National Catholic Reporter Takes a Look at the Spiritual Life Institute
The monks at the Spiritual Life Institute are hermits focused on mysticism, yet the group embodies an earthy pragmatism, enabling them to build bridges between the institutional church and those struggling to find spiritual health and healing.
In their 40-year history, the hermits have founded four monasteries: in Sedona, Ariz.; Kemptville, Nova Scotia; Crestone, Colo., and the newest in Skreen, Ireland.
The Sedona and Kemptville hermitages have been closed because of vanishing wilderness. Residents think a border of wild lands is necessary to preserve the hermit spirit, but at these two locations developers have encroached on these borderlands.
Founded by Discalced Carmelite Fr. William McNamara, the Spiritual Life Institute began as an effort to renew the ancient Carmelite vision in a contemporary Christian community. In 1960, McNamara had an audience with Pope John XXIII, who blessed his effort and even gave advice on which bishops would support or oppose the project.
In 1963, McNamara became administrator of the Holy Cross Chapel in Sedona. Living in the high desert formed what would become known as the “desert experience,” an elemental part of the Spiritual Life Institute. McNamara believed a renewal of the eremitic Carmelite tradition required a desert or wilderness.
Striving to maintain the spirit of Vatican II, McNamara favored an ecumenical thrust, and pondered the ideal of a male-female community. The theory became reality when Tessa Bielecki came in 1967 after college. She had been impressed by McNamara during a college retreat. Bielecki is now the abbess of the institute.
The Nada–Spanish for “nothing”–Hermitage in Crestone sits at an altitude of 8,000 feet, where the vast San Luis Valley meets the towering Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains. The monks’–as both men and women here are called–small dwellings, bermed on one side with desert sand, evoke images of Colorado’s first hermits–miners seeking gold in the frigid mountains.
To read more, visit the National Catholic Reporter website here.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I concur with Teresa’s comments. Fr. Willie was very important in our lives. I’ve wondered where he is through the years. I’m happy to read that he is still providing love and inspiration to his fellow humans. kathleen magrath
November 13th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
I wish to ask Abba Willie if he feels that his vision of the Spiritual Life Inst. is making it into the 21st century with the same spirit quest that he expressed to Pope John XXIII ? I have followed the Inst. over the 40+ yrs as a young man, now a senior.Blessing to Abba Willie. Jacob
July 8th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
As a young man I visited the Spiritual Life Inst. Those were the days of Abba Willie & Mother Tessa… I am a Jewish hermit, yes not heard of in the USA !!! Hermits of the desert are very much a part of Judaism since the days before Christ !!! I have permission from the Union of American/Israeli Orthodox… Abba Willie & Tessa have my full support, I am not sure about the Inst. anymore ??? Via web-site you can’t really tell what the Inst. is doing or the direction it has taken. Abba Willie will be another Saint of the Church, and his founding of a new order has turned out much like many others, time changes all things. No fuss, just thoughts ! Jacob David Hallenstein,Rabbi Hermit