Father Justin's Blog

In the high mountains above the monastery, the first sign of a new day is a band of rose coloured light on the horizon. This was the time when the Myrrh-bearing women went to the Tomb, ‘as it began to dawn’, when the restrictions of the Sabbath were now at an end. They found the Tomb empty, and heard from the Angels, Ἠγέρθη οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε, ‘Ηe is risen, he is not here’.

The Chapel of the Burning Bush, the easternmost chapel of the Sinai basilica.

Ὅτι δὲ ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροὶ καὶ Μωϋσῆς ἐμήνυσεν ἐπὶ τῆς βάτου ὡς λέγει Κύριον τὸν Θεὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ τὸν Θεὸν Ἰσαὰκ καὶ τόν Θεὸν Ἰακώβ· Θεὸς δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων· πάντες γὰρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν.

Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. (Luke 20:37-38)

The two gates in the centre of the iconostasion always depict the Annunciation. But here at Sinai there is an exception to the rule, since this is the place of holy prophets. On the left is Moses, holding the Tablets of the Law, and on them, objects of the tabernacle. He was shown the tabernacle in sacred vision and commanded to make the same, that the worship offered here below should be ‘unto the example and shadow of heavenly things’ (Hebrews 8:5). On the right is Aaron clothed in the vestments of the High Priest, holding a censer and the rod that ‘brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds’ (Numbers 17:8).

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read that the objects of the tabernacle were ‘copies [ὑποδείγματα] of things in the heavens’ (Hebrews 9:23), ‘figures [ἀντίτυπα] of the true’ (Hebrews 9:24). In the ninth century, Saint Theodore the Studite wrote to his disciple Naukratios, ‘by means of copies [ὑποδείγματα] and shadows the people of the Old Testament worshipped heavenly realities. And what were those things if not images? And was it not through these images that they were led up to the contemplation of heavenly realities?’

The first sunlight on weathered granite cliffs at the basin of the Prophet Elijah forms beautiful patterns of light and shadow.

The last station of the camel trail in the light of a new day.