Admittedly, hearing the word “Amma” can be puzzling. We’re more familiar with the word “Abba” from Romans 8:15 where we learn that through the Spirit of sonship we cry, “Abba, Father.” “Amma” comes from the same cultural context. Both Abba and Amma were terms of family endearment conveying honor and closeness. Calling a woman “Amma” communicated that she was a spiritual mother loved and respected by all her spiritual children.
Desert Spirituality: Experiencing the Geography of the Heart
Hearing the phrase “Desert Mother” or “desert spirituality” can also sound odd, ancient, foreign, and irrelevant to anything we experience today. And for some, these terms can even seem “unbiblical.” Yet, we will find that the desert spirituality of these Desert Mothers was scriptural and is relevant.
“Desert” did not necessarily mean a barren wasteland. Some of the Desert Mothers that we learn from in this chapter simply moved away from the city to rural, less-inhabited areas. Others did not move at all, instead selling most of their possessions in order to acquire enough land and lodgings to house a spiritual community of women and to accommodate the frequent spiritual pilgrims who sought them.
Regardless of location, the motivation remained the same. The Desert Mothers believed that the greatest enemies of the inner journey were hurry, crowds, and noise. They sought to create an environment that quieted the inner noise which kept them from hearing God’s Spirit speaking to their spirit through God’s inspired Word.[i] Desert Mothers like Amma Syncletica focused on the geography of the heart. “There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in the town, and they are wasting their time. It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd, and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of his own thoughts.”[ii]
To further understand and relate to their movement toward desert spirituality, we have to understand two characteristics of the early Church—it was a city-centered faith and a home-centered faith. The book of Acts tells us that the Apostles shared the message of Jesus in the urban centers of the day. The Apostles targeted the mass of hungry, hurting people in thriving cities like Jerusalem, Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Rome.
The destruction of the temple in 70 AD and the persecution of the church in ensuing years resulted in domestic dwellings becoming the place for community meetings. Local believers gathered in homes for the Lord’s Supper, baptism, worship, and teaching. Lay men and women were involved in personal evangelism and works of mercy to the poor, the orphaned, and to prisoners.[iii]
Desert spirituality sprung from this city-centered and home-centered culture. The movement away from urban centers was motivated by the belief that the church in the city was compromising with the culture of the secular world. The Desert Mothers and Fathers believed that the church was losing its prophetic voice as it yielded to cultural and political pressures and became organized more like the government than like a living organism.[iv] Sound familiar? Sound relevant?
As patriarchs and matriarchs of extended families became more and more disenchanted with the political correctness of the church and the spiritual expediency of its leaders, they left the cities (or at least the secular attitude of the city), but rarely did they leave alone. The first “desert communities” usually included relatives, dependents, and household slaves (then considered family members). This inclusiveness had a deep impact upon desert spirituality. Life was centered around times of communal prayer, the group study and application of Scripture, joint ministry to the poor, and the collaborative application of the writings of the leaders of the movement.[v]
The Desert Mothers based their decision to leave the worldliness of the secular city upon Christ’s model. They read and desired to apply passages like Luke 4:1, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert” (see also Matthew 4:1). “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place.” (Luke 4:42). “Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (Mark 6:31-32). “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone” (Matthew 14:23).
The Desert Mothers noticed and applied at least two major lessons from passages such as these. They saw the need for God’s people to find a respite from the worldliness of the world. Reading the verses that followed the ones quoted above, they also recognized the call for God’s people to return from their rest refreshed and renewed to be Christ’s servants in the world. The Desert Mothers that we study in this chapter were not secluded hermits. They were remembered as much for their public ministry to the poor and hurting as they were for their private spirituality. Their communal retreat away from secular urban centers was for the purpose of growing closer to Christ so that they could be empowered to share Christ’s truth in love to a lost and lonely world. While we might respond to our increasingly secular culture differently, while we might apply these passages differently, at least we can relate to their social motivation and biblical conviction.
[i]Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers, 15.
[ii]Kraemer, Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics, 121.
[iii]Swan, 6-9.
[iv]Ibid., 9.
[v]Ibid., 8-9.
