Father Brad Karelius’s vocational path did not protect him from the trials and tragedies inherent in human life. When his teenaged son began suffering from seizures, the Episcopal parish priest sought strength and solace in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada’s Owens Valley. The primitive, ancient beauty of the desert provided Father Karelius with a sense of connection to God that his work in an Orange County Latino barrio could not. Over the years, he has made regular pilgrimages to the area, and in The Spirit in the Desert he invites readers to follow suit. While he acknowledges that different people may seek peace and serenity in different places—by the ocean, during a walk in the rain—Karelius’s deeply personal guidance through his beloved desert makes for an earnest spiritual travelogue.
The Spirit in the Desert
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About the Author
Father Brad Karelius has served as a parish priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles since 1971. Currently, he is a pastor in Santa Ana’s Logan Barrio, an immigrant community. For the past thirty-five years, he has also taught philosophy and world religions at Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo. By focusing on Native American spirituality, he is able to illustrate the universality of mystical encounters with the holy and sacred across world religions. He and his wife, Janice, a nurse practitioner, have two children and live in Laguna Niguel, California.
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Father Brad Karelius has been an Episcopal priest since 1971 in the Diocese of Los Angeles, currently pastor of Messiah Parish, a multi-cultural congregation located in the Logan Barrio in central Orange County, CA. He founded "Hands Together--a Center for Children", providing high quality early childhood education to the poorest children in Santa Ana. A new center currently serves homeless mothers and children. Net proceeds from the sale of "The Spirit in the Desert" go directly to support Hands Together. Fr. Brad has been Associate Professor for philosophy and world religions at Saddleback Community College, since 1973. For many years he has researched and taught Native American spirituality, and this knowledge is integrated in The Spirit in the Desert. Fr. Brad is married to Janice Karelius, a Family Nurse Practitioner doing Emergency Medicine, and they have two adult children. His memberships include: American Philosophical Association, Nevada Archaeological Association, California Cattlemen's Assocation, Association for African and Middle Eastern Studies, and Western Writers of America. Currently working on "Spirit in the Desert II: Encounters with the Sacred on Highway 395." Sites reflective of the different world religions will be identified along Highway 395 in Eastern California.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Brad karelius is an Episcopal Priest with a calling. His pastoral call is to a church in Santa Ana, but his true calling is to the desert, specifically the Owens Valley. After years of ministering to a growing and diverse congregation in urban Santa Ana, all while taking care of his son who contracted encephalitus at an early age and struggles with regular seizures, Fr. Brad found himself called to the desert to experience a renewal of faith and God. Initially his journey met with some skepticism (one parisioner recommended that he carry a revolver) but as time went on his pilgrimages attracted more than curiosity. Those who knew him found Fr. Brad changed and wanted to experience this sort of retreat for themselves. This book is an attempt to share his experiences.
The fathers (and mothers) of the early church often retreated to the desert to form the first monastic communities. The stark and barren landscape heightens the senses and can jolt one out of the everyday world into a state of awareness where one sees through opposites to unity and wholes. This awareness is the basis of virtually all mystical traditions in every religion, but is especially prominent among the early Christian monastics. The desert, for Fr. Brad, is a place where, even without thinking about it, one engages in continuous prayer. Just as the prophet Elijah meets God in a cave in the desert, so Fr. Brad, at the mouth of a cave, finds himself fully accepted by God.
This book is divided into multiple chapters, each of which features a particular location in the southern Owens Valley. Each area is lovingly described, includes a description of the physical geography of the region, and often describes the Native American settlements in the area. Karelius rightly recognizes the pinyon nut as the center of the culture for these people (Paiutes), just as the buffalo was for the plains Indians. Indeed, one could read this book almost exclusively for the natural and local history and appreciate it.
For many readers, however, the highlight of the book will be Fr. Brad's internal reflections on the "sacred" sites he visits. Topics one might not expect from a "spiritual" pilgrimage are discussed at length, including the recent revelations of molestation by priests, and the all too frightening comparisons between the American concentration camp of Manzanar and the German camp at Buchenwald. But regardless of the topic or the locale, readers will always find Fr. Brad reflective and insightful.
Inspirational pictures which are found with some profusion at many Christian bookstores rarely feature desert scenes. Oceans, mountains and towering trees seem for many to point to the majesty of God. Still others experience their spirituality in towering cathedrals. But the desert offers a lasting, and in many ways, deeper experience of the divine. Its apparently harsh exterior invites those who live in it to find both beauty and divinity in a place many would not think to look. But the desert, and God, calls us out of our civilized life and this book offers a map of where to go. It comes highly recommended.
Fritz Ward, Dec 2009.
I could not think of how to work this into the review, but readers who are fascinated by the Owens Valley should also look for Mary Austin's classic, The Land of Little Rain. It is a nice supplement to this volume.
The fathers (and mothers) of the early church often retreated to the desert to form the first monastic communities. The stark and barren landscape heightens the senses and can jolt one out of the everyday world into a state of awareness where one sees through opposites to unity and wholes. This awareness is the basis of virtually all mystical traditions in every religion, but is especially prominent among the early Christian monastics. The desert, for Fr. Brad, is a place where, even without thinking about it, one engages in continuous prayer. Just as the prophet Elijah meets God in a cave in the desert, so Fr. Brad, at the mouth of a cave, finds himself fully accepted by God.
This book is divided into multiple chapters, each of which features a particular location in the southern Owens Valley. Each area is lovingly described, includes a description of the physical geography of the region, and often describes the Native American settlements in the area. Karelius rightly recognizes the pinyon nut as the center of the culture for these people (Paiutes), just as the buffalo was for the plains Indians. Indeed, one could read this book almost exclusively for the natural and local history and appreciate it.
For many readers, however, the highlight of the book will be Fr. Brad's internal reflections on the "sacred" sites he visits. Topics one might not expect from a "spiritual" pilgrimage are discussed at length, including the recent revelations of molestation by priests, and the all too frightening comparisons between the American concentration camp of Manzanar and the German camp at Buchenwald. But regardless of the topic or the locale, readers will always find Fr. Brad reflective and insightful.
Inspirational pictures which are found with some profusion at many Christian bookstores rarely feature desert scenes. Oceans, mountains and towering trees seem for many to point to the majesty of God. Still others experience their spirituality in towering cathedrals. But the desert offers a lasting, and in many ways, deeper experience of the divine. Its apparently harsh exterior invites those who live in it to find both beauty and divinity in a place many would not think to look. But the desert, and God, calls us out of our civilized life and this book offers a map of where to go. It comes highly recommended.
Fritz Ward, Dec 2009.
I could not think of how to work this into the review, but readers who are fascinated by the Owens Valley should also look for Mary Austin's classic, The Land of Little Rain. It is a nice supplement to this volume.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This 2009, 145-page book is a spiritual journey through meditative walks in the California desert. Through an appreciation of the history of the land and the people who lived there, our author touches God in humbling prayer and feels the struggle of the people who once lived in these sights.
The author, Brad Karelius, is an Episcopal priest in Los Angeles and a member of the Nevada Archeological Society. He takes you on a journey to various sites in the Owens Valley, traveling through the desert and often along Highway 395. He will drive as far as he can, then get out of the car and proceed on foot the rest of the way.
With maps from the U.S. Geological Survey in California for the journeys, Brad provides very specific instructions of exactly how to get to the points of interest. Once you get "there," he provides a history lesson. The book also has photos (some by the author and some from museums and libraries) to help you join in the history lesson.
He tells us about the Japanese Internment Camp "Manzanar", where Japanese people were held captive during WWII by the U.S. Government, because they were deemed a threat (even the U.S. citizens who were Japanese). He speaks often of the Paiute Indians who lived in the Owens Valley and how they gathered and ate the pinyon pine nuts, grinding them into a paste for protein sustenance. He mentions the conversation he had with John Wayne many years ago when they met in Orange County at a J.C Penney store. He tells us how the silver mines made way for Los Angeles and about the old Wells Fargo stagecoach stops in now abandoned areas of the desert. (There is a lot more history than just this little bit I am providing.)
In his meditations with God, Brad takes us on journeys back in time, where we travel with the Paiute Indians to learn how they lived, to wooden marked burial sites, to Cerro Gordo, to the Sierra Nevada, to excavation digs, to the Lone Pine and Alabama Hills area where movies are still made, etc. etc. etc. This book is not about rushing through an area to sight see, but about taking one's time to walk through a piece of history, stopping to smell the roses, so to speak, one at a time.
You can use this book as a walking guide to tour the sites yourself or you can view them through the eyes of our author. (Since I'm not a hiker, I will view them through the author's knowledgeable eyes.) BUT, if you ARE a hiker, Brad gives you very specific instructions so you don't miss anything.
The author, Brad Karelius, is an Episcopal priest in Los Angeles and a member of the Nevada Archeological Society. He takes you on a journey to various sites in the Owens Valley, traveling through the desert and often along Highway 395. He will drive as far as he can, then get out of the car and proceed on foot the rest of the way.
With maps from the U.S. Geological Survey in California for the journeys, Brad provides very specific instructions of exactly how to get to the points of interest. Once you get "there," he provides a history lesson. The book also has photos (some by the author and some from museums and libraries) to help you join in the history lesson.
He tells us about the Japanese Internment Camp "Manzanar", where Japanese people were held captive during WWII by the U.S. Government, because they were deemed a threat (even the U.S. citizens who were Japanese). He speaks often of the Paiute Indians who lived in the Owens Valley and how they gathered and ate the pinyon pine nuts, grinding them into a paste for protein sustenance. He mentions the conversation he had with John Wayne many years ago when they met in Orange County at a J.C Penney store. He tells us how the silver mines made way for Los Angeles and about the old Wells Fargo stagecoach stops in now abandoned areas of the desert. (There is a lot more history than just this little bit I am providing.)
In his meditations with God, Brad takes us on journeys back in time, where we travel with the Paiute Indians to learn how they lived, to wooden marked burial sites, to Cerro Gordo, to the Sierra Nevada, to excavation digs, to the Lone Pine and Alabama Hills area where movies are still made, etc. etc. etc. This book is not about rushing through an area to sight see, but about taking one's time to walk through a piece of history, stopping to smell the roses, so to speak, one at a time.
You can use this book as a walking guide to tour the sites yourself or you can view them through the eyes of our author. (Since I'm not a hiker, I will view them through the author's knowledgeable eyes.) BUT, if you ARE a hiker, Brad gives you very specific instructions so you don't miss anything.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Spirit in the Desert" is an outstanding and detailed guide book, but it is so much more as well; it's a journey inward as Father Karelius takes us to the places of serenity where we can hear God's voice with the most clarity. It is interspersed with personal reflections, on his life as Rector of the Messiah Parish in Santa Ana, California, and of his son Erik, the recipient of so much love and special care.
Some of the hikes described are quite arduous, and some more tailored for the less experienced like me, who would most likely start with the lovely walk by George Creek (Sacred Site VII) and the Sagebrush Ocean (Sacred Site X). All 11 of the sites in this book are off of Highway 395 in the Owens Valley, where the Paiute lived hundreds of years ago, and more recently, have been seen in several Western and other genre films. There is even a chapter about a chance meeting with John Wayne, at a mall.
There is a moving chapter on Manzanar (VIII), one of the 10 concentration camps used to "evacuate" Japanese-Americans during WWII. As the author writes, "...it was an evil spirit that inspired the creation of the concentration camp at Manzanar and that same spirit continues to feed and inspire revisionist history and denial today." This was a dark event in our past, and one that we can hope will never be repeated; by visiting this site, we make sure we never forget.
Every chapter starts with a detailed map, and is scattered throughout with black and white photos, some taken recently by the author, and some of vintage era. The c.1930 one of "Pine Nut Gathering" is my very favorite.
If you live nearby within driving distance, or in a faraway land, "The Spirit in the Desert" will inspire you to see these sacred sites, that are some of California's lesser known wonders. Make sure your boots and hat are good for the journey, take lots of water, and don't forget a copy of this marvelous book, which gives you an almost step by step guide in what to look for in the immense beauty of the high desert.
Some of the hikes described are quite arduous, and some more tailored for the less experienced like me, who would most likely start with the lovely walk by George Creek (Sacred Site VII) and the Sagebrush Ocean (Sacred Site X). All 11 of the sites in this book are off of Highway 395 in the Owens Valley, where the Paiute lived hundreds of years ago, and more recently, have been seen in several Western and other genre films. There is even a chapter about a chance meeting with John Wayne, at a mall.
There is a moving chapter on Manzanar (VIII), one of the 10 concentration camps used to "evacuate" Japanese-Americans during WWII. As the author writes, "...it was an evil spirit that inspired the creation of the concentration camp at Manzanar and that same spirit continues to feed and inspire revisionist history and denial today." This was a dark event in our past, and one that we can hope will never be repeated; by visiting this site, we make sure we never forget.
Every chapter starts with a detailed map, and is scattered throughout with black and white photos, some taken recently by the author, and some of vintage era. The c.1930 one of "Pine Nut Gathering" is my very favorite.
If you live nearby within driving distance, or in a faraway land, "The Spirit in the Desert" will inspire you to see these sacred sites, that are some of California's lesser known wonders. Make sure your boots and hat are good for the journey, take lots of water, and don't forget a copy of this marvelous book, which gives you an almost step by step guide in what to look for in the immense beauty of the high desert.
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