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Letters from the Desert
Letters from the Desert [Paperback] [Sep 01, 2002] Carretto, Carlo; Hancock, ...
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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November 8, 2017
“We often fail to realize the depth of evil, terrifying as it is. I am not speaking only of the selfishness of the wealthy, heaping up riches for themselves, or of those who sacrifice to achieve their self-selected goals. Or of the dictator who breathes in the incense due only to God. I am speaking of the selfishness of good people, devout people, those who have succeeded through spiritual exercises and self-denial in being able to make the proud profession before the altar of the Most High, “Lord, I am not like the rest of men.” Yes, we have had the audacity at certain times of our lives to believe we are different from other men. And here is the deepest form of self-deception, dictated by self-centeredness at its worst: spiritual egotism. This most insidious form of egotism even uses piety and prayer for its own gain.”
November 2, 2022
Autobiographical account of Carlo Carretto's decision to join desert hermitage founded by Charles de Foucauld. Brief background of his early life and letters he wrote (mostly to his sisters) from the desert. Can be read on-line here. It's a very short work with profound insights.
Updated November 2, 2022, for expired link.
Updated November 2, 2022, for expired link.
May 21, 2012
When Carretto gave up a successful career as a leader of the Catholic Action Organization, work that involved “a high-powered life full of meetings and travel”, he did so to join a religious order about which he knew little. From that successful career he entered a life of poverty and prayer, living and working alongside people of the Saharan tribes. As he puts it himself, he answered a call to:
“Come with me into the desert.” There is something much greater than human action: prayer; and it has a power much stronger than the words of men: love.
And I went into the desert.”
The book is relatively brief, 146 pages of quite large type, but within that space he manages to contain writing of the highest quality. He describes his book as:
“Nothing systematic, nothing important. A few ideas matured in solitude and taking shape around an activity which has been, without any doubt, the greatest gift that the Sahara has given me: prayer.”
In one sense Carretto sums up his own book beautifully. In the best sense it is simple, there is no complexity of vocabulary or style. He builds brief, meditative chapters around single incidents or images from his life, from the lives of the people who he lives alongside - desert tribes’ people or other Little Brothers -, from scripture and from the life of the founder of the Brothers, Charles de Foucauld. Each is an incident or image which, in Carretto’s own words:
“…leave a permanent mark on us.”
He narrates/describes these with compressed, vivid clarity and draws from them profound and beautiful reflections.
If the scope of the book ended there, it might be an interesting read that revealed a spirituality appropriate to a desert dwelling hermit, but which might have little relevance to those of us who live a ‘normal’ life (whatever they may be) in the ‘real’ world. However, Carretto, like all the great Desert Fathers before him, uses his life in the desert to reveal and illuminate a spiritual journey and realities that are relevant to all people of faith.
His chapters provide a helpful map for the journey into the inner wilderness, towards the goal of unconditional love of God and of others, by means of contemplation and prayer. He does this with gentle encouragement & advice, and always through the perspective of God’s love for all; but it is distinctly not a “10 easy Steps to Desert Spirituality”. He never ducks out of making clear the arduous, demanding nature of the journey, and the fact that in the end it will require the giving of all of self in a relationship of love.
In pursuing this journey, Carretto speaks from a position of loving commitment to his own tradition. However, his understanding of the love of God is that it overflows all boundaries that we may perceive. He describes beautifully & movingly his encounter with Abdaraman, an eight year old Muslim boy, who weeps for him, because he has been told that Carretto will go to hell because he is not a Muslim. He reflects thus:
“Poor little Abdaraman! You, too, are a victim of fanaticism, the stormy zeal of religious people, the so-called ‘men of God’, who would send half the human race to hell, just because you are not ‘one of us’. How can the thread of love which links brothers be broken by an alleged purity of faith, or that religion, instead of being a bridge of union, should become a trench of death, or at least of unconfessed hate? We’re best off without it, this religion which divides us. Best to fumble around in the dark, than to possess a light like that!”
One of the great joys of this book is that Carretto provides a positive antidote to such a toxic faith, whatever its brand name.
It’s a book that may be finished, but never one that can be finished with. Carretto’s guidance and companionship is far too valuable to be dispensed with.
“Come with me into the desert.” There is something much greater than human action: prayer; and it has a power much stronger than the words of men: love.
And I went into the desert.”
The book is relatively brief, 146 pages of quite large type, but within that space he manages to contain writing of the highest quality. He describes his book as:
“Nothing systematic, nothing important. A few ideas matured in solitude and taking shape around an activity which has been, without any doubt, the greatest gift that the Sahara has given me: prayer.”
In one sense Carretto sums up his own book beautifully. In the best sense it is simple, there is no complexity of vocabulary or style. He builds brief, meditative chapters around single incidents or images from his life, from the lives of the people who he lives alongside - desert tribes’ people or other Little Brothers -, from scripture and from the life of the founder of the Brothers, Charles de Foucauld. Each is an incident or image which, in Carretto’s own words:
“…leave a permanent mark on us.”
He narrates/describes these with compressed, vivid clarity and draws from them profound and beautiful reflections.
If the scope of the book ended there, it might be an interesting read that revealed a spirituality appropriate to a desert dwelling hermit, but which might have little relevance to those of us who live a ‘normal’ life (whatever they may be) in the ‘real’ world. However, Carretto, like all the great Desert Fathers before him, uses his life in the desert to reveal and illuminate a spiritual journey and realities that are relevant to all people of faith.
His chapters provide a helpful map for the journey into the inner wilderness, towards the goal of unconditional love of God and of others, by means of contemplation and prayer. He does this with gentle encouragement & advice, and always through the perspective of God’s love for all; but it is distinctly not a “10 easy Steps to Desert Spirituality”. He never ducks out of making clear the arduous, demanding nature of the journey, and the fact that in the end it will require the giving of all of self in a relationship of love.
In pursuing this journey, Carretto speaks from a position of loving commitment to his own tradition. However, his understanding of the love of God is that it overflows all boundaries that we may perceive. He describes beautifully & movingly his encounter with Abdaraman, an eight year old Muslim boy, who weeps for him, because he has been told that Carretto will go to hell because he is not a Muslim. He reflects thus:
“Poor little Abdaraman! You, too, are a victim of fanaticism, the stormy zeal of religious people, the so-called ‘men of God’, who would send half the human race to hell, just because you are not ‘one of us’. How can the thread of love which links brothers be broken by an alleged purity of faith, or that religion, instead of being a bridge of union, should become a trench of death, or at least of unconfessed hate? We’re best off without it, this religion which divides us. Best to fumble around in the dark, than to possess a light like that!”
One of the great joys of this book is that Carretto provides a positive antidote to such a toxic faith, whatever its brand name.
It’s a book that may be finished, but never one that can be finished with. Carretto’s guidance and companionship is far too valuable to be dispensed with.
January 2, 2014
In a day and age where following Christ has been brought down to wealth, health and a membership to all the Bless ME clubs...this book is worlds apart. Mr. Carretto has the gift of taking deep...penetrating truths...and translating them into an easily understandable read....that will change the heart and mind of any life who's sincerely hungry for a more intimate life with the Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Carretto allowed Christ to strip him of a life of selfish...self serving, self seeking ways...and as he surrendered his all to the Master...he shares how Christ gave him back so much more than he'd ever had.
True oneness with God. The reality of how genuine their relationship was...is all through this book.
I cannot say enough good things about this book.....just buy it...read it and be prepared to have your foundation rocked...if that's what you're looking for....if anything at all is propping you up...anything at all...money...prominence...vanity or society....even one's own vices...get ready to make some changes...
If change is not what you're looking for...you better pass on this one....I cannot imagine one reading this...and staying the same.
True oneness with God. The reality of how genuine their relationship was...is all through this book.
I cannot say enough good things about this book.....just buy it...read it and be prepared to have your foundation rocked...if that's what you're looking for....if anything at all is propping you up...anything at all...money...prominence...vanity or society....even one's own vices...get ready to make some changes...
If change is not what you're looking for...you better pass on this one....I cannot imagine one reading this...and staying the same.
January 11, 2019
Short. Profound. Challenging. I can see why it's a classic.
September 22, 2023
oh my god the desert makes people insane
November 2, 2022
This is quite a short book about a man seeking/learning about prayer. The author clearly has a very strong faith and his belief in prayer as the way to know God and to know your fellow man is thoughtfully expressed.
It has given he lots to think about.
It has given he lots to think about.
July 7, 2024
I’ve been a fan of Carlo Carretto for many years, though I’d only read two of his books. This is my third and the first one he wrote. A schoolteacher and leader of the Italian youth movement of Catholic Action for twenty years, he heard God call him to “leave everything and come with Me into the desert. It is not your acts and deeds that I want: I want your prayer, your love.” So, he went and joined the Little Brothers of Jesus in El Abiodh, a remote oasis in the Saharan desert of Algeria in 1954. From there he wrote the letters that were printed in this book in 1964.
I know little about his impact as a Catholic activist but, it appears to me that God used him well as a writer. It is curious to the people around men and women like Carretto who leave an active leadership to go into the desert, to stop doing good and retreat into the wilderness, to move from the “front page” and disappear. But God knows what He’s doing, and, in the desert, God has your complete attention.
There are things one can only learn in the desert. Jesus started His ministry in the desert. We don’t know what He learned, but at the end of His stay, He had resisted temptation. If one can learn that, it is all one needs.
Carretto learns the centrality of love, to everything: God slowly – He is bound by our laziness – transforms us by His love into love, by which we’ll be judged. Carretto is told that he must strip his prayers, simplify them, deintellectualize them. He must become a poor man, begging for Christ. It is impossible to reach God with our understanding. We can reach God with love.
He discovered that he was nothing. But it is out of nothing that God created the beauty and expanse of the universe. We can do nothing on our own, but God can defeat darkness with that. The author reminds us of what St. Ignatius said: “Act as though everything depended upon you. But pray as though everything depended upon God.” And wonder that God uses the insignificant, the worthless, the no ones, to build a Kingdom that will never end. What we are to contribute is love.
Carretto has much to say about prayer. It is in prayer that we are drawn closer to God, that our faith is built up, that our hope is fulfilled, and that love is generated. “We are what we pray. … And since prayer is the relationship between one particular person and God, it is different for everyone. So, no prayer is exactly like another. Prayer is a word of infinite variety.” And because prayer is this relationship with God, we share God’s life with Him. This is the marriage of the Lamb with the church – we are the church.
In marriage, the two make themselves fully known to each other, although this can never be completed; there is always more to be known, there is always mystery left to be solved. In marriage with God, this mystery deepens infinitely. For the natural to be wed to the supernatural, even though the supernatural created the natural, is beyond impossible. But nothing is impossible for God, yet it is untranslatable into human language. Therefore, “those who feel God most deeply can say least about Him.”
Prayer is a gift, groanings of the Holy Spirit too deep for words (Rom.8:26). So for our part, “prayer is more passive than active; it requires more silence than words, more adoration than study, more concentration than rushing about, more faith than reason.” Words have limits, but silence is limitless.
Contrary to Meister Eckhart’s belief that intellect is the connection to God because God is intellect, Carretto insists the connection is love. He believes, and I tend to agree with him, that if it required intelligence to find God, it would be most unfair to the little ones, the poor, the uneducated. Instead, God ensured that all could have equal access to Him, all could find revelation, in the faculty we can all share, love. “This is the highest state of prayer: to be children in God’s arms, silent, loving, rejoicing.”
But not everyone is called into a literal wilderness, nor are most called to remain in the desert. Carretto says that he was called to the actual desert because he was so “thick-skinned” and God needed his full attention. Eventually, we are called to bring our contemplation into the streets. One should always make some desert in his/her life. He suggests, “One hour a day, one day a month, eight days a year, for longer if necessary, you must leave everything and everybody and retire, alone with God.” And then return among people, “mix with them, live your intimacy with God in the noise of their cities.”
Now comes the conundrum: love that leads to sentimentalism. I see this more and more and experience it as well. It is really a love that becomes an idol. Just as one should not worship the creation above the Creator, one should not worship one of God’s attributes above God. In Carretto’s love for a Muslim boy, he implies that the boy will go to heaven, regardless of belief. He tells the boy, “God is good and will save both of us. He will save your father, too, and we shall all go to heaven.” This is a sweet sentiment and, certainly, God can rescue them before it is too late. But what he says next to the boy is what is misleading, and not loving in the long run. “Don’t believe that just because I am a Christian I shall go to hell, as I don’t believe you’ll go there just because you’re a Muslim.”
His reasoning is faulty and sentimental, and I am surprised by it. I did not get any sense of this from his later books. Perhaps he amended his thoughts. But this reasoning is prevalent in the letters and harder and harder to get around. “You, too, are a victim of fanaticism, the stormy zeal of religious people, the so-called ‘men of God,’ who would send half the human race to hell, just because they are not ‘one of us.’ How can the thread of love which links me to a brother be broken by an alleged purity of faith, or that religion, instead of being a bridge of union, should become a trench of death, or at least of unconfessed hate? We’re best off without it, this religion which divided us. Best to fumble around in the dark, than to possess a light like that!”
I was shocked to hear this from a man I revered. As I said, I hear this a lot, and I myself am drawn to it. No one wants to think a loved one may go to hell. But is giving false hope loving? Jesus is the Light of the world – we are not to “fumble around in the dark.” Jesus is the zeal of the Lord (Jn.2:17), and no one comes to the Father except through Him (Jn.14:6). No one comes to the Father through Muhammed. Is the truth fanaticism? Certainly, it can be made an ugly thing, but the truth is still the truth. It is not “men of God” who send people to hell, it is people who deny God, the Truth.
I do not know who will be saved. I don’t know what happens at the moment of death. Perhaps Jesus stands at the threshold and pleads one more time for the individual’s soul. Given His deep love for each one of us, I would not be surprised, and hopefully, would not begrudge His doing so (see the parable of the farmer who hires workers at five different times over a day, Mt.20:1-16). But this kind of sentimentality is hard to get around. It is done, I believe, out of kindness, but it is done without thought. When someone believes God made them in a particular way, even though it goes against the teachings of Scripture, it is near impossible to separate the sinner from the sin. I see the problem. Unfortunately, I do not have a good answer. Or maybe I do. Prayer.
Lately, I have also learned that I can learn something from everyone, whether they are Christian or not. God uses everyone, whether they believe in Him or not. So even though I find this book flawed, there is much I have learned from it, and I would still recommend it. None of us is perfect, none of us is sinless, none of us knows the full truth, but each of us can search, and if we search honestly, God is faithful and just to give us the Truth.
One last word to those who say things like, “It doesn’t matter what you call God.” Remember that Allah and Buddha and Vishnu and Shiva, etc., did not have a son. To call God by any of those names is to deny Jesus as the Christ. At best He is reduced to merely a prophet. Names matter.
I know little about his impact as a Catholic activist but, it appears to me that God used him well as a writer. It is curious to the people around men and women like Carretto who leave an active leadership to go into the desert, to stop doing good and retreat into the wilderness, to move from the “front page” and disappear. But God knows what He’s doing, and, in the desert, God has your complete attention.
There are things one can only learn in the desert. Jesus started His ministry in the desert. We don’t know what He learned, but at the end of His stay, He had resisted temptation. If one can learn that, it is all one needs.
Carretto learns the centrality of love, to everything: God slowly – He is bound by our laziness – transforms us by His love into love, by which we’ll be judged. Carretto is told that he must strip his prayers, simplify them, deintellectualize them. He must become a poor man, begging for Christ. It is impossible to reach God with our understanding. We can reach God with love.
He discovered that he was nothing. But it is out of nothing that God created the beauty and expanse of the universe. We can do nothing on our own, but God can defeat darkness with that. The author reminds us of what St. Ignatius said: “Act as though everything depended upon you. But pray as though everything depended upon God.” And wonder that God uses the insignificant, the worthless, the no ones, to build a Kingdom that will never end. What we are to contribute is love.
Carretto has much to say about prayer. It is in prayer that we are drawn closer to God, that our faith is built up, that our hope is fulfilled, and that love is generated. “We are what we pray. … And since prayer is the relationship between one particular person and God, it is different for everyone. So, no prayer is exactly like another. Prayer is a word of infinite variety.” And because prayer is this relationship with God, we share God’s life with Him. This is the marriage of the Lamb with the church – we are the church.
In marriage, the two make themselves fully known to each other, although this can never be completed; there is always more to be known, there is always mystery left to be solved. In marriage with God, this mystery deepens infinitely. For the natural to be wed to the supernatural, even though the supernatural created the natural, is beyond impossible. But nothing is impossible for God, yet it is untranslatable into human language. Therefore, “those who feel God most deeply can say least about Him.”
Prayer is a gift, groanings of the Holy Spirit too deep for words (Rom.8:26). So for our part, “prayer is more passive than active; it requires more silence than words, more adoration than study, more concentration than rushing about, more faith than reason.” Words have limits, but silence is limitless.
Contrary to Meister Eckhart’s belief that intellect is the connection to God because God is intellect, Carretto insists the connection is love. He believes, and I tend to agree with him, that if it required intelligence to find God, it would be most unfair to the little ones, the poor, the uneducated. Instead, God ensured that all could have equal access to Him, all could find revelation, in the faculty we can all share, love. “This is the highest state of prayer: to be children in God’s arms, silent, loving, rejoicing.”
But not everyone is called into a literal wilderness, nor are most called to remain in the desert. Carretto says that he was called to the actual desert because he was so “thick-skinned” and God needed his full attention. Eventually, we are called to bring our contemplation into the streets. One should always make some desert in his/her life. He suggests, “One hour a day, one day a month, eight days a year, for longer if necessary, you must leave everything and everybody and retire, alone with God.” And then return among people, “mix with them, live your intimacy with God in the noise of their cities.”
Now comes the conundrum: love that leads to sentimentalism. I see this more and more and experience it as well. It is really a love that becomes an idol. Just as one should not worship the creation above the Creator, one should not worship one of God’s attributes above God. In Carretto’s love for a Muslim boy, he implies that the boy will go to heaven, regardless of belief. He tells the boy, “God is good and will save both of us. He will save your father, too, and we shall all go to heaven.” This is a sweet sentiment and, certainly, God can rescue them before it is too late. But what he says next to the boy is what is misleading, and not loving in the long run. “Don’t believe that just because I am a Christian I shall go to hell, as I don’t believe you’ll go there just because you’re a Muslim.”
His reasoning is faulty and sentimental, and I am surprised by it. I did not get any sense of this from his later books. Perhaps he amended his thoughts. But this reasoning is prevalent in the letters and harder and harder to get around. “You, too, are a victim of fanaticism, the stormy zeal of religious people, the so-called ‘men of God,’ who would send half the human race to hell, just because they are not ‘one of us.’ How can the thread of love which links me to a brother be broken by an alleged purity of faith, or that religion, instead of being a bridge of union, should become a trench of death, or at least of unconfessed hate? We’re best off without it, this religion which divided us. Best to fumble around in the dark, than to possess a light like that!”
I was shocked to hear this from a man I revered. As I said, I hear this a lot, and I myself am drawn to it. No one wants to think a loved one may go to hell. But is giving false hope loving? Jesus is the Light of the world – we are not to “fumble around in the dark.” Jesus is the zeal of the Lord (Jn.2:17), and no one comes to the Father except through Him (Jn.14:6). No one comes to the Father through Muhammed. Is the truth fanaticism? Certainly, it can be made an ugly thing, but the truth is still the truth. It is not “men of God” who send people to hell, it is people who deny God, the Truth.
I do not know who will be saved. I don’t know what happens at the moment of death. Perhaps Jesus stands at the threshold and pleads one more time for the individual’s soul. Given His deep love for each one of us, I would not be surprised, and hopefully, would not begrudge His doing so (see the parable of the farmer who hires workers at five different times over a day, Mt.20:1-16). But this kind of sentimentality is hard to get around. It is done, I believe, out of kindness, but it is done without thought. When someone believes God made them in a particular way, even though it goes against the teachings of Scripture, it is near impossible to separate the sinner from the sin. I see the problem. Unfortunately, I do not have a good answer. Or maybe I do. Prayer.
Lately, I have also learned that I can learn something from everyone, whether they are Christian or not. God uses everyone, whether they believe in Him or not. So even though I find this book flawed, there is much I have learned from it, and I would still recommend it. None of us is perfect, none of us is sinless, none of us knows the full truth, but each of us can search, and if we search honestly, God is faithful and just to give us the Truth.
One last word to those who say things like, “It doesn’t matter what you call God.” Remember that Allah and Buddha and Vishnu and Shiva, etc., did not have a son. To call God by any of those names is to deny Jesus as the Christ. At best He is reduced to merely a prophet. Names matter.
November 2, 2020
At the age of 44 Carlo Carretto heard a call from God to leave his life as a religious activist in Italy to live as a monastic in the Sahara Desert. Letters from the Desert is a blending of memoir and devotional as Carretto shares highlights from his time as a Little Brother of the Gospel in southern Algeria. The book is a devotional first and a memoir second, as Carretto only shares a handful of stories from his ten years in the desert while focusing on the spiritual life. He weaves back and forth the need to be individuals of prayer first and foremost, while also not neglecting the need to work, but not necessarily in Western views of efficiency. He is honest about his own struggles to love, although most readers will recognize that he is much further along the road to holiness than we are. It is a beautiful read, as well as a excellent English translation.
March 16, 2022
«Ho toccato con mano la mia radicale impotenza e questo fu grazia. Ho contemplato nella fede, nella speranza e nella carità, l'onnipotenza di Dio e anche questo fu grazia. Dio può tutto, io non posso nulla. Ma se metto questo nulla a contatto orante, amoroso di Dio, il tutto diventa possibile in me.
[...] Perché qui sta il punto: la vera preghiera comincia quando si cerca la volontà di Dio.
[...] Vivete l'amore, cercate la carità. Essa vi darà la risposta volta per volta a ciò che dovete fare. La carità che è Dio in noi, vi suggerirà la strada da percorrere; vi dirà "ora inginocchiati" oppure "ora parti"».
Parole potenti.
[...] Perché qui sta il punto: la vera preghiera comincia quando si cerca la volontà di Dio.
[...] Vivete l'amore, cercate la carità. Essa vi darà la risposta volta per volta a ciò che dovete fare. La carità che è Dio in noi, vi suggerirà la strada da percorrere; vi dirà "ora inginocchiati" oppure "ora parti"».
Parole potenti.
April 10, 2022
A beautiful reminder of whom we’re fighting for.
August 27, 2024
If you read this book, I think it’s important to judge it based on what it’s meant to be and when it was written. While some of the perspectives and insights might be out of date/touch, I think the author was certainly a prophet of his time. And his writing is beautiful - I don’t think many people would have been able to articulate so well their experience in the desert as Carlo did.
Personally, I struggle to accept some of the author’s perspectives on life, and I would challenge some of his theology. Carlo went from one extreme to the other, but to my knowledge he never integrated his two worlds and that’s the true challenge/calling in my opinion!
Personally, I struggle to accept some of the author’s perspectives on life, and I would challenge some of his theology. Carlo went from one extreme to the other, but to my knowledge he never integrated his two worlds and that’s the true challenge/calling in my opinion!
January 28, 2024
How we !ove
I really enjoyed this book. The main thrust of this compilation of Carlos writings is that we are called to love others & that it is in doing this that we will become closer to Christ as well as be more in union with him. Brennan Manning is a friend of Carlo. He recommended this book. I'm a Protestant but it's uplifting to hear those who are Catholic share their testimony!
I really enjoyed this book. The main thrust of this compilation of Carlos writings is that we are called to love others & that it is in doing this that we will become closer to Christ as well as be more in union with him. Brennan Manning is a friend of Carlo. He recommended this book. I'm a Protestant but it's uplifting to hear those who are Catholic share their testimony!
December 8, 2020
Do you long to escape the hyper-connected, 21st Century? Carretto slows us down and takes us far away from computers, cell phones, and fast cars. As you read, you will sense the desert winds, the quiet and peace, the beauty and terror of the desert lands. I re-read this book every couple of years...just to re-center my life.
February 14, 2018
Carlo Carretto left behind his native Italy to live in the Sahara desert as a monk. These are his collected thoughts of faith, service, and what we can learn from the solitude and challenge of his new home.
May 8, 2020
I started this book when the COVID-19 shut down began. The theme of isolation helped me get through the first days of the pandemic in the United States. This is an excellent Lent read or even Holy Week.
May 4, 2018
Para leerlo más de una vez. Un libro que nos orienta a llevar una vida interior de manera más armónica. Definitivamente es una lectura espiritual obligada y si es posible delante del Santísimo.
January 31, 2021
Life changing each time I have read it.
September 2, 2021
Wonderful inspiring book. Makes you think of spiritual things in a different perspective. Beautiful.
June 3, 2022
Bought this book from Amazon and I cannot read it on my Boox ereader - it contains DRM and cannot open it. Therefore in the future I would hesitate to buy books in this form.
April 4, 2024
Really enjoyed reading this book - contains insight of the author's experience and learning from the desert: love that leads to act of love, and imitation of Jesus.
August 25, 2025
A lot to chew on here. Originally published 1964, and yet it seems totally applicable today in our even more materialistically inclined culture.
November 20, 2022
Carretto writes well and expresses spiritual truths well. He put his time in the desert to good use - growing in the spiritual life and explaining what he learned there with depth and precision.
May 8, 2024
Carlo Carretto was an Italian priest. Some of it is great and filled with pearls of wisdom, largely from great saints like John of the Cross. Some of it isn’t so great, with some watermelon seeds to spit out. I think my biggest critique of it is that, compared to the spiritual greats, this is just sort of lightweight. He wanders around the desert, has some good insights, takes most of his great stuff from John of the Cross, throws in a little ecumenism, slings a little mud at wealth, and that's it. It just doesn't rise to the heavyweights. I'm reading the sermons of John Henry Newman currently, for instance, and every sentence just packs a huge punch, with single paragraphs of his writing being of greater value than the entirety of this book, which just has a bit too much of that modern, new-agey vibe to it to really land a knockout blow.
August 7, 2008
This is sort of a spiritual autobiography. He shares moments of reflection during his time in the Sahara Desert where he went at about the age or 40 and joined the Little Brothers where he embraced the life of Charles de Foucauld. He was born in Italy in 1910 and was National President of Catholic Youth until 1952. He shares moments and feelings of inner stirrings from living in the real desert while also living in the spiritual desert. It's a good read and gets you thinking. I felt he didn't develop his thoughts quite far enough but I enjoyed it.
February 12, 2010
The writer relates his experiences as a "Little Brother of Jesus" (follower of the example of Charles de Foucauld). He narrates his experience as he lived among the poorest in the desert area of North Africa. He offers some wonderful insights on meditative prayer in the desert and in civilization. It is short but deep enough to require several rereads.
September 5, 2011
Adding this now to mark the release of a new edition - though I read it as a teenager back in the seventies. I found it enormously moving then, and credit it with steering me towards the richness of contemplative prayer and desert spirituality. A classic of the genre, and still worth attention.
July 31, 2016
Interesting read. I would love to have the time out to reflect in the desert as did the author But, unfortunately, not all can. But, still in all, he made some very good points. I did enjoy the read.
April 27, 2009
A fine book of faith by a man who left a prominent career as a Catholic activist to live in the desert.
April 22, 2010
Interesting at times. Some passages stirring. Clarifies purpose of one's life.
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