Overview

For all that bewilders and bedevils us, the desert mothers and fathers can help us. In The Way of the Desert Elders, Lisa Colón DeLay asks: What if desert elders from more than a millennium ago could walk beside us and nourish our spirits? Starting in the fourth century, half a million Christians fled the villages and cities of the Roman Empire. Leaving behind comforts, they battled what Evagrius called ""afflicting thoughts,"" which still unsettle us today. Yet they discovered a spirituality durable enough to endure harsh conditions and self-denial, sturdy enough to flourish in abandoned places. DeLay introduces us to a cast of characters who were devoted and flawed. Like us, the desert abbas and ammas wrestled with gluttony, lust, greed, wrath, acedia, despondency, vainglory, envy, and pride. DeLay brings the timeless sagacity of these spiritual companions to bear on our own barren times, offering reflection questions, prayers, and suggestions. Desert spirituality doesn't mean going it alone; it means finding companions to walk with us. With their ordinary longings and extraordinary commitments, the desert elders can lead us toward peace, spiritual growth, and intimacy with God.

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Lisa Colón DeLay is the author of The Wild Land Within and has an MA in spiritual formation. She writes, teaches, and creates products and resources related to spiritual formation. Since 2015, she has hosted Spark My Muse, a top-rated religion and spirituality podcast with guests such as Krista Tippett, James Martin, Parker J. Palmer, Mark Nepo, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seth Godin, and Ibram Kendi. DeLay grew up in Pittsburgh, having left her native country of Puerto Rico, and now resides near the Appalachian Trail in a small town in Pennsylvania. Cynthia Farrell is a narrator, musical theater singer, and voice-over actor in English and in Spanish: her mother is part Spanish/Costa Rican. She has enjoyed narrating in the young adult, as well as sci-fi, crime drama, romance, Christian, children's, and nonfiction genres. She feels that her strong definition of character, musicality within the text, diction, and tone stem from from her work as a theater singer. She lives with her daughters in Manhattan.

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