Divine Liturgy with Pope Tawadros
Last month, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II visited the United States for the first time as Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. It was a huge blessing to all the churches and congregations who got to see him.I had the incredible opportunity to pray a very special Divine Liturgy with His Holiness, my beloved Bishop Youssef, the monks of St. Mary & St. Moses Abbey, all the priests of the Southern Diocese and many of their wives and children.It was a Divine Liturgy like any other--made holy by the presence of Christ Himself among us. It was prayed, as is usual for us, in three languages (four if you parse out the Greek). It was common in nearly every way, except that it was led by the patriarch of our global church himself, the men's side was a sea of robed men, and the women's side was filled with veiled angels.
There were a few mind-blowing moments during the Liturgy, moments I will never forget. One was during the Procession of the Lamb. While His Holiness, leader of the millions of Copts in Egypt and abroad, selected the perfect loaf to be the korban, all the priests and monks of the diocese, in addition to multiple visiting bishops, and all the tasonis and the PKs, were saying, "Kyrie Elieson" (Lord have mercy) 42 times. Their voices were like the voice of many waters, like the gentle murmuring of distant thunder. It echoed in the rafters. It rolled out into the countryside. It rose like incense before His throne. It soaked deep into my bones.For just a few seconds, the Church Striving and the Church Victorious melded before my eyes. If I closed them, I could see the saints step out of their icons to chant with us and the roof lift away to reveal the heavenly hosts with their harps.In a moment like that, with the soft melodious voices of these earthly angels who have devoted their lives to the service of God and His people, I could not help but stand choked up in awe. To be numbered among them is inconceivable to me. If you knew me in my youth at all, you know very well that God works in mysterious ways. And if you know me now, you know I am far from an icon of anything. But that's why I am writing here. To write myself into the background of an icon... Maybe in another 60 years or so I can be "an attendant lord, one that will do / To swell a progress, start a scene or two."My only desire is Thee.
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All photos are my own.