Water in the Desert

A Lenten Reflection by Fr. Dave Foxen, MSC

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart USA Province305 S. Lake Street, PO Box 270 Aurora, IL 60507 (630) 892-2371 info@misacor-usa.org

In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. Isaiah 43, 18

You cannot walk through the desert and not think of water!

Perhaps the absence of pools,rivers, and lakes makes us evenmore aware of the meaning ofwater in a land that appears hostileto the thought of moisture.

Water becomes a symbol of God’scompassion and love which seemso absent in our world’s distortedvalues and apparent lack of caringfor one another.

But in the desert,as in our lives,the signs ofwater, of God’slove, are everywhere for the one who sees.

Over thousands of years, water,even in small amounts, has formedthe contours of the land, worndown granite, created canyons andwashes.

Washes are fascinating, for theyare dry and filled with sand andboulders. But the carved banks andthe piled boulders tell of rushingtorrents of flash floods or long dryrivers.

The plants of thedesert have learnedto treat water as the precious source oflife. No drop ofmoisture is wasted.

Some plants drop leaves to conserve water.

Are there any habits we need to drop inorder to be able to accept the life-givingwater of God's love in the desert of ourlives?

Along earthquakefault lines watersometimes seeps tothe surface, formingthe lush abundanceof an oasis.

In the desert you cannot think interms of the present moment oreven a limited number of years.

Life in the desert moves slowly,

the land and the plants are patient,seeds sometimes wait many yearsfor the opportunity to be moistenedand experience renewed life.

What once was may never come again.

Where there is now only sand and rock

may one day produce life.

The desert waits and does notmeasure itself in terms of what itproduces or does not produce.

How do we measure ourselves? Others?

The desertis open towhat maybe or whatmay neverbe.

We are amazed at how water in the desert is like God’s compassion

and love!

God’s love is patient, slowly and surprisingly bringing forth new lifefrom forgotten seeds,

appearing in the wrenching traumas of our lives, sometimes seeming to recede and hide but patiently forming and contouring the landscape of the human heart.

Our Lenten journey is a desert journey seeking out the life-giving water flowing in torrents and trickling from the baptismal font.

Photo Credits• Slide #1: The Killpecker Sand Dunes of the Red Desert, by the Bureau of

Land Management. Photo is in the public domain. (link)• Slide #2: Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by

Pravit. (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons (link)

• Slide #3: Sand and Desert in Death Valley, by John Sullivan (link)• Slide #4: Beach Sand Background by Andrew Schmidt (used for several

slides as part of the background) (link)• Slide #5: Ripples on Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, from the website of the

National Park Service (link)• Slide #7: Desert dunes by Wikigab (link)• Slide #9: Golden Canyon, from the website of the National Park Service (

link)

Photo Credits• Slide #10: Bisnaga by Teodoro S Gruhl (link)• Slide #11: Bisnaga by Teodoro S Gruhl (link); Colorful Cactus by Vera Kratochvil (

link); Desert Blooms by Andrew Schmidt (link); Prickly pear cactus, from the website of the National Park Service (link)

• Slide #13: Painted desert Arizona by Joyradst (link)• Slide #15: Prickly pear cactus, from the website of the National Park Service (

link)• Slide #16: Colorful Cactuses by Vera Kratochvil (link)• Slide #17: Single Water Drop by Petr Kratochvil (link)• Slide #18: Desert landscape with saguaro cactii (Carnegiea gigantea) in Agua

Fria National Monument, Arizona by BLM photo (link)• Slide #19: Desert palm at an oasis on the San Andreas Fault, McCallum

Pond, by Fr. David Foxen, MSC• Slide #20: Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang Uyghur AutonomousRegion by Pravit.

(link)

Photo Credits• Slide #21: Desert of Akakus, by Jean-Pierre MALAVIALLE (Desert of Akakus)

[FAL], via Wikimedia Commons (link)• Slide #23: Borrego Palm Canyon, a stream flowing down the canyon in

Anza Borrego State Park, by Fr. David Foxen, MSC• Slide #24: Windmill, by Fr. David Foxen, MSC• Slide #26: Slide #7: Desert dunes by Wikigab (link)• Slide #27: The Namib Desert at Sossusvlei by Teo Gómez (link) • Slide #28: Dune scenic, from the website of the National Park Service (link)• Slide #29: The Killpecker Sand Dunes of the Red Desert, by the Bureau of

Land Management. Photo is in the public domain. (link)• Slide #30: Bisnaga by Teodoro S Gruhl (link)• Slide #31: Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, from the website of the National

Park Service (link); Painted Desert Badlands, Photographed by Doug Dolde at the Petrified Forest National Park in April, 2009 (link)

Photo Credits• Slide #32: Storm over the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park, By

National Park Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (link)• Slide #33: Desert – Inner Mongolia (w:User:pfctdayelise) (Image taken by

me using Casio QV-R41) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons; Edited by Fir0002 (link)

• Slide #34: late afternoon on Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, from the website of the National Park Service (link)