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

56 NOVEMBERCross more brightly: fallen down and lifted up; dying and rising;humiliated and exalted; tragic and glorious; abandoned, yet affirmedforever.Let me never forget you in any place I go. Let the grace ofthis place carve a niche in my soul. May the solitude of this HolyWilderness become the center of my present memories and my futurefriendships. May I always love for the sake of the belovedand for the sake of love’s Source, O Lord, and not for my ownsatisfaction.Advent VigilsNOVEMBER 29, SATURDAYOn every Saturday of Advent, the monks in the monastery keepan all-night vigil called kyak. It is a night during which manyhymns are sung and many prayers are prayed. It is a night of constantmeditation on the mysteries of Advent, of expectation, ofyearning and longing for the fullness of the Lord’s presence. It ismost especially, then, a night in which the Virgin Mary is honoredin the monastery. For as the monks sing of her during this night,she is the embodiment of all of human openness and human desirefor the fullness of God’s coming. She represents the fulfillment ofthe highest hope of this earth to attain union with God.There are songs that compare her to the Ark of the Covenantin ways similar to the meditation about the monastery. Maryhoused within her body, under her heart, the same three elementscontained in the Ark made by Moses. The Ark held the staff ofAaron, the high priest; Mary carried in her womb the High Priesthimself. As Aaron’s staff, once dead wood, blossomed in the desertas a sign to inspire faith, so Christ rose from death as a sign of oureternal life. As the Ark of the Covenant contained the manna, soMary bore in herself the “Bread of Life come down from heaven.”As the first Ark contained stone tablets whereon God’s word wasinscribed, so Mary received and held within her womb the Wordmade flesh.They sing about these things, the monks, with the many pilgrimswho come here. One has only to see them to realize that, forthem, these are not abstract theological ideas. They’re not evenjust good poetry. For these people, even for the simplest of the