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

A TIME FOR FAREWELLS 203and gave me to drink. It was cool, clear, sweet water, not like thewater of the monastery which was saline and stagnant, pumped outof the desert floor. Apparently, the founder of the monastery, athousand years before, had constructed a system of fine grooves inthe mountain. Once or twice during the year when it rained, everydrop of water that fell on the hills would collect in a cistern in thedepths of the mountain, and would be stored there.So then I realized that the abbot had sent me to this cave, not sothat I would die, but so that I would live. He had provided for methe best water there was to drink for hundreds of miles around. I alsorealized that the temperature in the cave was 50 degrees cooler thanthe air outside—a refreshing 80 degrees. It was even cooler yet as Iclimbed down deeper into the mountain. Before long, the old monkreturned alone to the monastery and left me in the cave to recoveralone.So I lived about three days in the cave of the founder in prayerand thanksgiving until the dangerous heat wave passed. Then Iwalked down the mountain, back to the monastery. Tarek, Ihab,and Nasser had somehow survived the heat wave, and were relievedto see me well. We left St. Samuel Monastery in peace.Life Spans and Pilgrimages, Communal and PersonalJULY 19, SUNDAYThe last several days have been spent in a blur of touring abandonedmonasteries in the desert of Egypt, all the way to Aswan, soI have written a variety of archaeological notes on the subject. Itmoves me to see fallen monasteries, broken ruins. Every monasterymust surely have a certain sense of divine impulse, a sense that Godhimself has established it. There must be in its origins a sense ofdestiny, a sense that God himself has desired it. Yet of all themonasteries I have seen on the continent of Europe or in theUnited States, where the population of Christians is large, therehave been far more ruins of monasteries than inhabited buildings.The failures of monasteries seem to outnumber the successes. Itstrikes me that even with all the bravado, all the confidence, all theassurance of the Divine Presence and visitation, human projects areoften fraught with failure. We cannot guarantee the Providence ofGod merely by our assertions of zeal.