(RNS) — Tish Harrison Warren had everything going for her.
A job as a priest at a church she loved. A family she adored. Good friends. And a dream gig writing about faith for The New York Times. And yet, she, like millions of Americans, was exhausted.
And God had gone silent.
“I would sit to pray, but it felt as though the line had gone dead. I did not feel a sense of God’s nearness. I didn’t feel much of anything at all,” writes Warren in her new book, “What Grows in Weary Lands,” out Tuesday (May 12) from Penguin Random House.
“And I’d begin to think, is anyone there?”
Warren, who is ordained in the Anglican Church in North America, found a way forward with the help of some friends and advice from the desert fathers and mothers, a group of ancient spiritual guides who fled into the desert to find God more than 1,500 years ago. Their advice, Warren writes, helped her build a sturdier spirituality for taking on the modern world. Rather than spiritual hacks, they offered advice for long-term spiritual health.
“Do all the boring stuff for a really long time,” War …