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

120 FEBRUARYGod. For all Christians, it is no less a time to renew that process byrepentance and prayer. Enough of murmuring complaints, therefore.Let us “enter in,” and receive the blessing!Of Sand Boxes and Prayer PetitionsFEBRUARY 17, TUESDAYIn the church of this monastery, just as in all the Copticchurches throughout Egypt, there is, of all things, a sand box! Ofcourse, the Copts don’t think of it so much as a sand box but as acandle stand. They light their prayer candles and embed them inthe sand with their prayer intentions in order that the candles mayremain afire in the church as a sign of those petitions long afterthose who lit the candles have gone. While the Copts are especiallymindful of the candle and its prayerful flame, I am just as much fascinatedby the sand itself.The sand of the desert is all around us. It surrounds thismonastery. The sand box forms a miniature desert within themonastery church: an “inner desert,” as it were. The desert outsideholds the monks within the realm of prayer; the desert within holdsup their candles of prayer to the face of God. So, following thelocal convention, I trace the names of the people for whom I prayin the sand of the candle stand, and then set a candle in the tracesof their names.Abuna Elia once told me to trace the prayer intentions aboutwhich I feel most deeply into the desert floor itself. Later he sentme back to find the place where I had written them. “Was thereany answer there?”“No,” I answered, “I couldn’t even find the spot; the desertwind had covered over every trace of the petitions I had inscribedin the sand.”“That is your answer,” he replied. He meant that, as the sandshad covered the traces of the prayer, so my petitions themselvesshould yield to grace, that I need not revisit needs which have beenentrusted to Providence. Trust, he said, is better even than perseverancein prayer, and perseverance, so far as the petitionary aspectof prayer is concerned, has its value in slowly evoking greater trust.Otherwise, it would not be wise to describe such an exercise as“perseverance in prayer,” but rather, “subjection to worry.”