ARMENIA

The Holy Father is in ARMENIA, a place I know little about, but feel a distant “bond” through my Mother.  She grew up in Fresno, California where many Armenians came after WWI to settle.  From them she learned cooking and to this day I love their foods: Roasted lamb shanks with vegetables, pilaf, stuffed grape leaves, etc. She had this one great cookbook (this is in the late 1940s) which said if you wanted yogurt (rarely found in a supermarket) go to the phone book and find a name that ended in "ian".  They would probably have homemade yogurt, essential for many dishes. 

I felt the Holy Father's message one which can be said of many peoples over the centuries, but has resonating in this day and in this time. Pope Francis  recalled “the sufferings that are among the most terrible that humanity records”-- a reference to the Armenian Genocide.

45 Martyrs at Nicopolis in Armenia

“I come as a pilgrim, in this Jubilee Year, to draw on the ancient wisdom of your people and to steep myself the sources of your faith, which is steadfast as your famous crosses carved in stone,” the Pope said. “Your history and the events of your beloved people stir in me admiration and sorrow: admiration, for you have found in Jesus’ Cross and in your own wits, the wherewithal ever to pick yourselves up and start anew.”