Jesus told us we must “seek first the kingdom,” but where should we find it? In the ancient world, St. Antony the Great inspired thousands to follow him into the desert, seeking solitude to focus completely on spiritual perfection. We imagine them fleeing from the world to escape from troubles and find peace with the leisure offered by the wilderness. In reality, they fled from the distractions and anxieties clouding the interior life. Fleeing to the desert brought on combat, with temptations moving out into the open and the enormity of one’s weaknesses pronounced.
The desert is not an attractive place — dry, isolated and devoid of life. The Desert Fathers sought it out as a place that forced them to rely on God’s provision, embracing the solitude it offered and dying to their passions. They prayed through the night, memorizing the Psalms and Gospels, doing simple work during the day like weaving palm baskets, entering complete obedience to a spiritual father and practicing hospitality. The skeptic would accuse them of hating the body; instead, they sought to begin the life of Heaven already on earth, living according to the spirit and giving the body only its basic necessities. In his Life of St. Antony, St. Athanasius specifically remarks that the hermit did not waste away through fasting but remained sound of mind and body. Of those who sought him out, “he persuaded many to embrace the solitary life. And thus it happened, in the end, that cells arose even in the mountains, and the desert was colonised by monks, who came forth from their own people, and enrolled themselves for the citizenship in the heavens” (§14).
Our culture has become a spiritual desert, lacking the living water the Lord offers, with so many lost in the isolation of individualism and thirsting for something more. The Desert Fathers were extreme, but they possessed the one thing necessary that we lack today: seeking first the Kingdom and enjoying the peace that flows from it. They can teach us much about living for Heaven rather than immediate comfort and gain, about using the strength and endurance of the body to pursue the goods of the soul that last into eternal life. In the world, as we face our own desert, we shouldn’t think that the exploits of the Desert Fathers cannot be imitated in our own way. For instance, “It was revealed to Abba Anthony in his desert that there was one who was his equal in the city. He was a doctor by profession, and whatever he had beyond his needs, he gave to the poor, and every day he sang the Sanctus with the angels” (Sayings of the Desert Fathers: Alphabetic Collection, §24).
Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway, has proven an apt spiritual guide for applying ancient monastic wisdom to contemporary dynamics. Growing up without faith, he discovered monasticism while studying in a British boarding school, leading to his eventual vocation to Mount St. Bernard’s Abbey, where he later became abbot. His recent book, Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses, a modern-day classic, ended with the wisdom of the Desert Fathers, reflecting on how their sayings “are a user’s manual for Scripture. How can I let God’s Word strike root in me? How can I apply it to my experience? How is Christ’s saving work realized in particular lives? These questions exercised the brothers who came to see an abba, a seasoned elder, asking for a ‘word’ to live by. Thus, as I have said, the monastic institute turned into something of a laboratory for Christian doctrine and practice” (131). The fruits of their ascetical experiments continue to teach us, perhaps with even more to offer today, given our myriad distractions and consumeristic desires.
Bishop Varden has just launched a new podcast, “Desert Fathers in a Year,” in conjunction with ETWN and Exodus 90, to unpack their sayings and apply them to modern life. He begins this month with the great St. Antony. He will work through the major themes of the Systematic Collection of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, such as the pursuit of perfection, contemplative quiet, compunction, self-mastery, purity, humility, poverty and charity. In an interview with Catholic News Agency, Varden related, “We live in a desert of distractions. . . . The desert fathers show us how to find true joy and meaning through the love of Christ. They learned to master distractions and temptations through prayer and silence, and this can inspire us to find direction in life.”
The Desert Fathers in a Year Podcast offers us a great way to stay focused on spiritual growth throughout this new year. We can imitate those who fled into the desert, seeking Heaven more ardently to find an oasis in the modern desert. Varden will offer simple steps each week, beginning with making time for prayer and reflection, pulling back from our busyness. Varden exhorts us to begin now: “My first advice is always this: Start by clearing some space in your life. It’s not a myth that modern life can be less hectic than we think. We don’t always have to be trapped in busyness.”
To learn more about this new podcast, visit desertfathers.com.
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