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A thought that just came to me ................

I have spent the last 25+ years weeping and crying over the devastation of the vineyard. Parishes gone, hierarchy gone, pastors gone, spiritual directors gone, convents gone, monasteries gone, teaching orders gone, Catholic hospitals gone, Catholic universities gone, seminaries gone, religious vocations gone, places to pray before the Blessed Sacrament gone, daily Mass gone.

I literally cannot get over this. I literally cannot stop crying about it.

Yet..........

One thing does remain, and it is the desert.

The more I study the desert spirituality, the more I realize that this is the calling for our time. Anyone can enter the desert. You don't need someone to tell you that you have a vocation. You don't need to fit into an age bracket. You don't need to be pure of heart, or obedient, or illumined. Nope, the desert takes all comers, and makes Saints out of every man that perseveres in his struggle.

In the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, "He that can take, let him take it." 

P.S. I have come across in my studies a very interesting fact, which I knew intuitively and perhaps less fully and articulately. The spirituality of the east is Psalm-based. Yes fasting, yes vigils. But the prayer, the deep prayer of the heart is grounded in the Psalms. This I did not know, though I am a zealous proponent of the Divine Office for us lay slobs. I knew there was a mighty anointing in the Psalms, and now I come to learn that what we would call the prayer of quiet or contemplation is actually Psalm driven, according to the Desert Fathers. Anyone can do this. The living waters are ready to flow as soon as God strikes the rock of our hard hearts.    

A thought that just came to me ................

I have spent the last 25+ years weeping and crying over the devastation of the vineyard. Parishes gone, hierarchy gone, pastors gone, spiritual directors gone, convents gone, monasteries gone, teaching orders gone, Catholic hospitals gone, Catholic universities gone, seminaries gone, religious vocations gone, places to pray before the Blessed Sacrament gone, daily Mass gone.

I literally cannot get over this. I literally cannot stop crying about it.

Yet..........

One thing does remain, and it is the desert.

The more I study the desert spirituality, the more I realize that this is the calling for our time. Anyone can enter the desert. You don't need someone to tell you that you have a vocation. You don't need to fit into an age bracket. You don't need to be pure of heart, or obedient, or illumined. Nope, the desert takes all comers, and makes Saints out of every man that perseveres in his struggle.

In the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, "He that can take, let him take it."

P.S. I have come across in my studies a very interesting fact, which I knew intuitively and perhaps less fully and articulately. The spirituality of the east is Psalm-based. Yes fasting, yes vigils. But the prayer, the deep prayer of the heart is grounded in the Psalms. This I did not know, though I am a zealous proponent of the Divine Office for us lay slobs. I knew there was a mighty anointing in the Psalms, and now I come to learn that what we would call the prayer of quiet or contemplation is actually Psalm driven, according to the Desert Fathers. Anyone can do this. The living waters are ready to flow as soon as God strikes the rock of our hard hearts.   

Beautiful reflection! Some time ago, a user (it could very well have been you) was mentioning the Divine Office on a thread in which the discussion was about mortification. The point being made was that very few were willing to embrace the Divine Office as mortification, but were keenly for some other means.

The two books I read on the Desert Fathers (well the second one I'm still reading - kind of meditating upon) are:




I recommend them both.

Wow, I just popped back into this thread looking for the link Sean provided, and I see that you and Nadir have made other recommendations. I thank you both so very much. Everything I've come across so far has been excellent. 

Yes, I was the one on the other thread extolling the Breviary. And what I've learned thus far corroborates my heart's sense. 

Glad to have a comrade in the desert!