Seven Mysteries of Our Church

The English word "sacrament" comes from the Latin sacrare, meaning to set apart or make holy, but the Armenian word tells us more. We say խորհուրդ, mystery, and it points to something the Latin does not: what happens in these rites is real, and it is hidden. A mystery is not a puzzle waiting to be solved, but something so deep we could never come to the end of it,
because its depth is God Himself. Every mystery has two sides, one we can see and one we cannot. At a baptism we see water poured over a child; what we do not see is that child being washed and born into a new life. Our eyes take in the visible part, and faith receives the rest. The water is not a picture of the grace; it is how the grace comes. This is why we bring our children to the font before they can speak or understand, and why in the Armenian Church a child is baptized, chrismated, and receives Holy Communion on the same day,
a full member of the Body of Christ from the very beginning. The Church accompanies us this way through every stage of life, and though all of her life is sacramental,
seven mysteries stand at the center, the ordinary means by which our Lord gives His own life to His people. In these moments heaven and earth are joined,
the saints are present with us, and we find ourselves standing in the presence of the Almighty, where far more is taking place than what our eyes can see.