows how to pick from milliards of possible alternatives the best state and future, fitting exclusively to the unique personality of each one of us. His speech was deeply motivating and exciting.

After Arthur’s speech, according to the schedule, the young people shared with their experiences of activities in their communities, especially in line with the logic of putting the virtue of Hope in practice and how they understand the bull of the Pope on Hope. The young people also had their concert and dancing performances, which were most captivating. The day closed with the words of gratitude spoken by Fr. Nerses Galstyan, the conductor of the event, by Sr. Narineh Simonyan, the superior of the sisters of Immaculate Conception in Armenia, and, surely, the Ordinary Archbishop, whose paternal benediction concluded all the event of the youth day.

Fr. Hovsep Galstyan

Secretariat of the Ordinariate of Armenian Catholics

14^th April, 2025