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

20 SEPTEMBERBlessed Lord,You brought me at last to the open desert today! All mysenses are overwhelmed! Without trees and hills, clouds orbuildings, no shadows diminish the brilliance of the noondaysun. My eyes squint from the strain. No trees or leaves catchthe wind, so it moves with force, but almost soundlessly, exceptfor the low drone of gusts sweeping up from the surface, or thedull brush of air against my ears. The heat baked through myblack habit and drew away all perspiration through the fabric,leaving me dry. Tonight the temperature dropped fast as thesun set, and I was delighted by the cool breezes. I have neverseen such stars as under the night sky here. No city lights in anydistance, no sounds from the streets. The world I have known isfar away, and I am at last as alone as I ever hoped to be.In my aloneness, in the purest solitude, you are achinglypresent. Yet, in the silence of the desert night, I hear the muffledvoices of “the poor, banished children of Eve” calling outto you from every place. A deafening din of pain and guilt, ofneed and grief rises up, and in the soundless vastness I canhear the echoes of the cries that pierce the heavens. Neverhave I wanted to pray as I do here. Never have I wanted tointercede so much. From my own soul, I hear groans andsighs, and all sorts of intimations of joy which well up withthe impulse of your Spirit to pray.Is this why Moses told Pharaoh that you required him totake his people on “a three days’ journey into the desert”? Didyou await from them there the Covenant-prescribed sacrificeswhich would renew and confirm Israel and bring them, atlast, out of their slavery?The Controversial LetterSEPTEMBER 17, WEDNESDAYI will not get much fieldwork done here. The monks are reticentto talk to me and I have slowly become aware of the fact thatthere is some hesitation to dialogue with me precisely because of thisletter that I carry from Pope Shenouda. This particular monastery,or at least the head of this monastery and, perhaps by extension, itsmembers, are living in some tension with the Pope. Apparently,