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

34 NOVEMBERThe guest master, it turns out, gave the grapes to his spiritual directorand confessor in admiration for all of the virtues he had shownhim. His spiritual director gave the grapes to the eldest monk in themonastery as a token of reverence and respect for his age. Being theresident anthropologist and conducting constant interviews, I learnedthat the eldest monk had promptly given the grapes to the youngestmonk, since he had so recently left his home to come here. And so itwent: the grapes slowly made their rounds in the monastery.When I opened the door of my cell this morning, I found a giftfrom an anonymous donor, a bowl of raisins, in the doorway! So Iwonder if those raisins were, in fact, the grapes that had recentlymade their rounds here. If they were, then probably everyone inthe monastery benefited momentarily from them. Everyone, as itwere, enjoyed that feast, though no one actually ate those grapes.However, I ate all the raisins myself!An Ancient SolitaryNOVEMBER 11, TUESDAYToday when he came to see me, Abuna Sidrak told me that hewas going to take me to the cell of the hermit, Abuna Elia. I’mlooking forward to seeing him again, as our brief meeting in Septemberhighlighted my own entry into this monastery.More than thirty years ago, Abuna Elia was part of the originalgroup of disciples of the great monastic reformer, Abuna Mina elMuttawahad, who was later to become the Coptic Patriarch, PopeKyrillos VI. To a large degree, Pope Kyrillos was responsible forthe rejuvenation of monasticism in Egypt. He has long since died,of course, but in the 1940s and 1950s, almost single-handedly, herestored monastery after monastery, so great was the enthusiasmaround him as a charismatic monastic reformer.Abuna Mina el Muttawahad was called “the Solitary,” althoughhe was in and out of solitude as many of the Coptic solitaries havebeen in the past. He would live in the caves or out in the desert;then he would stride into the villages or into the cities, gather updisciples, inspire congregations, and head right back out into thedesert again. This kind of commute has apparently been therhythm of the Coptic monk and the desert holy man for hundredsof years. Pope Kyrillos conformed to this ancient pattern.