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

A TIME OF CONSECRATION 161Consecration of the MyronAPRIL 9, THURSDAYFinally, the day has arrived to formally consecrate the Myronas well as the Ghalillion, that is, the Oil of Gladness. The vastcrowd was barred from the sanctuary, for all the visiting prelates,monks, priests, nuns, and their families filled up the place. Dignitaries,the laity, and the curious had to remain outside the church,trying to hear the ceremony and even to observe it on the closedcircuitTV which had been brought in for the occasion. Therewere wires all over the place today.Pope Shenouda asked me to do a reading from the Song ofSongs during this ceremony—a ceremony which was made somewhatuncomfortable because of the great heat of the day. The lastbit of the old Myron was mixed in with the new. This symbolicpractice makes it theoretically possible that some of the old Myronfrom the Apostolic era is mingled in with the latest batch—an ideaembodied in the Church’s catechesis of worship as a sign of apostolicfidelity and continuity.All the bishops and abbots in attendance were invited to participate,and there was great celebration, great joy in the air, followingthe concluding rites.The Rigors of WorshipAPRIL 12, SUNDAYIt is Palm Sunday here. Masses, liturgies, and prayer services ingeneral during this week will last twelve hours a day, minimally,and reach up to sixteen or eighteen hours a day by the Triduum! Inaddition to this, the monks practice a very strict bread-and-waterfast during all of Holy Week, so it promises to be a rigorous religiousexercise. Here is where the practice of the so-called “intensive-participantobservation,” the methodology of anthropologists,will prove to be most challenging for me. According to thismethod, I must follow, as much as humanly possible, the routineand the pattern of life of the people with whom I live. Otherwise, Ishall never understand them as well as I should.