36- The rites

 

St-Takla.org Image: Coptic Orthodox Deacons from Africa - Photograph by Michael Ghaly for St-Takla.org, 2008 صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: بعض الشمامسة الأقباط من أفريقيا - تصوير مايكل غالي لـ: موقع الأنبا تكلا هيمانوت، 2008.

An ordinary person who is superficial and not deep, may not realize the spirituality that is concealed in each of the church rites...

As for the spiritual man, he enters to the depth of these rites and their symbolism , and shares with his spirit in them.

He follows, by the spirit, the movements of the Deacons and the Priests.

For example, when the Priest carries the Gospel on top of his head and turns with it around the altar, the spiritual man realises that this round refers to the spread of the Gospel in the whole world. And in his heart, he prays for that...

When the Deacon holds a candle before the Gospel, the spiritual man remembers the saying of the Psalmist: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105 ). And he prays that God may enlighten his insight with what he hears from His holy words.

And when the most senior among the clergy takes off his crown in reverence and respect during the Gospel reading, the same reverence gets into the heart of the spiritual person while listening...

In general, his spirit shares in all the prayers of the Holy Mass and in all the prayers of the liturgies. It does not stop at sharing by his senses, but by his heart and spirit also, because it is the spirit that gives life...

The same thing happens during feasts...

The spiritual man does not look at the feast as just a joyful day in which fasting ends, as many do. But he enters to the spirituality of the occasion for which the feast is being celebrated. He contemplates on it and lives in it. In the Nativity, he rejoices because it is the practical beginning of the story of salvation. He rejoices for the humility and love that are in it. He also rejoices in Easter with all that it carries of victory over death, opening the gate of Paradise and because the Lord is the first fruits of resurrection for all of us.