The Desert of Compassion: Devotions for the Lenten Journey

by Rachel M. Srubas

The desert, a landscape both severe and beautiful, embodies spiritual struggle and divine support. Jesus experienced forty days of testing and transformation in the rugged Judean desert. Whether disease, social injustice, personal loss, or other challenges have led you to the spiritual desert, it may seem doubtful that any good can come from hardship. Yet it was the arid wilderness of physical deprivation and soul-deep testing that prepared Jesus to live a life of devotion, courage, and merciful service to others. Deserts have much to teach about vulnerability, tenacity, and the interdependence of living beings.The season of Lent, based on Jesus’ forty days in the desert, calls you to navigate your own trials with trust in God and compassion for yourself. By doing so, you can learn to treat your dear ones, your neighbors, and all creatures with care contoured by wisdom. In these daily devotions for the Lenten journey, author Rachel M. Srubas draws on her life and learnings as a contemplative pastor, spiritual director, and desert dweller. Written in language both relatable and reverent, The Desert of Compassion provides daily Lenten sustenance inspired by sacred Scripture, present-day teachings, and personal experience. It is equally suitable for individual readers and spiritual formation groups.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality

179 pages, Paperback

Published January 10, 2023

Reviews

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lenten season is rooted in the story of Jesus' sojourn in the wilderness/desert. After his baptism, according to the synoptic gospels, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert where he faces three temptations. Christians know this story rather well as we revisit it each year, at least those of us who follow the church year/liturgical calendar. While in the desert for 40 days and nights Jesus fasts, prays, and faces the tempter. Traditionally, Christians find ways of emulating Jesus by engaging in some form of fasting and devoting time to prayer and study. There are numerous Lenten guides that can help us pursue this journey. The Desert of Compassion is one of those guides.

The Desert of Compassion is the work of Rachel M. Sruas, the pastor of Mountain Shadows Presbyterian Church (USA) in Tuscon, Arizona. Serving as she does in southern Arizona, Srubas understands the desert and draws on the images of the desert to provide the reader/spiritual seeker, with a rich devotional book that begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with the Triduum.

Srubas describes the book's orientation as a journey through a desert guided by a "compass of compassion." That compassion theme is present throughout the book. Srubas offers a reading for the weekdays and Saturdays that provides a Scriptural text and then in italics, she offers an interpretive piece that is to be understood as "an imagined divine voice." After the reflection on that day's reading, she provides a closing prayer. Most reflections are approximately two and a half to three pages in length. As for Sunday, those who use this devotional guide, are given a "Sabbath Rest Stop" that introduces the theme for the week. It also serves to orient us on our journey through the desert.

The week's reflections are centered around themes that reflect the call for compassion. We begin with Ash Wednesday through the first Saturday. She titles this first set of readings "Lent's Early Days: Go to the Land that I Will Show You." The message here, as Srubas notes is that "Hard times convey a summons to the desert, where compassion flourishes." Having established a direction in these earliest readings, when we begin the first full week, the theme is "Remove the Heart of Stone," with the focus being on readings that speak to the theme: "In the human heart capable of feeling, compassion deepens." In Week two ----Reach out your hand --- we consider the message that "Connecting with people wounded by life makes compassion possible" Then in Week three --- "Stay Awake with Me" she speaks of compassion requiring "distress tolerance, which practice strengthens." In setting the theme for the week, Srubas writes that "if you're wounded, you're called to be healed; when you're healed, you're called to compassion for the wounded." That is, our woundedness is the source of our compassion (p. 70). We move to week 4 which focuses on "Your Whole Mind," where Mindful awareness and thoughtful reflection foster wise compassion." Here, in the context of a book focusing on the contemplative life, she reminds us that the life of the mind might not be everything, but it is nonetheless important -- for we are to love God with our mind. We continue into week 5, where the theme is "Do not condemn" for "condemnation stymies grace, but compassion dismantles shame and fosters healing."

When we reach Holy Week Srubas provides us with a Palm Sunday Rest Stop and then four reflections that take us up to Maundy Thursday, where the theme is the washing of the feet. As a description of this week's theme --- "Do This and You Will Live" Srubas notes that "wherever wounded creatures may be found, compassion takes action to alleviate suffering." The journey ends with the Triduum, the three days that run from Maundy Thursday through Holy Saturday. Here Srubas speaks a word that "through suffering and death, new life and compassion arise." She closes the book with this word: "By the overflow of God's loving-kindness, may you find you have been given all you need to live with compassion for yourself and for every living being." (p. 169). The message is clear, the journey of Lent leads to compassion, and that is a reflection of God's love.

For those looking for a daily devotional for Lent, this should be at the top of the list. It does seem as if Westminster John Knox Press produces excellent devotional resources each year. They can be revisited year after year or rotated, but they are always good. This book is no different.

[David Crumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

For nearly 50 years, I've been a journalist covering religious diversity, so I've reported literally 100s of Lenten stories for newspapers and magazines. I'm familiar with Americans' most popular association with this season of reflection that leads toward the celebration of Easter:
"It's a time to give up something." You've probably heard that from family and friends, haven't you?
It often seems that Lent is just another guilty reminder that we all should diet. And it's about as potent a spiritual appeal as making a New Year's Resolution in January, which we have forgotten by February.
In fact, national research shows that the most common thing Americans have given up in the 40 days leading up to Easter is: Lent itself. That's true. Now, only a relatively small percentage of Americans observe Lent in any way, including trying to "give something up."
Why is that important context? Because publishing a new Lenten devotional is a true act of faith. I know this, because a decade ago I was the author of such a devotional. We keep publishing these books because we know that millions of Americans do observe this season, often searching for some more meaningful way to experience Lent.
In "The Desert of Compassion," Rachel Srubas offers one of the most appealing invitations to take that journey that I have encountered in years of covering American religious life. In this new book, she brings us a collection of daily readings, wisdom from the Bible, examples from the life of Jesus and suggestions for developing greater spiritual awareness.
Her book is perfectly pitched for these days of seemingly endless pandemic woes, fears of global conflict and a rising tide both of bigotry and violence. It's as if she wrote this book as a faith-filled antidote to Don DeLillo's White Noise, which is experiencing a revival of its own thanks to the 2022 film version of his novel.
Two thirds of the way through Rachel Srubas's daily devotional readings, she pauses to name the spiritual challenge of this global malaise that seems to have paralyzed so many people. She writes: "Hell is no place to live." Those six words explain why you should order a copy of her book right now.
To pull ourselves out of our rut of anxiety and isolation, she offers daily step-by-step reflections based on biblical wisdom, Jesus's ministry and her own hard-earned spiritual insights. Taken together across the season of Lent, these steps form a journey toward a much-needed destination: compassion.
And by that, Srubas is not talking about cheap sympathy or casual acts of kindness that cost us nothing. She's talking about one of the toughest journeys we all need to make these days: a journey to reunite our communities and to come back together again as people who truly care about and care for each other.
In the middle of her book, she pauses to shine light on this overall journey: "Don't go it alone. Reach out your hand. Even if the global pandemic has put you off ... encounter, really encounter, another human being who is as vulnerable as you are, or more so. Reach out your heart. Openhearted connection with another child of God makes compassion real—not just a virtue, but a practice, a way of living well with others."
This truly is a Lenten Devotional for this troubling moment in our world.
If you do enjoy this book, I also can recommend another of Rachel's books that also could serve as an inspiring Lenten reader: City of Prayer: 40 Days with Desert Christians

[Paul Dubuc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more. Instead I have some very mixed feelings about it. Since the book was published only early this year, I don't see how it could have been read or reviewed by anyone who has used it for its intended purpose up until now. I've read it daily as part of my lenten observance, but I can't say that it helped much compared to others I’ve used. There are, of course some very good and helpful things said by the author in these pages. But, as I kept with it further into my lenten "journey", I found it lacking in some critical ways for the purpose and the needs I typically have for observing Lent.

It started with the impression that there is just too much of the author, too many cultural platitudes mixed in with the message, and too tied to her interpretations of recent events. Each selected scripture passage for the day is reframed and reinterpreted in the author's words, “an imagined divine voice”, right below the passage. Sometimes they seem to have little to do with the passage itself. Whether or not her words are good and helpful in themselves, I would rather not have this oracular application of the text, given in the first person, offered to me by someone else. It's distracting at best, worse if the attempt should fall flat on the reader's ears as they often did for mine.

The author’s commentary for each day was mixed and a little too diluted with jargon. At one point (on page 114) Jesus is referred to as "the Christian tradition's greatest treasure". My God, isn't He much more than that?! To be a "treasure" seems to imply that He somehow belongs to us, not the other way around. I'm not sure whether Jesus' deity is ever explicitly emphasized in the book. The dominate picture of Jesus is as a model of compassion for others and for ourselves. He certainly is that, but the Gospels often give us a more complex picture of Jesus, which Srubas seems to interpret as an “ironic” bias of the Gospel writers (p. 132). I’d rather deal with the unfiltered version of Jesus.

One common speculation on the context of the story of the "woman caught in adultery" (John 8:1-11) is repeated by Srubas on page 141:

"She's commonly referred to as 'the woman caught in adultery.' The Gospel writer John portrays her accusers as claiming to have caught her in the act. Did she have a choice? Did she exert agency and person power in the adulterous liaison? Was she guilty, or was she victimized, forced into sex, then bullied and shamed by a gang of men? Had they raped her? ..."

All these questions have suggested answers, of course but they remain speculative none-the-less because the story doesn't tell us and they may even be beside its point. Once you open up a story like this to speculation you could also consider quite a different, entirely possible context. I'll suggest one: Since the story implies only that the woman was caught in the act, not necessarily by the accusers, could it be that the man's wife or the woman's husband, may have been the one who caught them and turned her over to the accusers? The punishment for adultery applies both to the man and woman (Lev. 20:10) so why wasn't the man also brought in? In fairness, Jesus could have pointed out this oversight, and we might expect that he would, but the story doesn't say so. Maybe it's beside the point? If the man's wife caught them, perhaps she turned the woman over as a way to protect her family. If the man were also to be put to death who would provide for her family? What if the woman was a seductress, unfaithful to her own husband, and so seen as more culpable than a man with a wife and children? Now she's been caught and is facing the death penalty. Jesus shows her grace and makes a point of the guilt of her accusers. He doesn't condemn her but also tells her to go and sin no more. This is simply the point of the story. If the woman is really a victim as Srubas suggests, why does Jesus say that she has sinned?

I'm not suggesting that this is the true context of the story. It's speculation, because the story doesn't give us these details. But I do think that this speculative context fits at least as well with the story as the one Srubas is implying by her questions. Why would Jesus recognize the woman as having sinned in that context? Srubas might imply that this is a problem with the way John has portrayed her in the story, but that is also speculation.

Compassion certainly is a very important characteristic of Jesus ministry and intent for his followers. But are we to take it as the dominate theme for our lenten observance? I don't know, but I wonder if doing so might smother other needs we have, emphasized often by Jesus in the Gospels, for this period of preparation and participation in His ultimate sacrifice on our behalf and His victory over the power of sin and death that so easily beset us in life.

Social justice is another theme that runs throughout this book. It is rightly a perennial concern for the Church. One example from the book is on Wednesday of Holy Week where we get a discourse on the problem of “food deserts”. But the season of Lent, particularly Holy Week, might be a time for a different focus. Consider Jesus teaching in Mark 14:1-11. Well, then, Maundy Thursday follows where that teaching is discussed in a very fitting end to the lenten season along with an afterword on the triduum following. I am very happy to have made it to this point in the book in spite of my reservations along the way.

My needs during Lent seem to center around time for serious reflection and honest admission of the ways I need to be helped and healed by God's grace. To me, the emphasis on compassion gets things a little out of sequence. Effective acceptance of compassion also needs an honest assessment of the ways we fall short in our sinfulness and preoccupation with self as much as for the ways we may have been hurt by others. So often neglected, this can be a painful and discouraging process requiring time and trust for God to do things for, and in, us that we know we are unable to do for ourselves. No amount of spiritual exercise and observance can, in themselves, cover over and heal things growing inside us that need to be exposed to Light and remedied or removed. The honest admission and forsaking of sin is what gives compassion its power. Here is where we find, as C. S. Lewis has said, that “The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of man.” I don't think God forces that power on us without our open, trustful cooperation. I think that without this process our need for compassion can become an addiction, covering over things that are never properly addressed and healed. What if the compassion we seek doesn’t measure up to our felt need for it? Sure, there are pitfalls and risks along the way, that's why trust is important. When surgery is required the recovery must come afterward. The closest thing that comes to this early in this book is an exercise in Jungian spirituality to free up energy from our “shadow side” to help us live with “greater daring and creativity.” To me this doesn’t comport well with the calls to repentance we read in the Gospels and the epistles of the New Testament. That said, one very good chapter in this book comes much later on Thursday of Week 5, “Long-haul Healing”, which emphasizes the importance of staying with our lenten observance and and encourages us in seeing it through. I couldn’t agree more. The book also ends on a note that does seem very helpful along these lines but, on the whole, it has seemed like a very roundabout journey to get there.

The need for compassion among us, giving and accepting it, is certainly great. Helps that lead us along that way are always welcome. This need surely colors the observance of Lent for Rachel Srubas and many who will read her guide during that season. For me Lent has often been a time of trial, transformation and renovation of the heart. It is during this season that I’ve often encountered serious challenges along the lines of Mike Mason’s motto for Lent: “Anticipate Adversity”. I first started taking observance of this season seriously many years ago when Lent came during a difficult disruption in my work life which I had found very rewarding for over 20 years. This involved a serious reordering of my life’s priorities. Since then I have had three in hospital surgeries, all during Lent, one during Holy Week. These and other challenges put me in a posture of acceptance of things I cannot change and trust in God and others to do things in me and for me that I cannot do for myself. Lent is for putting aside at least some of the normal routine and concerns in our lives to make room for God to do some interior work on us in preparation for participation in His glorious sacrifice and victory on our behalf. I think we all need seasons like this if we’re honest. There is no better season for it than Lent. I think the goal beyond compassion for ourselves is what Timothy J. Keller calls The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness.

I’d like to end this with some recommendations for lenten reading that I’ve found to be very good:

The Downward Ascent
Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter
Lent With Evelyn Underhill
Reliving the Passion
Small Surrenders: A Lenten Journey
First Fruits of Prayer: A Forty Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a previous book by Rachel Scubas and liked it very much; I was pleased to see this companion for Lent published in time for this year.

One thing that pleases me very much about this particular book is the desert setting...I am very familiar with so many of the locations Srubas mentions...the church of which she is pastor is just down Oracle Road from where I used to live, on the west side of the Catalina Mountains. She also mentions a retreat center on Picture Rocks Road, to which I've been many times, always enthralled with the sheer number of saguaros on the hills surrounding it and the panoramic view of all of Tucson and the Catalinas to the east.

The desert feeds my soul with its wide open skies and lands...

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I am just starting this book, already it has made my Lenten journey more meaningful. I wanted to review now, so others who are seeking a spiritually helpful book to use during Lent will have time to catch up.

Beautiful way to worship during Lent!

[Kerrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good devotion through Lent. Progressive folks will appreciate the thoughtful readings which urge one to deepen faith and compassion without hell-fire and damnation.