A particular group of Christian monastics in the early church sought out the wilderness as a place of refuge and nearness to God. Individuals like Athanasius and Syncletica, both of Alexandria, helped to articulate the experience for some of these individuals and communities, known later as the Desert Fathers and Mothers.[1] What compels an individual to seek out the starkness of the desert landscape? Lane this time shares the words of the contemplative, Thomas Merton, in describing the desert experience:
The Desert Fathers believed that the wilderness had been created as supremely valuable in the eyes of God precisely because it had no value to men…. The desert was created simply to be itself, not to be transformed by men into something else. So too the mountain and the sea. The desert is therefore the logical dwelling place for the man who seeks to be nothing but himself.[2]
One of the practices that helped to illuminate the desert experience was that of contemplative prayer. There, within the simplicity of words, actions, and daily repetition of chores and duties, the Desert Fathers and Mothers experienced full presence with the divine, unobstructed from the daily distractions that many of us encounter in the modern developed world.[3] How might these contemplative practices inform our experience of the wilderness in today’s context? What would it look like to invite regular practices of solitude from within our congregations? How might contemplative prayer help to inspire renewal in one’s spiritual life as we experience the uncertainty of the wilderness?
Wilderness, Transition, & Wonder
“In God’s wildness lies the hope of the World.”
[1] Rachel M. Srubas, The Desert of Compassion: Devotions for the Lenten Journey (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2023), 15.
[2] Thomas Merton, Thoughts on Solitude (New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1958), 18-19, as quoted in Lane, Backpacking with the Saints, 44.
[3] Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes, 200.
Rev. Dr. Jeff Binder 