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

80 DECEMBERof faith which preserves him from this danger. So he goes about hisday, at least on Fridays, performing many of these exorcisms.Quite a few of the people who are in the line are not Christianat all. They come to the monasteries, especially in the evening—perhaps so as not to be easily recognized. They come because theyfeel that they are oppressed by evil. They say that their own sheiksdo not deal with this kind of power, but only with the One God, sothey appeal to the Christian monk instead. By this kind of explanation,they get the help they need, yet preserve a sense of their ownreligious integrity.DECEMBER 20, SATURDAYThe weather has been cooling gradually throughout all of thismonth. Without any central heating or cooling, indeed, even withoutany strong doors to separate the inside from the outside, the weatheron the inside is almost identical with that on the outside. At night, especially,there’s quite a chill; the temperature drops to freezing.All the monks seem to suffer more from the cold than from theheat. Egyptians, in general, seem to be better suited to the warmerclimate. So the monks are attired in layer upon layer of scarves andcapes or coats, many layers of socks and gloves and hats—all theseon top of their habit, making some rather extraordinary crazy quiltsof appearances! I have a trench coat, a London-Fog-like black coatthat I wear over my habit, and I have black gloves. Everything Ihave is black. The monks look at me and I can almost hear themsniff that this is all a little too grandiose: that things should be socoordinated in a wardrobe for a monk! But they’re polite, and I trynot to show my interest in and amusement at the wild colors theyare wearing: clothes from all manner of dress covering what is otherwisea very serious black habit.Coptic RubricsAfter morning prayer today there was no Kodes. Throughoutmuch of Advent, the Coptic Mass has been moved to noon. Instead,the monks go right from morning prayer to their cells formeditation and reading. The reason that this shift has occurred isnot because of Advent per se, I’m told, but because there are nearly