YOU SHOULD NOT SEE THE DESERT SIMPLY AS SOME FARAWAY PLACE OF LITTLE RAIN. THERE ARE MANY FORMS OF THIRST.

WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE

Vast horizons, heat and distance, aridity and dryness. The feeling of littleness in such a vast landscape and the life that is present; plants and animals, have a tenacious hold seeking moisture whenever it is present. A strong instinct for survival of this life where inner resources are rich and often all there is; some of vulnerability and humility in the vast terrain and landscape surrounding them. The resourcefulness of the people who inhabit and live here in these places is simple. Leaving behind TV, radio, newspapers to go into the great silence. The need to fall back on God and providence in a new way is so foreign to many.

The desert looms large in both the Old and New Testaments. It’s the place where God’s demands are encountered, where limits are tested and re-defined, where punishment is given and where an identity can be made and brought to life. The desert is a spiritual experience as well as a physical one. Many people spend their lives in a spiritual desert, feeling dry and devoid of a sense of God’s presence. Consolation in prayer seems to have gone, however, we may seek understanding in a parched inner land, thirsting for some signs of God’s reassuring presence.

Some of the people encountered in the day to day work of the Society are potentially in the desert. Not necessarily by choice but they have that strong instinct for survival and are holding on tight. They are seeing resources available to them for survival, hoping for the time when they no longer need the assistance of the Society but are able to find their way out of the desert into fertile lands. Even in the driest of situations, there is hope, inner strength and resilience that makes survival easier even in the toughest of times.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

What do you find in your desert?

How are the people you encounter in your good works fighting for survival in their ‘desert’?

From: Firewood for the soul, vol. 1, A Reflexion Book for the Whole Vincentian Family
St. Vincent de Paul Society, Queensland, Australia.
Text by: Samantha Hill.