Dear Friends,

According to custom on Sundays of Great Lent before the celebration of the holy Badarak, we pray the Sunrise Service, known in Armenian as Arevakal. The following is excerpted from an article by Vartabed Zaven Arzoumanian regarding this service.

Central Theme of this Service

It is exclusively the light. The word Looys (light) occurs in the Sunrise Service 32 times, of which 17 alone are part of the distinctive hymn which begins with Looys, Ararich looso, arachin Looys (Light, Creator of light, primal light).

As an introduction the sunrise is proclaimed which is for sure the creation of the Creator. The background of the service being the physical light of the sun which shines both on the righteous and the sinners, and which makes manifest the deeds of men, good and evil alike, The essence of the Sunrise Service is the shining of the divine light through the three Persons of the divine light through the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. This divine light is identified by St. Nerses Shnorhali as the ‘’intelligible light,’’ which becomes brighter and more meaningful to us on earth through the intercession of the saints.

Whereas the transitional theme of this service is found in the prayers addressed to the saints, the conclusive theme is a direction toward the way Janabarh, the Truth and Life. For a change this is the only service where we do not find a dichotomy of the two opposing forces: light and darkness; sinfulness and righteousness. There is only one use of the word Khavar (darkness) and one use of the word Meghk (sin), a case which makes the Sunrise Service the more pleasant, positive and sustaining service.

The “intelligible light” is its central theme, which is at the same time the light of God, above and beyond the sun light, both of which however make manifest our daily lives and our deeds, leaving behind no room for darkness, except when darkness becomes our choice. The central theme of the “intelligible light” is preceded by the profession of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and by the intercession of saints, and finally is concluded in the finding of the true way.

In the Arevakal service a great emphasis is put on the doctrine of the intercession of the Saints. Sainthood has a special significance in the ancient churches and consequently is an integral part of their Theology. In the Sunrise Service hermits of God, champions of faith, martyrs of the Christian churches are grouped as saints and are repeatedly praised as the ones baptized in their blood together with Christ into the death of the Cross.

Historically, sainthood was the birth of the earliest persecutions of Christianity and of the subsequent defense of it, which resulted often in martyrdom. Although saints as such came out of the experience of the early church, as a historical and liturgical phenomenon, its roots can be found in the Holy Scriptures.

The following terms have to be considered first: The title itself: Saint, which is properly given to those human members recognized by the Church by canonization.

To honor a saint, is important to specify, not to worship a saint, since worship and adoration are offered to God alone. Saints are worthy of the glory of God for their faith and for their pious life. There is an explicit distinction made by the Church between worshipping, which belongs to God alone, and the honoring which belongs to the saints. Thirdly, saints are the intercessors, the mediators, between God and men, both for the living and for the departed. Through the intercession of the saints Christians benefit from God through Christ, the sole Redeemer. Intercession is limited to mediation, nothing else.

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With prayers.
Hayr Simeon
February 10, 2008