Customer Reviews

Listen to the Desert: Secrets of Spiritual Maturity from the Desert Fathers and Mothers

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I have read and re-read this book many times and it always amazes me the gems of wisdom that it contains. Gregory Mayers presents a simple path to contemplative practice that has enriched my religious and daily life significantly. The wisdom of the desert fathers is profound in its applications to modern life and especially to modern religions.

This short work is an excellent introduction to issues in modern spirituality, drawing upon the teachings of early Christian mystics who lived during the 4th century for answers. The author explains some of stories told of these early teachers and their students, in the light of modern psychology. The book also suggests how modern institutional religions may be missing the mark when their practice is based on fundamentalism, authoritarianism, and distrust of individual conscience. The alternatives suggested by the author are both rooted in tradition and modern thought, and provide a refreshing new look at Christian spirituality.

An excellent work! Gregory Mayers weds the wisdom of the desert to contemporary depth psychology and achieves genuine insight into the process and reality of contemplative practice and living. One comes away understanding some of the depth of wisdom contained in the sayings of the desert Abbas and Ammas selected, and just how contemporary it is as well. This is not a matter of psychobabble, but a sophistiocated understanding of what monastic life calls the true vs the false self, the drama and psychology of object relations, the need and struggle to let go of an ego-self, etc. It is true that this is not the book for someone who wants a superficial introduction to the piety of the desert Fathers, or who needs the profound linkages between the sayings and the underlying psychology spelled out in detail. Despite what it says on the back cover, it is better suited, perhaps, to those who have spent time meditatively with these sayings, appreciate their wisdom on a first-hand basis, and now wish to understand the psychology of the matter a little better. Like most things which are really simple (instead of merely simplistic), the sayings serve as doorways to a reality which is really complex and/or mysterious (too big to comprehend all at once). Look for something like John Chryssavgis', In the Heart of the Desert or, Waddell's The Desert Fathers, or, as another commentor mentioned, Merton's, The Wisdom of the Desert, if you desire something with more implicit psychological dimensions and more traditional spiritual language. On the other hand, use this as an intro if you are going to delve further into the psychological dimensions of contemplative life.

Mayers takes the essentially simple sayings of the desert fathers and mothers and goes off on psychological tangents that often seem to have little to do with the sayings themselves. I took little away from the psychological essays that I felt could help to deepen my spirituality. A better way to approach these sayings is to read them as presented by Thomas Merton in The Wisdom of the Desert and let the sayings alone speak as meditations to your heart.