Gaudete In Domino

On Monday we boarded the bus early and made our way to Wadi El-Natrun which is on the Eastern edge of the Libya desert. "Natrun" refers to the salt lakes of the area where Natron is harvested. We saw two Coptic monasteries, both very interesting. The first was the monastery of Anba Bishoy who is buried in the monastery.  It was founded in the 4th century.  It has five churches within it.  We had a monk as a tour guide and he was quite interesting.  He talked about the life of the monks and the history of the monastery.  We saw several of the churches.  The interior of the Church of St. Bishoy which shows the sanctuary. The relics of two saints are kept at the monastery.  St. Bishoy and St Paul of Tammah.  They were buried in another monastery but St. Bishoy had requested that he be buried in the present monastery.  This happened in 841 when the Coptic pope decided to move his body.  At first they were goin to move St. Bi...

Now that I am back in Rome I am going to try to update the blog with my travels to Egypt.   I think it will be easier to do so in smaller chunks.  There is so much that I could include that a super long post will be difficult.  This way I can do what I can today and then keep adding as the week goes on, One caveat is that I did not take a lot of pictures.  I find that they often don't come out that well,  I also wanted just to experience what we saw and then try to share with you my insights and feelings. I have already posted about our first day which was spent in Old Egypt.  This was essentially a Christian and Jewish time in Egypt.  A good part of Egypt's Christian history is connected to two events which they treasure:  The Holy Family spending time in Egypt after the birth of Jesus and the evangelization of Egypt by St. Mark.  This marked the character of Egyptian Christianity which is called Coptic.  Coptic essentially mea...

Finding posting in this format a bit frustrating.  I guess I will wait until I return to Rome. Tomorrow we see some of the sights in Muslim Cairo - Citadel of Saladin and one of the major mosques. Sunday we leave (I am on a fairly early plane) and our adventure in Egypt will be over.  It has been a great group with which to travel.  Fr. Don Senior has been a wonderful leader and the brains behind the program of what we saw. In Egypt you have to have an Egyptian guide.  Sohbi Ibrahim has been a fantastic guide.  He is filled with knowledge (he has a masters in Egyptian history) and a great love for his country.  Not to mention a fun sense of humor.  He has worked hard for us. Some folks expressed concern about the potential danger in coming to Egypt.  Especially given the fairly recent massacre of Japanese tourists.  In that case it appears that the driver was in cahoots with the assasins so an unusual situation.  We have had an a...

The last few days have been a wonderful adventure but I have been frustrated in my inability to post - first due to exhaustion.  They keep us moving.  We start pretty early in the morning and continue until late afternoon.  Usually 8 or more hours of touring.  Not all of it involves walking but it can be tiring none the less.  Add to that the fact that I am in sensory overload just added to the feeling of tiredness. Secondly, I have been in areas without sufficient or reliable internet connections so haven’t actually been able to post anything significant.  I’ve been able to add a few things to Facebook but the blog had to wait. Tonight we are in the Conrad Hotel in Cairo.  This is a change in plan as the hotel in which we first stayed would not guarantee the deluxe rooms promised and so they looked for another option.  Although we are not near the pyramids it is a lovely hotel and I think our last two nights will be comfortable.  Also, the...

Today we spent the entire day visiting a variety of sites around Cairo.  We began with the Egyptian Museum which contains the historic treasures of Egypt.  We learned a little about the history of the various kingdoms and dynasties.  It was impressive to learn that some of what we were seeing was over 4500 years old.  Some of it is in amazing condition. Among the treasures we saw were the tomb treasures of Yura and Thuya who were the grandparents of Tutankhamen (if I remember correctly).  Incredible richness.  The tomb was found largely intact.  We then moved into the treasures of Tutankhamen.  I commented to someone that if the idea was to overwhelm what the impressiveness of the riches.  It worked.  It became almost too much to take it all in. We then had lunch at a local restaurant that caters to tour groups.  A great buffet. We learned that there are four stages in the history of Cairo.  We spent some time in Old Cair...

Before the tour we took in the view. Today we headed back into the Vatican to see the Museums and the Sistine Chapel.  We had our wonderful guide from yesterday who, again, gave us a fantastic tour.  She has been doing tours for many years at the Vatican Museums and it is clear that she is well liked and respected.  The curator and the assistant curator greeted us.  That was a special treat. We began in the section of the ancient Roman art.  Mostly sarcophagi.  These "coffins" contain some of the most important ancient Christian art.  She noted that most museums display the Christian and pagan art side by side believing that they are essentially the same.  She made an argument that pagans would never had decorated their sarcophagi with the same scenes as the Christians.  It was very persuasive.  We also saw the beautiful first century Good Shepherd statue, one of my favorites.  We installed one at the Cathedral when we cre...

This morning we went back to St. Peter's for a tour with American art historian, Elizabeth Lev.  I'm going to check out some of her books.  She was fantastic.  I used to give private tours of the Basilica for family and friends of seminarians back in the day.  I learned a lot.  She had a different perspective around which to organize her information.  Really informative.  Tomorrow she will lead us on a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  I am really looking forward to it.  I believe she may be also giving us a tour later in the sabbatical. I find that I never tire of St. Peter's.  I have been in it many dozen of times.  I was ordained to the diaconate at the Altar of the Chair.  Yet every time I enter it I have the same feeling of awe.  With all of the tours it is not the most quiet and reverent of settings but one can often find a quiet corner just to sit and look, think and pray.  As we were nearing ...