Transcript of the Video Above

Daily reflections for Lenten Easter, written by Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI.

In her biography, The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day shares how shortly after her conversion to Catholicism, she went through a painful desert time. Her prayer at the time was wrenching, naked. She describes how she laid bare her helplessness, spilling out her confusion, her doubts, her fears, and her temptations to bitterness and despair.

In essence, she said to God, “I have given up everything that ever supported me in trust to you. I have nothing left. You need to do something for me soon. I can’t keep this up much longer.” She was, biblically speaking, in the desert, alone without support, helpless before a chaos that threatened to overwhelm her.
And as was the case with Jesus, both in the desert and in Gethsemane, God sent angels to minister to her. God steadied her in the chaos.

She returned to New York, and that night as she walked up to her apartment, she saw a man sitting there. His name was Peter Maurin. Together, they started the Catholic Worker. We should not be surprised that her prayer had such a tangible result.

The desert, scripture assures us, is the place where God is especially near. In the desert, we are exposed, made vulnerable to be overwhelmed by chaos and temptations of every kind. But because we are so stripped of everything we normally rely on, this is also a privileged moment for grace.

Why? Because when we are helpless, we are open. That is why the desert is both the place of chaos and the place of God’s closeness.