On the 17-20th of March, 2025, a spiritual retreat was organized in the Ordinariate premises in Yerevan for the clergy with the blessing of H.E. Kevork Noradounguian, the Ordinary Archbishop. The preacher of the retreat was Rev. Fr. Nerses Galstyan, the Deacon of Armenia. The general topic was ”The challenges of the pastoral life, the living of the faith with the aim of idealization of church-building and homeland-building.

During the retreat the main stressing was the rekindling and reevaluation of the religous service by the priest based from the following fundamental queistions:

-who do I serve: Christ and His Church, or myself or other person, or, maybe, for other reaons, which are alien to the priestly service?

-how can I describe my priestly mission, how deep is my dedication? How much time do I give to my priestly service and the spiritual needs of people?

-what can I do more for the spiritual and moral increase of the people trusted to my pastoral care?

-is there real consonance between my sermon and my life?

-how do I understand patriotism from the religious standpoint, as a Christian and as a servant of Christ, as a priest, who serves in his homeland and for own people?

Along with this essential questions, Fr. Nerses invited his brother priests to pay attention to the real challenges and issues of the priestly service, the experience of facing of which has had not only him, but also the entire Ordinariate. He believes, that the clarification of responses to these questions will help to deal correctly with the challenges according to the teaching of the Church and to find solution acceptable for God. In order for the priest to act as a real servant of the Lord, he needs to free himself from any purpose or motive, which can derogate him from the essence of his priestly ministry and can be proposed by the world as serious challenges and obstacles for a meaningful priestly ministry.

“We are first and foremost servants of Christ, apostles of Christ, servants of our Armenian Catholic people, and the care after ourselves or our families must not have negative impact on this fundamental mission’’, emphasized Fr. Nerses.

The building of the homeland was the final topic of his preaches. He put very stressfully, that a priest is a protector of the homeland, like a soldier, so the aim of preserving and elaborating the patriotic values, national identity and features must be within the scope of his divine mission, illuminated by the light of the Gospel and with the vision of the sanctification of his own people.

The Ordinary Archbishop was also making important interlocutions during the retreat, promoting the general understanding of the main points, aiming at the development of a special symphony or harmony. By the way, during the days of retreat, the clergy also had the opportunity to be enjoy Joseph Haydn’s masterpiece “The Creation of the World” in the concert house of Aram Khachatryan. The Ordinary Archbishop, taking the example of the symphonic orchestra and the soloists, explained the importance of the special service and dedication of each in the orchestra, so as that the common mission can be compared to an enchanting and divinely harmonic music. The creation of the Lord is also a harmony and the result of the perfect divine love.

In the end of the retreat, a work meeting also took place with the aim of dealing with the challenges in more concrete ways and revision of the general pastoral strategy.

Fr. Hovsep Galstyan

Secretariat of the Ordinariate,

20^th of March, 2025