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# The wisdom of the desert
- URL: https://violet-wood.ghost.io/the-wisdom-of-the-desert/
- Published: 2026-09-05T16:16:01.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-05T16:16:01.000Z
- Author: Violet Wood
- Tags: Prayer

I wanted to pass on some insights on prayer that I have gained through reading Peter Tyler’s book Christian Mindfulness. These are based on his chapter 2 which is concerned with the spirituality of the Desert Fathers. 

Just as the early Christian pioneers went into the desert to find God, all of us will experience the desert at some point in our spiritual journey. 

There are two essential features of the Christian spiritual life which characterise prayer and are developed through the regular practice of prayer. The first is stability, which means ‘staying with.’ This is about how we respond to the passions / distractions / temptations that come upon us like a never-ending stream. We should not try to suppress them, or be discouraged by them, but rather stay with them in prayer until they are transformed and we are at peace. A counsel of perfection, perhaps, but this is the only way to make progress. In practice it means staying where you are and working through things rather than continually moving on to the next more exciting and seemingly more desirable situation.

The second is silence, which does not mean external silence, but rather the silence of the heart. This is a state of inner attentiveness to God which might be described as recollectedness or tranquillity. When you discover this state, you realise that it does not have to be confined to your time of formal prayer. Rather it is portable. You can carry it around inside you so that it becomes an integral part of your response to any situation.

Against that background, we can consider the two axes of Christian prayer, or Christian meditation, which distinguish it from the single-pointed concentration of mindfulness in its secular understanding. The vertical axis is the longing of the soul for God. In our prayer we open ourselves to God, we invite God to be present with us, we ask God to fill the emptiness of our heart, we seek union with the divine life. 

But this is not enough on its own. The horizontal axis is an inevitable and necessary consequence and is the only sign that our prayer is true. This is the development of compassion or loving kindness for our fellow human beings. We can bear their concerns in our heart, raising them to God in silent intercession. And we can act towards them for good, sharing their burdens, bringing them joy, simply making the world a better place.

Seen in this light, our mind and heart come together as we journey towards the integrated personality and fullness of being that is our human destiny.