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Science and the Myth of Progress
Treasures of the World's Religions
Ernest Thompson Seton explains "The Gospel of the Redman"
Spiritual Masters - East & West Series
Noble Faces, Strong Voices: Exploring "The Spirit of Indian Women"
What is Sacred Art?
The Sacred Worlds Series
Paul Goble's World: Native Americans' relationship to all created beings
A Definition of the Perennial Philosophy
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  Insights into the early Christian Desert Fathers and Mothers Back to the List of Slideshows
The Grand Canyon,
Arizona, USA

Deserts everywhere can convey the same message
as the particular one
in which the early
Christian elders lived:
"A powerful symbol of the inner space, where we yearn for God," as explained by Rev. Chryssavgis.
    
slide 4 of 15

The author explores the reasons for these early Christian seekers to turn to the desert:
Why did these elders choose the desert in the first place? What was the significance of the desert? What is the power of its suggestion?

“Desert” (eremos) literally means “abandonment”; it is the term from which we derive the word “hermit”.The desert signified death: nothing grows in the desert. Your very existence is, therefore, threatened. In the desert you will find no one and no thing. In the desert, you can only face up to yourself and to every aspect of your self, to your temptations, and to your reality. You confront your own heart, and your heart’s deepest desires, without any scapegoat, without any hiding place.After all, you cannot hide in the desert; there is no room for lying or deceit there. Your very self is reflected in the dry desert, and you are obliged to face up to this self.The desert is a place of spiritual revolution, not of personal retreat. It is a place of inner protest, not outward peace. It is a place of deep encounter, not of superficial escape. It is a place of repentance, not recuperation. Living in the desert does not mean living without people; it means living for God. Antony and the other desert dwellers never forgot this.
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