If it doesn’t touch your heart, it will crush your mind.

If it doesn’t touch your mind, it will hurt your heart.

That’s why the desert fathers advise: put your mind in your heart.

“I will remind you of only one thing: one must descend with the mind into the heart, and there stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all seeing within you. The prayer takes a firm and steadfast hold, when a small fire begins to burn in the heart. Try not to quench this fire, and it will become established in such a way that the prayer repeats itself: and then you will have within you a small murmuring stream.” Theophan the Recluse

Staying, living from the mind only is what brings us from Eden into the desert where mental politics, selfish desires, knowledge which builds up arrogance brings us to nothing but self. Desert require fasting to escape it-self.

What brings us back from the desert back to Eden is mind immersed in the heart where the flowers of Presence bloom and the brooks of the Spirit flow.

Lent is a good time to experience walking through the desert into a garden. #staytuned