Desert Fathers

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 5

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 5

Today, we conclude our series on the Desert Fathers. And we conclude with a call to action. Henri Nouwen writes: “Precisely because our resistance [to pursue God and to pray] is so great, we need disciplines. We need very concrete ways of living by which we can keep inner space open for God and grow into the new self. But as we struggle with the demons, we will discover that we are not struggling on our own but that it is the power of Christ himself who makes us victorious and it is that power that transforms us into new people. Indeed, God re-makes us. “That is paradise: the new life in God.” Throughout the centuries, Christ followers have used various methods to “grow into the new self.” And while, we do the hard work of striving to grow in Christ—a task that involves dying to self, putting off the

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 4

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 4

Let’s be honest: we don’t want to go into the desert. We don’t want to confront our demons. In fact, we don’t want to grow, at least not at the price that the desert fathers required. But true spirituality calls us to die to self and give ourselves completely to God. But that seems a bridge too far and so we constantly put it off until tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. There’s a great scene in CS Lewis’ The Great Divorce. A ghost (a person) has a lizard (his rabid sin nature) on his shoulder. The lizard is constantly spewing out lies and tempting the ghost who is more than willing to listen. An angel comes and offers to kill the lizard, but the ghost is unwilling to let him do so. He can’t imagine life without his sin. The angel asks, “Can I kill it?” To which the ghost

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 3

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 3

We normally don’t consider the desert to be both a wilderness and, at the same time, a paradise, but the desert fathers saw things from a unique perspective. For them, life in the desert was one of great spiritual richness and abundance. But the desert was also a place where we confronted our darkest demons. Henri Nouwen writes: "Thus the desert is the fearful wilderness inhabited by the demons and the paradise where the first human beings lived in harmony with God and creation. We find here the core reality of the spiritual life. The spiritual life is the life in which we come to see God, but also the demons. "I have often wondered why there is such an immense resistance in us to be with God. Why do we find prayer so hard; why do we always prefer to be busy instead of praying? If God really exists

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 2

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 2

There is no doubt that the desert is a wilderness. It is a place of scarcity and seclusion and struggle. I get that. But the desert is also a paradise. And that, I don’t get. Henri Nouwen writes: “There is another side to the desert. The desert is also a paradise. The monk does not just withdraw from the world, but is en route to paradise. “The best way to think of paradise is to think about it as a life in Christ. By being in the desert, the fathers sought their own true selves in Christ. The proximate end of all their striving was ‘purity of heart,’ a clear unobstructed vision of the true state of affairs and an intuitive grasp of one’s own inner reality as anchored in God through Christ. A pure heart is a heart that is not attached to anything, or anyone, except God. “We

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living

Hot Wisdom for Desert Living

Seriously, what spiritual benefit is there in moving, of all the places, to the desert? Henri Nouwen writes: “Desert spirituality is a movement toward a different type of place—the move to the desert. The desert has two aspects: wilderness and paradise. On the one hand, the desert is a dry and sterile place. It is the place of the demon. (‘When the unclean spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through waterless countries to look for a place to rest’ – Luke 11:24). And whenever God appears, the evil one is also present. . . . In the city, with its compulsions and compromises, the lines between God and the demon become blurred. Good is called evil and evil good. But in the desert the true struggle becomes clear. In the desert, where compulsions no longer rule us and we no longer can borrow an identity from the world,

Hot Wisdom for Escaping Sin

Hot Wisdom for Escaping Sin

Before we begin, here’s a quick reminder of the plan. We will start with a question, or if necessary, a short paragraph to introduce the theme. Then we will present a quote from Henri Nouwen’s epilogue in Yushi Nomura’s book, Desert Wisdom (Orbis Books, 1982). Today’s quote will be longer than most. After reading the quote, we will present one or two stories from the desert fathers from Nomura’s book or from Benedicta Ward’s The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: An Alphabetical Collection (Cistercian Publications, 1975). Today is “bonus story day.” You get three quick stories or sayings from the desert fathers. And then, we will close with a few questions to ponder. With that squarely in place, let’s begin. Why would anyone run off into the desert in search of a true and deep spirituality? Consider this. During the years when Christianity was outlawed by the Roman Empire, many

The Hot Wisdom of the Desert Fathers: Introduction

The Hot Wisdom of the Desert Fathers: Introduction

Let’s take a quiz. Suppose you want to go all in on your faith and really get serious about knowing and serving God. Where do you think would be the best place to live in order to do that most effectively? Would you move into the inner city? Would you move downtown? Would you move to the suburbs? Would you move to a rural region? Would you move to the desert? Oddly enough (at least to me), beginning in the third century, numerous people who really wanted to know God thought it best to move away from the crowds and into the desert. We know these desert-dwellers as the Desert Fathers and Mothers. And while I might quibble with their choice of the desert over being closer to people, I have to take my hat off to their wisdom. In short, they were a remarkable group of saints. Maybe some