Desert

Great chocolate desert at St John's. I mean dessert. But obviously someone messed up with those spellings.

Today we had David Runcorn talking to us about deserts. Which are more theologically sound than desserts. In fact, something we mentioned was that sometimes God cuts down on our food so that we will learn to find it ourselves. Spiritually, of course.

Also, Deers panting for water can detect it up to 6 miles away. Or they die. (There are deer in the park next to the Travelodge. They are calving at the moment, which means dogs are banned. So I had a wonderful dog-free run around the lake this morning. I guess deers don't pant if there's a big lake around. )

Water takes on a special significance in the desert. We came to St John's almost 12 years ago and met George Bebawi, one of the tutors, who was from Egypt and knowledgeable about deserts and spirituality. We were all in floods of tears, and he was the first person i heard use the phrase, the gift of Tears: in the Eastern tradition it's like the gift of tongues in the West. (Greg Nanz, Ephraim the Syrian, John Climacus, isaac the Syrian and others who I never heard of were into this. )
They say tears are a continuation of our baptism, or baptism of the Spirit.


According to some greek word in Mark (peristeran), the Holy Spirit dove is actually a wiry wood pigeon that lives in the wilderness. Coincidentally I took a picture of some doves this afternoon.

Mark 1:
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Location:Desert