Just as we were going through the security to get into the USS Constitution, my cell phone received a call...it was Fr. Angelos and he apologized that he had overslept. He texted us his address and from there we walked around a little more and then took off for Charlton.
Upon arriving into Charlton, I received a text from Fr. wondering where we were. He called and said to pull into the McDonald's parking lot and he would meet us there and from there we went to an Italian restaurant by the river in Worcester. We had a nice visit over lunch, what with catching up on the people he could still remember back in Iowa and us asking questions about his life now as a priest and such. On Tuesday, he had a family in his parish whose little boy had fallen into some water -- a lake, I believe. None of the family knew how to swim but the mother jumped in and tried to save him. As she was flailing about herself, the father jumped in and pushed the mother to a rock nearby and managed to get the boy to safety. The father then drowned. The little boy was in Pediatric ICU in Worcester. Fr. Angelos had stayed with the family until 2 a.m. until someone could relieve him. Later that evening, we did find out that the little boy had opened his eyes but they were not sure how he was going to turn out for sure yet.
I could just sit and visit with and listen to Fr. Angelos for hours. He puts about 60,000 miles on his car a year going between all of his churches. I asked him if his parishoners were professionals or just what they all did for a living. He said most of them where "pizzas" -- owned little pizza shops, etc. There were very few doctors/lawyers and such -- maybe 5%. Since they close up shop at about 9 p.m., he has late bible studies that go until 2-2:30 a.m. including liturgies, confessions and all. He usually gets to bed about 4:30 a.m. only to start it all over and be out the door again at 10 a.m.
We talked a lot about similarities and differences in our faiths. We each have sacraments only they call them mysteries. Their finances are not controlled by their pope, just locally. They do not have housing provided for them by their church so he built a house of his own. (He thinks the Catholics have it right by having the priest live in a house owned by the parish.) The Christian Coptic church does not have mandatory celibate priests. (This is another thing he thinks the Catholic churches are doing the right way!) Some of the priests in the church are married w/families.
After lunch, he took us to St. Mary's Vineyard which is a retreat location owned by their church. It was another longer drive to get there but it was in a beautiful location in the woods. There they have a church, women's and men's quarters, living quarters for the priests. He even showed us where Pope Shenouda stays when he comes to visit. We got to go in his apartment area and were even allowed to partake of the chocolates they have setting out for him. I somehow can't imagine being allowed to go to the Vatican and see Pope Benedict's apartment! Fr. Angelos showed us where they do their full immersion baptisms and told us stories about the many saints and martyrs of whose pictures they have all around the edge of their church. They have these hung in the place of the stations of the cross which they do not have in their church. (This is another practice that Fr. likes about the Catholic faith -- I really should work on converting him!) In many of these places, we were required to remove our shoes before entering.
Fr. showed us the bookstore there and gave us many gifts -- books, DVDs, leather Egyptian crosses, jewelry and such. His generosity is beyond belief. He also showed us where the youth stay when they are there at the retreat house. On the weekends (except in winter) the families come to the vineyard on Saturday where they all play and worship and spend family time together and then go back to their homes on Sunday. At the time we were there, they were busy getting the grounds ready for Pope Shenouda's visit on the 28th -- they were adding on to their dining hall and everything was being pruned and cleaned and such.
From the vineyard, we were taken to St. Joseph's Monastery so that we could see their abbey. Fr. Angelos goes there weekly so that he can soak up the "silence". We stopped in at their gift shop briefly and then we headed off to Fr. Angelos' house as his mother was preparing dinner.
During one of our phone calls earlier in the day, we had agreed that perhaps just some chicken, vegetables and potatoes would be a good plenty for dinner. Upon arrival at Fr. Angelos' home, we were presented a table FULL of food. There were 4 different platters of meat and each had enough to feed at least 6 people. There were mixed vegetables, rice, mashed potatoes, a hot dish of which I can't remember the name, mixed greens and a Lebanese flat bread. Of course, they encouraged us to "try" everything. The irony in the whole thing is that Fr. and his mother were in the midst of a fast that week, culminating on Monday with a celebration honoring the Blessed Mother. By the time we were done with dinner we were all stuffed! We then retreated to the living room to sit and visit some more. We no sooner got sat down and one of the ladies from his church who was helping his mother brought in a huge tray of fresh fruit. After that Fr. Angelos made coffee and they brought in a loaf of blueberry quick bread. I can't recall when I've been so stuffed! I'm not a big night time eater so I'm really not accustomed to all of that. Father had a very nice house and something in his living room which Mike eyed right away -- a huge screen mounted to the ceiling. Fr. then flipped a switch and it lowered automatically. He put in a Planet Earth DVD into his projection system and we watched the Pole to Pole DVD and visited some more. It was starting to get dark and so we bid our farewells to his mother and the ladies from the church who were there to help her with the dishes. We could definitely tell the cultural differences between the way we view women and their roles here in America and in Egypt. I've got to say that I've never really seen Fr. actually command a woman to do something in all the years I worked for him, but he did actually command his mother and the other ladies to put the food on the table, clear it and such. When Mike went to help pick up the heavier fruit tray and take it to the kitchen, I thought they were going to have a coronary. In fact, Fr.'s mother didn't even dine at the table with the rest of us, which I found odd.
From there he wanted to show us his church in Natick. It was a 40 mile drive from his home and when we got there, the evening liturgy was taking place. He took us inside while the gospel was being, well, chanted. The whole room was absolutely full of incense. We stayed for a few moments and then went to the entry way. From there he called Fr. Sam, who just happened to be a former co-worker of my niece's, so that we could meet him. He was just 5 minutes away so we went back inside to listen to more of the liturgy. Fr.'s parishoners all approach him with what at first appears to be some sort of 'secret handshake'. Actually they bow and touch his hand and then they kiss their own fingers while saying something which we couldn't make out. I wonder if the priests get sick of this after a while.
Fr. Sam told him that the funeral for the previously mentioned father of the little boy was moved to Saturday so he decided he would see us off at the airport. The next morning we waited for him at our hotel, returned our rental car and he drove us to our gate (we did 3 laps around the airport as we kept missing our terminal exit). We said our good-byes, hugs and all, and after my informing him that now it is his turn to come and see US, we proceeded to check in to the gate.
The flights back all went very smoothly and we arrived back in Des Moines safe and sound, eventually pulling into our driveway about 6:30. It was a fun vacation and now it's time to settle back into reality.
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