Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

A TIME TO INTERCEDE 115given over they were to the blessing, the grace of the night. TheCoptic people of Egypt are particularly receptive and open toblessings such as these. What a contrast to the apathy of manyChurches in the West in which people don’t really seem to be soopen or excited to be blessed by God! Perhaps they are not soaware of their need.FEBRUARY 5, THURSDAYI made my way back to the Patriarchate this morning andwaited near the cathedral steps till the entourage left for the desert.The Pope returns to St. Bishoi Monastery for his weekend retreatevery Thursday, and I get to travel back with him, or at least in oneof the cars, as in this case.Traveling from the city to the desert is ordinarily jarring. Theclutter and the pressures of Cairo are extreme. The desert itself isan extreme in the opposite direction: emptiness and silence. Buttraveling from the Church in the city to the Church in the desert isnot nearly so jarring. The faith of the people in Cairo and the faithof the monks in the desert is the same faith. Both the Copts in thecity and the Copts in the desert are filled with the same Spirit andthe same blessing, so there’s naturally much more dialogue betweenthe city and the desert for those who belong to the same Church.FEBRUARY 8, SUNDAYO Lord of Light,You who made the stars, how blinding is the sun to myeyes! Even in these “wintry” days when it arcs lower acrossthe sky, it illuminates the sand with uncompromised brilliance.In summer, you made its rays stronger and more direct,but now in winter you have hung it so low that it is nolonger reflected in my field of vision but, of itself, it peers intomy sight. How commanding it is; how provocative and assertiveto my senses.And how wrong it is that men have ever mistaken creaturesfor you, my Creator. But if they have erred thus, howright that only the greatest creature should have sufficed forthe confusion.