by Fr. Vazken Movsessian
One Sunday morning, Meher Sousanian, one of our young altar boys, handed a small box to me. On the box was a hand-written tag, “To the church. Open now!” It was wrapped in Christmas paper, though it was mid-July.
There were just a few minutes before we were to celebrate the Divine Liturgy when he handed it to me. The message on the box caught my attention and I opened the package with great curiosity. It contained 50 books of matches. Meher reminded me that the week before I was looking for matches to light the candles on the altar. We had to look all over for a light. So this young boy took the initiative to solve the problem. During the week he had shopped and now provided enough matches to last the whole year.
I was moved by this eight-year old boy’s motivation. This was his church. He saw a need and took care of it. You don’t need to be struck by lightning to become aware of the tremendous needs of our church. We are involved in a daily struggle which is taxing all of us. It is our responsibility to take care of these needs in the manners and means available to us.