Season of Glad Songs | David Denny and Tessa Bielecki
Season of Glad Songs | David Denny and Tessa Bielecki
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1980 and fulfilled his journalism dream by editing the community’s Desert Call quarterly magazine. He continues to serve as a priest through Cross Catholic Outreach, a ministry providing material and spiritual support to the poorest of the poor in over thirty countries.
Since co-founding the Desert Foundation with Tessa Bielecki in 2005, he fulfills his call to interspiritual dialogue through his writings. When not at his computer, you will find him biking along the Santa Cruz River, ambling among the Saguaros, or shooting hoops in the early hours across the street from his “urban hermit” apartment.
Tessa Bielecki
Tessa Bielecki represents three rich streams in the Christian contemplative tradition: Carmelite, Celtic, and the spirituality of the Desert Mothers and Fathers. For over fifty years she lived in solitary wilderness hermitages in the U.S., Canada, and Ireland, in deserts, mountains and woods.
She was the Mother Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute, a monastic community of both men and women for almost forty years, left in 2005 and co-created the Desert Foundation. Tessa is a seasoned retreat facilitator, a forty-year veteran of inter-religious dialogue, and the author of several major works on St. Teresa of Avila, desert spirituality, prayer, contemplative life, and Christmas.
Now living as an “urban hermit” in Tucson, Arizona, Tessa is both poetic and practical, known for an earthy mysticism grounded in the ordinary. She is currently writing a memoir and creating a podcast with David Denny called Fire and Light. Visit tessabielecki.com and sandandsky.org to learn more.