A Desert in the Ocean Book

David Adam is the vicar of Holy Island, so in his day-to-day life he walks where some of the greatest Celtic saints went before him. Perhaps this helps his insight into their thinking and their way of life, an insight developed through a number of thoughtful and successful books. Take his starting point for A Desert in the Ocean: an obscure quote in Adomnan's Life of Columba about a monk who "went in search of a desert in the ocean". Adam takes this seemingly mad quest as a metaphor for turning one's back on the world and its security to find a place (metaphysical rather than geographical) where one can put oneself totally into God's presence, free from all distractions. From this beginning the author constructs a book for spiritual seekers who are prepared to put aside comfort and undertake a strenuous search for God; and it is demanding--each chapter of the book ends with a series of exercises, including prayers and reading biblical passages. Firmly rooted in Christianity, as one would expect, it is nonetheless accessible to spiritual pilgrims from other traditions. The whole is structured around a prayer attributed to St Brendan the Navigator before he set forth on perilous voyages for the love of God. The poem begins "Shall I abandon, O King of Mysteries, the soft comforts of home? / Shall I turn my back on my native land, and my face towards the sea? / Shall I put myself wholly at the mercy of God..." The book stays faithful to that self-sacrificing spirit, trying to find a way for the modern spiritual seeker to learn from it. While very serious, it is not negative; David Adam begins by saying, "I believe that God calls us to adventure, to extend ourselves, and to seek new horizons," and the whole book encourages us to a life more adventurous, more deeply alive. --David Pickering Read More