The General Epistle

[The first part of this page continues the introduction from the previous leaf.]

...to the shepherd, we are reborn as new infants, walking by both theory and practice.

It is with this great longing and desire that I wish to bring to light—through printing—this soul-nourishing book, called the General Epistle, by our Apostolic father and most sacred Patriarch, the holy Nerses Shnorhali original: "Սբյն Ներսեսի Շնորհալւոյն" — Saint Nerses the Grace-filled. [I wish to bring it] to the lampstand of our mother, the Holy Church, to uplift her faithful children through sensory perception, and to set this spirit-stirring basin before the fountain of truth. So that whoever longs with their soul to approach and drink from the water of life, as flocks of rational and pure-minded people, might conceive of the unchangeable mysteries from these spiritually profitable, multi-colored woods a reference to the "woods" or pages of the book as the source of nourishment, and bring forth the spirit of salvation.

For this is truly the tree of life, planted in the garden of the Church. The scent of its unfading flowers fills the minds of the light-bearing Haykazuni an epithet for Armenians, claiming descent from the patriarch Hayk with divine pleasure. The fruits plucked from it know how to lead the one who tastes them into immortality. The Church, acting as the bride who longs for this with passionate desire, said: "His fruit is sweet in my throat."

Therefore, being a lover of the soul since my childhood, and having tasted the incorruptible and satisfying pearl-like wisdom of the Blessed One through the intellectual desire of the soul, I exerted effort, by the strength of the Lord, to plant this tree of life—which is planted by the cool, living waters of the Holy Spirit—and its fruit—the fruit of the twelve Apostles' firmness of faith—within our holy Armenian Church through printing. So that my beloved nation and you, the light-born children of our mother, the Holy Throne of the Only-Begotten Descended Etchmiadzin, the Mother See of the Armenian Church, and you, the true kin of this grace-filled, most holy Patriarch Nerses, may taste this life-giving fruit and, through the operation of the intellect, become immortal in hope.