Publications
Desert Voices:
The Edge Effect
Desert Voices is a song from the edge. It celebrates the amorous frontier between two “desert rats” and an arid landscape of sand, sky, and giant cactus. It celebrates friendships between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim brothers and sisters who have spent too much time demonizing each other. It mourns the lives lost along the border of Israel and Palestine and honors non-violent sowers of hope. It sings from the death bed, from the poverty of the Cross, the universal desert of impermanence that may be the shadow of eternal life. Attracted by beauty and responding to sorrow, Tessa Bielecki and David Denny offer insights about inner work and earth care, peacemaking and social justice, living and dying, and share the nourishing wisdom that blooms in the desert today.
What people are saying about Desert Voices
“Fr. Dave and Tessa remind us of the multi-layered significance of desert spirituality in many wisdom traditions: seeking poverty and silence to awaken us to the world; eschewing power, wealth and material abundance as means to embrace the spiritual abundance incarnate here on earth; and the quest for peace within and outside our skin and our mind. By living on the edge, where all innovation and grace begin, these two Desert Elders have renewed the prophetic Wisdom Tradition begun sixteen centuries ago in desert monasteries.”
Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, author of The Desert Smells Like Rain, Arab/American, and Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey
“In this luminous collection of dispatches from the heart, Fr. Dave Denny and Tessa Bielecki – two deeply rooted dwellers of both the outer and inner desert landscape – offer timely wisdom on cultivating a sacred relationship with the earth, nurturing authentic connections with those we once perceived as other, and navigating the wild places of our own souls. Poetic, warm, and gently provocative, these writings illumine a path through the holy mystery of love.”
Mirabai Starr, author of God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity & Islam and Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss & Transformation
“I am enthralled by the beauty and wisdom of this finely crafted book. The precious insights about inner work, peacemaking, religion, living and dying, nourish my soul and expand my mind. Father David and Sister Tessa are two rare spiritual pilgrims and peacemakers whose life stories, awareness, compassion and dedication to social justice and earth care, fill my heart with unbounded joy, hope and inspiration. I am humbled to call them friends.”
Imam Jamal Rahman, author of Spiritual Gems of Islam
Season of Glad Songs:
A Christmas Anthology
Imagine a quiet Advent sitting beside a crackling fire preparing for a festive and sacred Twelve Days of Christmas. Tessa Bielecki and David Denny take you there and beyond. There’s something for everyone: young or old, whether you go to church or not. The tone is mystical and down-to-earth. Poetry, illustrations and essays, rituals and blessings, prayers and practical advice, even book, music and movie reviews help you celebrate a soulful season of glad songs, from the dark stillness of Advent through Christmas, the New Year and Epiphany, on to the welcome light of a candle on a cold February night.
What people are saying about Season of Glad Songs
“I am grateful indeed for your Christmas Anthology. It has kept me buoyed up over the commercial suction of our era. Its lessons, I realize, go on through Epiphany and Candlemas (which I learn, in my Protestant ignorance, falls on February second.) And I am sure I can turn again to it any day of the year for further revelation of Christ the Tiger. Thank you for all the wisdom you compact here; for your own poetry and insights; and for glimpses of your personal religious experiences.”
Theodore Friend, Villanova, Pennsylvania
“I am loving the Christmas book and taking it in small morsels, like good chocolate!”
Leslie McNamara, Santa Fe, New Mexico
“Different from other Christmas books because it includes a great variety of cultural and spiritual traditions. Also these authors are amazing!”
Sandy Grundy, Westminster, Colorado
“Just when you think that enough has been written about Christmas, along comes a book that delights the senses and draws you into a deeper level of meaning about the seasonal celebrations of Winter. The authors communicate a sense of wonder that stares at us every day from our natural human experience. From Advent to Candlemas, the authors offer their unique “earthy mystical” perspective, inviting us to see the ordinary with new eyes. A collection full of wisdom, unusual poems, hymns, rituals, and just plain beautiful prose, Season of Glad Songs floods the soul with illumination. This book is essentially a gift, to give and to savor, for many years to come.”
Donna Couch on Amazon.com
Holy Daring:
The Earthy Mysticism of St. Teresa, the Wild Woman of Avila
This fresh, upbeat, and deftly profound book joyfully reconnects the fullness of our lives and the depth of our prayer. Much more than yet another book about a great saint who once was, it actually rekindles something of St. Teresa’s outrageous spiritual impulse for contemporary readers, particularly those who describe themselves as “spiritual, not religious.” Tessa Bielecki shows how Teresa’s vibrant natural life was the foundation of her mystical one, then explores the captivating sensuousness of her mystical growth. She presents Teresa’s “bridal mysticism” and concludes with practical advice on how the contemplative life ripens into “the ultimate ecstasy” through service in the world. This new edition of Holy Daring is revised and updated for a new generation of readers in honor of the 500th anniversary of St. Teresa’s birth. It includes a Foreword by Adam Bucko and outlines ten concrete and earthy spiritual practices.
What people are saying about Holy Daring
“This is a good, lively, exciting presentation of St. Teresa’s vision. Even the expert in Teresian spirituality will find much here. The book is a welcome relief, fresh, challenging you to drink deeply at the springs of the Spirit; to fill your lungs with crisp mountain air; to live life fully and deliberately. Its centerpiece is the call to spousal prayer, following in the tradition of The Song of Songs. By using the strong language of human romance and sexuality, Tessa brings out the possibilities for intimacy with God in startling relief. “
Fred Bittle, Caelum et Terra
“Tessa Bielecki is a devoted contemplative hermit and a fiery and outspoken leader in Christian-Buddhist dialogue. Writing about St. Teresa, she has gone far beyond simply biography to create a powerful contemporary teaching on Catholic mysticism for the general public. She has also written a book which speaks to Western Buddhists and others seeking common ground for Christian and Buddhist traditions. Spiritual practitioners of all faiths will find this simple book a rich treasury of human experience which can be read again and again as a continuing inspiration to living a life of service to others.”
Mark Sando Mininberg, Mountains and Rivers Zen Buddhist Order
“I devoured my review copy of Holy Daring and feel energized and renewed.”
Bob Hamma, Spiritual Book Associates
“Holy Daring is infectious and opens the heart to a larger and more luscious possibility. Like St. Teresa, Tessa approaches her Divine Beloved as husband, friend and lover in all its intimate and erotic forms. For both women, living some 400 years apart, spousal prayer means life lived to the fullest – far from the image of crusty, cloistered renunciation of the world. This book clearly applies to anyone embarked on a disciplined spiritual path. Its succinctly divided segments address several roadblocks to realization with the Divine. It is refreshingly personal, not only the writings of St. Teresa, but also Tessa’s own testimony of faith. One begins to feel understood from the inside out when coming upon some detail perplexing in one’s own practice.”
Mudra’s Too Sense, Prescott, Arizona
“In the midst of reading many highly academic articles on St. Teresa, it’s been refreshing to read a work like Tessa’s: informative, yet so deeply human and so clearly full of love for Teresa.”
Michael O’Malley, Norristown, PA
“Holy Daring is exciting my heart and soul. Tessa’s advice is so simple but electrifying! I want to shout with joy. Think of it: ‘I look at him, as he looks at me.’“
Jessica Danson, Sedona, AZ
Teresa of Avila:
Ecstasy and Common Sense
The words of St. Teresa of Avila speak to the heart so directly that even four hundred years after her death she seems like our contemporary. Few people have ever written of the spiritual path with such immediacy, down-to-earth wisdom, and humor. Tessa Bielecki has brought together here short selections from Teresa’s collected works – including The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle, her autobiography, poetry, meditations, and letters – to create a living portrait of Teresa and her exuberant spirituality. Teresa’s striving for divine union was inseparable from her passionate involvement in the hardships and joys of the everyday – which makes her an eminently worthy model for modern people who seek to integrate spirituality and the rest of life.
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Teresa of Avila:
Mystical Writings
Teresa of Avila is a lucid introduction to the life and writings of St. Teresa of Avila, with special emphasis on what makes Teresa a model for contemporary men and women. Teresa was a highly erotic woman, a brilliant administrator, consummate diplomat, faithful lover, and hilarious observer of the human condition: a conquistador of the Spirit. By combining an account of her life, excerpts from her books and letters, questions addressed to the reader, and Tessa Bielecki’s empathetic insights as a modern-day contemplative hermit and spiritual mother in the Carmelite contemplative tradition, Teresa comes to life. Her sense of adventure and exile set her out on a quest that included intimate friendships with both men and women and the pursuit of an impossible dream: the renewal of Carmelite spirituality.
What people are saying about Teresa of Avila: Mystical Writings
“Tessa Bielecki has intuited the spirit of St. Teresa of Avila. She looks like her, thinks and loves like her, and lives like her. This book on St. Teresa is a gem. Study alone – and how assiduously Tessa did that – would not issue in such a pertinent and perfect reflection on this exquisite woman. Intimate union between these two great Teresas is the only explanation. ”
William McNamara, Founder of Spiritual Life Magazine and the Spiritual Life Institute
Caravans Newsletter
Every summer and winter, Caravans shares what’s been on our minds and in our hearts. We offer stories about our lives as urban hermits on the edge of the Sonoran Desert, book reviews, reflections on liturgical seasons, and contemplative practices. We show how your support fortifies us in our trek toward the fullness of Life. Subscribe today. It’s free.
