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

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A TIME OF SIGNS: CAELUM ET TERRA 81a dozen men here who are learning to be proper celebrants, properpriests and presiders, and they are very busy in the mornings,studying the various rites of the Coptic Church. The monks whowould otherwise be assisting at the Kodes are intensely occupied,teaching them the hymnody, the liturgical gestures, and the rubricsof the Coptic Eucharist.It’s an extraordinary thing, really. The average Coptic priest issimply commissioned by his church. The parishioners recommendthe fellow to the bishop and the bishop takes their request underadvisement and perhaps ordains the young man. Of course, thismeans that someone who is probably more or less worthy, someonewho is devout and practical, has been ordained. But he is not necessarilysomeone who has had any prior training in Coptic sacramentalrites or Coptic theology.So, after ordination, these priests are bundled up and taken to amonastery where they literally spend forty days on retreat, spirituallyconsolidating the transition that has just occurred. They learnto celebrate the Coptic Kodes and the Coptic sacraments so theycan officiate at these rites when they return to their parishes. Theygrow beards. Since every Coptic priest in the service of the Church,like every Coptic monk, grows a beard, it would be considered unseemlyfor a newly ordained priest to appear with a half-grown one.So forty days in a monastery after ordination gives them the opportunityto grow in religious knowledge, in the practice of religiousritual, and even to grow a beard. Of course, that is what PopeShenouda also asked me to do when I first arrived.All day long I can hear them practicing. They’re in all thesmaller chapels: the center ones and the side ones of the monasterychurch. They’re also in the monastery keep which is not far fromwhere I’m living, so I can hear them in the rooms which have beenconverted into chapels there. I can hear them praying and singingthe various intonations of the Coptic Kodes. It’s quite a lot to learnbecause the musical corpus is fairly substantial. There are severalliturgies, in fact, which are proper to the Coptic rite, all of whichthe priests must know, as they are used in the various seasons of theyear. Of course, there are also many variations in orations and prefacesfor the saints’ days and feasts, so the cycles are rather complex.There’s a lot for the priests to study; it takes hours and hours a day.I think that some of these poor priests are actually rehearsing ten ortwelve hours a day!
82 DECEMBERI feel particularly sorry for the Coptic monks who must teachthem. It’s a never-ending cycle of education for some of them. In acertain sense, they are “liturgical machines,” constantly providinginstruction for the many young men coming through. Of course,the monks are thoroughly imbued with their Mass. They live andbreathe the words of it. The rubrics and the prayers are all part oftheir flesh by now, and they seem to be totally absorbed in whatthey are doing. I had not really expected that so many of the monkshere would be so deeply invested, liturgically. Surely, that is whatone expects in a Benedictine monastery, but in the desert of Egypt, Ihad imagined that the monks would be somewhat less interested inthe study of liturgical rites. Quite the contrary. For very practicalreasons, the monastery is the school of the Lord’s service, and thenewly ordained come here to learn the liturgical arts, the Opus Dei.So I have somewhat followed suit. I was invited by AbunaTadros to study Coptic prayer with him while the others are learningthe Coptic Mass. So, day after day, I go to the library now, usuallyin the late morning, to spend a couple of hours studying Copticvocabulary, even a little Coptic grammar, especially as it is usedin Coptic prayer. This work of trying to understand their prayerform more literally is regarded by Abuna Tadros, and I suspect byother monks as well, as essential to my education in the monasticlife.We are using the psalms, of course; that is the best course ofaction, since I know the psalms already. From the English translation,or even from the Arabic, I can learn the meaning of the Copticpsalms fairly rapidly from just a few clues, a few words here andthere. Even the shape of the verse sometimes helps me to understandwhat I’m saying or what I’m hearing. It’s wonderful to learnthis ancient variation of the psalms since, actually, the Copticpsalms are part of the ancient monastic heritage and would havebeen used by the early monastic founders as their primary means ofprayer.DECEMBER 23, TUESDAYO Lord of Joy,Christmas, ten thousand miles from home! How strangefor me, this snowless emptiness without the overpowering
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Copyright © 2002 by Mark Gruber, O
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JOURNEY BACK TO EDENMy Life and Tim
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In gratitude to Abuna Elia,the sain
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CONTENTSPreface ...................
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PREFACEWhile in Egypt, I did not in
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PREFACExiElia, to whom this journal
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ABOUT THE COPTS AND THEIR DESERT MO
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2 INTRODUCTIONI will be traveling i
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4 INTRODUCTIONmy novitiate and had
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6 SEPTEMBERlarge high-rises. Appare
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8 SEPTEMBERprior to their trip so t
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10 SEPTEMBERyour hands—as much or
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12 SEPTEMBERA Beggar among BeggarsT
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14 SEPTEMBERlabored without rest or
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FATHER JOHN WATSONHis Holiness Pope
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18 SEPTEMBERHe drew a cross on top
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20 SEPTEMBERBlessed Lord,You brough
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22 SEPTEMBERtude, and silence, appr
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OCTOBERA TIME OF NEW BEGINNINGSThe
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26 OCTOBERcontradictions they fear
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28 OCTOBERdramatic effect of my hea
Page 45 and 46: 30 OCTOBERWill my heart remain here
Page 47 and 48: NOVEMBERA TIME TO VISIT ABRAHAMGues
Page 49 and 50: 34 NOVEMBERThe guest master, it tur
Page 51 and 52: Abuna Elia
Page 53 and 54: 38 NOVEMBERBut in their case, he as
Page 55 and 56: 40 NOVEMBERafter the death of Sarah
Page 57 and 58: 42 NOVEMBERto take his son. All the
Page 59 and 60: 44 NOVEMBERhe sojourned in Egypt in
Page 61 and 62: 46 NOVEMBERthe monastic ideal to a
Page 63 and 64: 48 NOVEMBERArabic LessonsNOVEMBER 2
Page 65 and 66: 50 NOVEMBEROf course, it is not tru
Page 67 and 68: 52 NOVEMBERthe Ark of Noah looked l
Page 69 and 70: 54 NOVEMBERits life-giving water fr
Page 71 and 72: 56 NOVEMBERCross more brightly: fal
Page 73 and 74: DECEMBERA TIME OF SIGNS: CAELUM ET
Page 75 and 76: 60 DECEMBERfirst sold ourselves to
Page 77 and 78: 62 DECEMBERis by fasting, most of a
Page 79 and 80: 64 DECEMBERficient. If they can obt
Page 81 and 82: 66 DECEMBERThe great apparitions of
Page 83 and 84: 68 DECEMBERKing of the Jews, by the
Page 85 and 86: 70 DECEMBEREveryone seeks the assis
Page 87 and 88: 72 DECEMBERDECEMBER 15, MONDAYAlmos
Page 89 and 90: 74 DECEMBERfor her. She is delighte
Page 91 and 92: 76 DECEMBERtween Alexandria and Cai
Page 93 and 94: 78 DECEMBERboth are real in the bod
Page 95: 80 DECEMBERof faith which preserves
Page 99 and 100: 84 DECEMBERThe children—six, seve
Page 101 and 102: JANUARYA TIME OF CELEBRATIONJANUARY
Page 103 and 104: 88 JANUARYEveryone, it seems, is mi
Page 105 and 106: 90 JANUARYA Holiday VisitOn the eve
Page 107 and 108: 92 JANUARYAlmost the whole orientat
Page 109 and 110: 94 JANUARYI blessed water in their
Page 111 and 112: 96 JANUARYI find myself in the unus
Page 113 and 114: 98 JANUARYferent path, and every da
Page 115 and 116: 100 JANUARYyour ageless love are cr
Page 117 and 118: 102 JANUARYless because they’re a
Page 119 and 120: FATHER JOHN WATSONA Coptic Orthodox
Page 121 and 122: 106 JANUARYheard a voice—perhaps
Page 123 and 124: 108 JANUARYI reflected afterwards a
Page 125 and 126: 110 JANUARYsolitude and in terms of
Page 127 and 128: 112 FEBRUARYjust visiting the deser
Page 129 and 130: 114 FEBRUARYJust then some of the p
Page 131 and 132: 116 FEBRUARYThe children of the Pha
Page 133 and 134: 118 FEBRUARYAbuna Elia said that th
Page 135 and 136: 120 FEBRUARYGod. For all Christians
Page 137 and 138: 122 FEBRUARYFEBRUARY 18, WEDNESDAYD
Page 139 and 140: 124 FEBRUARYsources. I had some of
Page 141 and 142: 126 FEBRUARYshall be a sign and a w
Page 143 and 144: 128 FEBRUARYFEBRUARY 28, SATURDAYTh
Page 145 and 146: 130 MARCHmerich, the German mystic
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132 MARCHThe wildflower meadows her
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134 MARCHbishop who resides near he
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136 MARCHOf Building Bonds and Brea
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138 MARCHSprings in the DesertMARCH
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140 MARCHwomen in the West experien
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142 MARCHlunch somewhere, or they h
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144 MARCHbe willing to move from my
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146 MARCHA Fly on the WallMARCH 31,
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APRILA TIME OF CONSECRATIONOf Sands
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Grass mats cover the floor of a mon
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152 APRILmony. Even recently, some
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154 APRILwho are distributed everyw
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156 APRILIn the papal compound I me
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158 APRILin their own home parish.
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160 APRILAfter greeting me he told
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162 APRILI keep reminding myself th
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164 APRILA Rare Spring HolidayAPRIL
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166 APRILthat the very same innocen
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MAYA TIME TO PRESS ONWARDOases and
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170 MAYthe commotion associated wit
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172 MAYeven saw monks trying to get
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174 MAYNevertheless, I ask you to a
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176 MAYof grace that people can enf
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178 MAYI’m staying at the house o
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180 JUNEThe Cave of a SaintJUNE 5,
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182 JUNEThe abbot of the monastery
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The gate of St. Anthony Monastery.
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186 JUNEno place to lay his head”
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188 JUNE“Fountains and Springs, B
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190 JUNEmonks here, I decided to dr
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192 JUNEof his family—and broke e
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JULYA TIME FOR FAREWELLSThe Crucibl
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196 JULYare known in Egypt, and the
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198 JULYthat, the heat is now reall
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200 JULYbering the slap I received
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202 JULYyou for our founder who cam
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204 JULYJULY 23, THURSDAYI returned
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206 JULYprize that Eve forfeited wh
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AFTERWORDFifteen years have passed
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