Ever feel like you are being driven into the 'desert?'

Lent having rolled around again, it's time I start blogging again. The last post was during Lent of 2014.  Where did the year go!!??

I am currently at our lovely monastery in Tucson, AZ.

Front of our monastery and bell tower on chapel

view of Catalina Mountains from the roof deck

We usually host a Come and See weekend in February (which we just finished) and it doesn't take much arm-twisting to get me to spend a few winter days in the Southwest.  When I left Clyde, MO last Thursday it was 2 degrees.  When I stepped off the plane at the Tucson airport it was 75 degrees.

two degrees...seventy-five degrees...which would you choose?

I actually like winter and snow so I CAN enjoy either temperature.

The Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Lent is the bare bones account from the 1st chapter of Mark of Jesus being driven by the Spirit into the desert.  I felt 'driven' by the Spirit to consider a religious vocation all those years ago.  Actually, it was more like the Spirit 'haunting' me than 'driving' me.  But in either case, when one starts to discern a religious vocation, it does feel like you are now in the desert.

It is unfamiliar territory...landmarks are fewer and far between...there is a thirsting for answers but they can be hard to find, just like water in the desert.

Satan can be hanging around also, tempting the poor hapless discerner.

"Don't waste your life on a religious vocation, you won't be very happy."

"You would be wasting your talents in a religious community.  You can do so much more good out in the world."

"You would be much happier married and can you really give up wanting to have children?"

These are all common thoughts that might zoom across our gray matter when we start thinking about a (gulp) religious vocation.  However, all is not lost.  Just as angels ministered to Jesus in the desert, 'angels' appear on the scene to help us.  Angels can appear in the form of a spiritual director, just the right book at the right time or perhaps hearing just the right homily at the right time. Look around for those angels in those times of doubt and confusion.  They might be hanging around the next cactus in your desert...