БОЖЬЯ СТОЛИЦА GOD'S CAPITAL

04 September 2017 • Travel time: with 20 March 2017 on 24 March 2017

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Places like the Sinai desert - wild and barren - are usually called forgotten by God and people. Miraculously, neither God nor people have forgotten this wilderness. Moreover, they made her legendary. The Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine located here is the oldest of the existing ones. We can agree with those who claim that it is the most prayerful and blissful place on the planet.

What is so special about this piece of land? The fact is that the monastery was sheltered at the foot of the mountain, where, according to legend, the prophet Moses received from God the tablets with the Commandments. In the Bible, the mountain is called Horeb. Do you remember the next course of events? Descending from the top, Moses broke the tablets in a rage, seeing the Jews dancing unbridledly near the golden calf. But the Almighty appeased them as best he could - regaled them with manna from heaven and quails... And before that, he generally saved the ungrateful from the Egyptian execution, calling Moses from the engulfed in fire, but fireproof thorn bush, immediately go to the pharaoh - to help the exiled carry off their feet. The same biblical bush still grows on the territory of the monastery. Do you know the name "Burning Bush"? This is what he is. And Moses, by God's command, carved new tablets out of stone and climbed up the mountain again with them. On these tablets, God had to write the same Ten Commandments a second time. Like it or not, humanity has nothing more important than them! Is it any wonder why this particular corner of the planet has become sacred to millions of people?

One Greek bishop said: "We know where the capitals of the states are, but few people realize that God's capital is Mount Sinai. Because it was here that He gave the Commandments to people! " Right behind the territory of the monastery there is a staircase carved into the rock, about four thousand very conditional steps leading to the place where the prophet Moses once talked with the Lord. Today, an international crowd of tourists is moving along the stairs in a non-stop stream, many of whom believe that by climbing the mountain, all their sins will be forgiven. Doubting in such an easy deliverance from them, from the lips of a stoned hippie who spent the night in a sleeping bag at the top, I heard: "God is not just, but merciful! " We lived in the monastery for five days. With the blessing of his rector, primate of the Sinai Orthodox Church, Archbishop of Sinai, Faran and Raifa Damian. His Holiness is 82 years old. They respectfully say about such people: a respectable old man, confessor, a man of high grinding. Behind: The Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, classes in medicine, service in the Greek army, missionary work in Kenya, teaching history and theology in Cairo, numerous publications, care for the arrangement of the monastery, which he headed in 1973 and in whose clinic, despite to a senior position, worked as a doctor for more than 20 years. Since October 3.2012, he has been the oldest hierarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church. Under him, in 2002, the monastery complex was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It was that rare case when you wanted to listen to a high-ranking person all the time. However, like his "subordinates", the fathers: Michael, Simeon, Neil, Justin, Gregory, Theologos, Paul. . .

The main church, the Basilica of the Transfiguration of Christ the Savior, dates back to the reign of Emperor Justinian. Wooden entrance doors are 1400 years old. They are made of Lebanese cedar and crowned with an inscription in Greek: "This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter it. " The niche of the arch of the temple is decorated with the legendary mosaic of the Transfiguration. Subject to the place: here God twice revealed himself to people - except for Moses, also to the prophet Elijah. This was captured in the 6th century by masters from Constantinople. Years are merciless even to shrines, so in 1958 the American restorers had to sweat a lot. After cleaning and conservation, the masterpiece again pleases the eye with pristine beauty. In the altar of the basilica, in a marble reliquary, two silver shrines with the relics of St. Catherine - the head and the hand are kept. Another part of the relics - the finger - rests in the reliquary of the icon of the Great Martyr and is always available for worship. The sarcophagus was first mentioned in writing in 1231. In 1688, the Russian Tsar Peter I for some reason sent a pompous sarcophagus made of pure silver as a gift, but the relics remained in the old monastery. The Chapel of the Holy Bush is connected to the Basilica of the Transfiguration. Fulfilling the biblical instruction, those who enter here must leave their shoes outside the threshold, remembering the commandment of God given to them by Moses: "Take off your shoes from your feet: for the place on which you stand is Holy Land. " The chapel has an altar, located not as usual over the relics of the saints, but over the roots of Kupina. There is no iconostasis here that hides the altar from the faithful, and you can see the roots of the legendary bush under the altar. It is impossible for tourists to approach the bush itself, it is photographed from behind a fence at a distance. The monks made an exception for us. The thorns were soft under the hand. Near the Basilica of the Transfiguration is the well of Moses - the place where, according to the Bible, Moses met the seven daughters of the Midian priest Jethro, one of whom, Zipporah, he took as his wife for her kind heart. The well still supplies the monastery with water today. It is said that unmarried and unmarried visitors, having tasted this water, soon get married and get married. With us, two boring Korean aunts asked to fill them with a miniature three-liter canister.

Immediately outside the monastery walls is a garden connected to the courtyard by an ancient underground passage. Apple trees, pears, pomegranates, apricots, plums, quince, mulberries, almonds, cherries, and grapes grow here. Another part of the land is set aside for olive trees, which provide the monks with olive oil. The vegetables on their table are also from here. By the way, the refectory table, born on the Greek island of Corfu, is already about four hundred years old. It is difficult even to imagine what kind of people he served, how many unhurried conversations he remembers about the earthly and the eternal. However, when you eat, you think about the departed in passing - you wouldn’t miss what the living people sitting next to you say. Somehow it came together - in the company of these people I celebrated my birthday. The aftertaste is indescribable. I'm not talking about wine and bread. About something else. You feel so unique, for example, when you get "excellent" for the decisive entrance exam to the academy, knowing the subject, at most, "for a C grade". . .

St. Catherine's Monastery is the center of the autonomous Sinai Orthodox Church, which, in addition to this monastery, owns only a number of monastic farmsteads: 3 in Egypt and 14 outside Egypt - 9 in Greece, 3 in Cyprus, 1 in Lebanon and 1 in Turkey (Istanbul ). The abbot of the monastery is the Archbishop of Sinai, who is elected by the monks of the monastery. The affairs of the monastery are managed by the general assembly of monks, which decides economic, political and other issues. The Sinai Orthodox Church is the smallest of the autonomies. The Jerusalem Patriarchate, where it belongs, has only 65 parishes and 25 monasteries. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Orthodox Church takes the honorable 4th place out of 15 in the diptych of autocephalies. Behind her are churches with almost a thousand monasteries, not just tens of thousands of parishes in many countries. Obviously, in order to have authority, it is not at all vast valleys and villages, with a myriad of prayer houses, not a whole army of priests often bronzed from their own importance, stubbornly trying to build those around them at attention to watch their souls from their polished little bodies of the latest models, parked in the shadow of mammon, not Breguet, after all, on the wrists of God's servants in a semi-poor country. What is important, in fact, is something else. What do you think? Many priests, as a rule, react philosophically to such words. They hint at a beam in the interlocutor's eye, which needs to be taken out, and then to talk. And who is without a log, tell me? Who is not sinful on the planet? And if we therefore remain silent, do not make comments to each other, do not discuss - reasonably, without tantrums, do not try to become better together, make our days more colorful, brighter - what will we live to end up with? I asked the novices whether it is necessary to speak, write about negligent priests, discrediting their authoritative colleagues, and faith in general, or is their moral character a purely internal affair of the church, God's Court? What did the Apostle Peter say? "Shepherds, shepherd the flock of God, not ruling over it, but setting an example. " When it comes to lust for power, arrogance, money-grubbing, when shepherds tend to feed themselves more than their flock, one should not remain silent. What example are they setting? The church is for the people. They are looking for morality, spiritual shelter in it. A greedy person will only push them away. The opinion of others is extremely important. It helps us get better. A trusting dialogue, sometimes not very pleasant, helps everyone to become better. Where politics interferes in church affairs, there will never be good. . .

The day of the novice in the monastery begins at 4 o'clock in the morning with prayer and divine liturgy, lasting until 7:30. From 12 to 12-30 - lunch service. From 4 to 6 in the afternoon - evening prayer. Every day, after the morning service, everyone is given access to the relics of St. Catherine. In memory of this event, the monks give each parishioner a silver ring with the image

hearts and words Α Γ Ι Α Α Ι Κ Α Τ Ε Ρ Ι Ν Α (Saint Catherine). There are cases documented by stunned doctors when, after worshiping the relics, patients were miraculously healed of severe ailments, including cancer. The example of a pastor who has been working as an ordinary doctor for decades is very indicative. The monastic brethren do not shun any deeds, they work as a close-knit team, despite their higher education, regalia and even gray hair. The food on the refectory table is always simple, mostly vegetarian. Once a day, after midday prayer, the monks eat together. While eating, one of the novices usually reads aloud a book useful for an ascetic life. - A monk lives separately from everyone, a monk refuses everything, but he is connected with everyone through prayer. If a monk makes progress in his spiritual life, cleanses his heart of passions, he can pray for the whole world, for good and bad people. Such a monk is in pain when he sees the circumstances in which the world has found itself. He calls out to God to pour out his grace on people. Near the garden, outside the monastery walls, there is a cemetery and a tomb. The cemetery has a chapel of St. Tryphon and seven graves, which are constantly used. When someone dies, they are buried in the place of the monk whose body has been in the ground longer than others. The remains taken from the grave are placed in the tomb on the lower tier of the chapel of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The only complete skeleton here is the relics of the hermit Stefan, who lived in the 6th century and is mentioned in the "Ladder" of the Monk John of the Ladder, who was abbot of the monastery for 4 years. Stephen's relics, dressed in monastic robes, rest in a glass icon case. The remains of other monks are divided into two parts: their skulls are stacked near the northern wall, and their bones are collected in the central part of the tomb. The bones of Sinai archbishops are kept in separate niches. - Everyone who lived here shed tears and sweat, praying for the redemption of people. They fasted in full exertion. They brought here the relics of the saints and worshiped them. After them, too, there were relics. Here, too, the blood of the martyrs was shed. All this, one way or another, influenced the amazing feeling of God's grace. These bones have a great spiritual meaning for us. Looking at them, we clearly understand that the last day of earthly existence can come at any moment. And then we will stand before God as we are. We call this room "monastic university". They are our teachers. We are their students.

The monastery has always lived in harmony with its surroundings. This harmony is still felt today. The community perfectly coexists with the Bedouin tribe. Even Emperor Justinian, to protect the monastery, moved here two hundred families from Pontus Anatolian and Alexandria. The descendants of these people formed the Jabaliya Sinai tribe. Despite the conversion to Islam that occurred in the 7th century, the Bedouins continue to work in the monastery, while the monks provide them with medical care in their small clinic. They also provide bread and act as intermediaries in business. It seems that in this place, by definition, there can be no conflicts. Once hundreds of monks lived here. And today there are only 15-20 of them, and even those come from other Greek Orthodox monasteries. - The church fathers used to say this: "If you are praying and someone knocks on your door, stop praying and open it to your neighbor. " We are always glad to everyone. All children of God have the right to be here too. We are God's servants and do not consider the monastery to be our property. We do not even call the monastery our monastery. We say that this is God's monastery. Therefore, our door is always open for anyone who wants to enter here. They don't look down on you here. Here they sincerely smile, repeating: "Welcome! " Here you don't feel like a faceless slave in someone's backyard. Here they say: "God has no stepchildren. All His children. All are equal before Him. "

God showed himself here to Moses not by chance. It's very quiet here. It was just as quiet at the time of the birth of Christ, who came into this world in a barn, far from the city of Bethlehem and the crowd of people. God usually chose quiet and calm circumstances when He wanted to reach out to people, to start a special personal relationship. Silence helps a person to be calm and serene. It is difficult to imagine such a quiet, blissful place in another corner of the world. Many guests come here. Even without being religious, they feel something special here that fills their hearts. Many, many years ago, the mountain was called like this: "The mountain that God walked on. " Is it possible that He could stay here for forty days and still not leave us His grace? You can talk about these places endlessly. There will be an opportunity - visit here yourself. You will definitely see, feel on this earth something unique, your own, which no one will ever tell you, write or show you. Once a year, on April 7th, on the Annunciation, when, according to legend, the Archangel Gabriel informed the Virgin Mary about the impending birth of Jesus Christ by her, the monastery plunges into the absolute shadow of the mountain. There is only a small hole in it, through which the only ray of the sun breaks through. It shines in the very center of the monastery - on the Burning Bush. And so it goes from year to year, for centuries. To see the miracle with your own eyes, you had to wait 17 days. Unfortunately, it was time for us to go home. I sat at the door of the chapel on the top of Mount Moses, admiring the surrounding magnificence. Serene silent nature. Great gentle people. How much does a person need for consolation? I think that in our hectic life there must be pauses. Those moments when outwardly nothing happens to you. When the letters are not an eyesore. The motors are silent. The TV doesn't buzz. Him phone. And you are not silenced by meaningless chatter. When you just sit and look at the world and the world looks at you. Calmly think. Modern man is afraid of silence. But until you listen, you won't hear anything, right?

Translated automatically from Russian. View original