Spirits And Spirituality

Time to depart Damascus today. Ideally, I would have liked to stay longer, spent more time in the old city and visited a few of the museums, but the constraints of time dictate a new destination once more. Gerry, Joachim (or "Wacky" as Gerry now inadvertently calls him) and myself hop on another bus. Our stop is Mar Musa, a monastery perched high on the side of a mountain. It's a slight detour off the arterial route of most travellers, and we end up taking another bus, and a taxi that drops us off at the foot of the rock. From here we make our steep climb up the many steps. The hardest part of the climb is negotiating the tiny front entrance of the building at the top. You have to stoop right in order to make your way through. Must be the religious thing of not making life too easy for yourself.

The monastery is a multi denomination friendly place for faith, meditations and spirituality, and the place looks like it will be quite a step away from the usual backpacker experience. Anyone can come here and stay for free for a while, providing they assist in the daily chores. Spiritual participation is encouraged but not pressurised.

After lunch, we wander up a dry wadi bed in the ravine to catch the sunset in the mountains at the back of the monastery, before evening prayer and meditation in the old church. It's a fairly small building stone built with a wooden facade altar area at the front, and plaster painted scenes from the Bible on the walls. Most of them are in a state of disrepair with a number of them having been intentionally defaced, their eyes hacked out over time.

The two priests begin their service with the Lords prayer in Arabic. Other members of the congregation kneel behind them with their arms outstretched. The seats for the service are simply firm cushions placed on the floor. After prayers are finished, the lights suddenly go out and we sit for an hour in the faint candlelight as people focus on their spiritual connection, reflect on their past, or contemplate the future. Whatever it means to the individual, I guess. Only the flickering light from the candle and the drip-drip sound of thekerosene heater fill the air. Everybody sits in silence. I use the time to reflect how few opportunities like this we seem to afford ourselves in the rush of modern life, other than lying awake before or after sleep.

Meditation time duly complete, we listen to passages from John, Job and Corinthians, before the service draws to a close. Our new Korean friend Rich used the meditation time in his own way by falling asleep. Unfortunately for him, he's still snoozing as the service ends, looking quite a picture as everybody else vacates the floor. This only leaves the priest staring at him, and Rich staring at the back of his eyelids. Fortunately, the religious man sees the funny side of it, and a joke is shared as we move off for dinner.

Like every night in winter, dinner is served in a curtained, heated/insulated exterior room raised on poles. We all help to serve the food, before sitting down on the floor in rows to enjoy it. No food goes to waste here and what was served yesterday will be served again until it is finished. Things shut here early and we're all tucked up in our room shortly afterwards, enjoying the warmth of our heater as it protects us from the cold mountain air outside.