About this episode

Tish Harrison Warren discusses weariness, burnout, and spiritual resilience with Macie Bridge, drawing on her experiences and insights from her new book.

What sustains faith when prayer feels flat and God seems distant—and there's no clear tragedy to explain it? Anglican priest and former New York Times columnist Tish Harrison Warren joins Macie Bridge to talk about weariness, burnout, and the quiet middle stretches of a long spiritual life. Drawing on her new book What Grows in Weary Lands, she turns to the Desert Fathers and Mothers for a resilience that resists both flaming out and numbing out. "It felt like the call had dropped, like the line had gone dead." In this episode with Macie Bridge, Warren reflects on her own season of spiritual aridity and the ancient counsel to stay in your cell rather than escape. Together they discuss the difference between burnout and weariness, acedia and the noonday demon, perseverance, silence as countercultural practice, and the world as a womb. They explore why escape rarely heals and what it means to trust the slow work of God. Episode Highlights "It felt like the call had dropped, like the line had gone dead." "I do not think vitamin D will solve what I'm talking about." "We're not having to hold our life together in the midst of weariness with will power and duct tape." "We kind of bring…

People in this episode

Host: Macie Bridge

Guest: Tish Harrison Warren

Topics covered

• spiritual resilience
• burnout
• weariness
• spiritual life
• Desert Wisdom
• faith
• perseverance

Keywords

• spiritual aridity
• acedia
• noonday demon
• silence
• trust
• God
• faith
• Desert Fathers
• resilience

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New York Times

Books & works: What Grows in Weary Lands, Liturgy of the Ordinary, Prayer in the Night

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