The desert as spiritual director. What happens to people as they spend time in the desert? Jesus’ wilderness time empowered his ministry. Desert continues to work its miracles today.
We note that in our Hebraic scripture tradition, God is known as calling people out of slavery into a lifetime (40 years) in the wilderness. It is from a life lived in the wilderness that the lessons of desert wisdom have been learned, honed, ritualized, celebrated, repeated and taught.
We also note that at Jesus’ commissioning, identified as beloved
offspring, well pleasing to God, he was driven by the Spirit for 40 days
in the wilderness, with wild beasts and ministering angels. From there,
having learned the lessons of the desert for himself, Jesus commenced
his ministry. Throughout his life, wherever his identity and purpose are
shaken, Jesus returns to the lonely places to pray and re-enter his
ministry restored in energy and focus for his journey towards Jerusalem.
So today, what can we learn from a time of retreat and reflection in
the Australian Wilderness? What effect does the wilderness have on us
today?
In this practitioner’s paper, Anna will offer opportunity
for discussion about how these insights inform contemporary spirituality
and how the effect of the wilderness impacts on the practice of
spiritual direction.
Anna Killigrew is an Anglican priest and
chaplain to Koora Retreat Centre Inc, a desert-fringe base camp from
which to experience the wilderness and explore desert spirituality alone
and in community in Western Australia’s Boorabbin National Park. Anna
has recorded the responses of participants to the effect the wilderness
has on them here, their awakened awareness of what really brought them
here, and new understandings of themselves, their identity, purpose
energy, focus, their communities and their God that have blossomed in
the wilderness.
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