“I did the best I could,
and when I learned
more, I did better.”
Maya Angelou
Explore…
Wild at Heart:
Radical Teachings of the Christian Mystics
An ever-increasing number of people describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious,” yet how that translates into an actual relationship with God and engagement in society remains unclear. Now Sounds True presents a full-length audio retreat in the spirit of Christianity’s legendary mystics, to open listeners to direct experience of the divine. “Mystical experience erupts spontaneously and graciously when we live on the spot where we are and savor the real,” explains Tessa Bielecki, who guides you through six hours of practical, easy-to-follow teachings to bring the mystics’ depth of passion into your own spiritual practice. With Tessa’s gentle instruction, you will expand your contemplation to embrace everything that arises in your life and develop a personal mode of prayer that helps you become aware of God everywhere you turn.
What people are saying about Wild at Heart
“On this top-drawer and immensely inspiring audio learning course, Bielecki explores the radical teachings of the Christian mystics. She begins with a brief overview of her own experiences and shatterings over the years… [and] hits high stride on the last two sections on ‘Creating Mystical Space in Your Life.’… Bielecki’s own spiritual practice of enthusiasm makes this audio learning course an exceptional teaching tool.”
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
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 Abrahamic 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
“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
“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
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
“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
“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
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.
What people are saying about Teresa of Avila
“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
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 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
Every summer and winter, Caravans shares what’s on our minds and hearts. In our newsletter, David Denny and I offer you contemplative practices, reflections on the seasons, book reviews, and stories about our lives as urban hermits on the edge of the Sonoran Desert. We show how your support fortifies us in our trek toward the fullness of life. Subscribe today. It’s free.
I acknowledge and respect the traditional stewards of the land that now sustains us all and upon which we now live.
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