getting ready to retreat!

St Catherine's Monastery at the foot of the  mountain

Moses removes his sandals at the burning bush

For half term some people will be  going to ski in the Alps, and others will go walking in other mountains but Grandpa and I who are too old to ski are going to Mount Sinai in Egypt to visit the ancient fortified monastery of St Catherine at the foot of the very mountain itself.  In order to get ready to go we have equipped ourselves with everything the modern pilgrim should have; mobile phones to use as cameras, kindles  to read from, i pads to record our daily happenings, lightweight bottles for water in lightweight rucksacks, walking boots and walking poles.  This is not what Moses had when he brought the entire people of Israel out of Egypt via the red sea to the foot of the mountain.  But somehow the record of their Exodus from Egypt is recorded, the tussle with Pharaoh who kept changing his mind, the moaning of the people who felt they had left every comfort behind, the pillars of cloud and pillars of fire which led them through the wilderness, clouds of quail which carpeted the ground for food for them, manna, a round bread which fell every day but the Sabbath to keep them fed and a God who wrote down their laws because he understood they needed them.    Before Moses led the Israelites to Sinai, he had found himself at odds with Pharaoh for standing up for the Israelites, he found his own identity and killed one of the Egyptian overseers who had been beating the man.  He had fled and left Pharoah's court and was in the desert lands near Sinai minding his father-in-law's flocks when he encountered God in the burning bush.  This bush is said to be right there in the Monastery which was built by Emperor Justinian in the 5th Century to protect the Chapel of the Burning Bush.  As well as the burning bush and the magnificent library and the icons which are part of the treasure of the Monastery, the bones of St Catherine, martyred for her faith in the third century and whose body was said to have been transported to Sinai where it was found by the monks are there to protect and bless the pilgrims and the Monastery is named for her.  As well as our walking boots and high tech equipment, we will definitely be hoping for her blessing on our journey and our time there.  I am struck by our good fortune in being able to dip in to this holy place, kept holy by continuous faithful service from the Greek Orthodox Monks who live there. 

First hermits at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Desert Fathers seeking God in seclusion although it looks pretty busy to me.