Wilderness in the City

Before the onset of Great Lent, I went out with two friends to visit Metropolitan George Khodr. I am saying "went out”. This is a verb I unsheathed from the parlance of the Monks who used to go out from their cells, at the beginning of Lent, seeking an elder from whom to solicit a word of life. Metropolitan George is always a suitable elder. One of my friends asked him to say a word to us about fasting. He said: "It is a gift. Fasting is truly practiced by he who asks God to grant it to him". The word is complete in its benefits. I will explain to you what we have gleaned from it in the ensuing conversation. Firstly, we understood that fasting is a retreat with God. Then, that it serves as a framework for the gifts bestowed by God. In one word, we were given to abide in the fact that what enriches our life is grounded in our traditional practices. Metropolitan George did not say to us: "Do not seek your abundance apart from fasting. It is abundance if you grasp that you are standing before God Who desires you for Himself and with Himself". Nonetheless, that's what we felt he meant. Metropolitan George persuades you that there is a wilderness in the city!