Our Desert Struggle

Our Desert Struggle

From Translating the Tradition by Fr. Justin (Edward) Hewlett

March 30, 2026 · 24 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the story of St. Mary of Egypt and Elder Zosima, exploring themes of monasticism and spiritual struggle during Great Lent.

So we’re getting to the end of Great Lent, and the Church gives us, on this Sunday, St. Mary of Egypt to think about. I won’t go through the whole of the story of St. Mary of Egypt , but just very briefly, St. Mary was very much not a saint at the beginning of her life. But the story actually doesn’t begin with her. It begins with Elder Zosima, who was a very righteous young man. He lived in the monastery for most of his life, had managed to exhaust almost all the spiritual disciplines, and was actually thinking, “Is there anyone who can teach me anything in this world about being a monastic, about working out my salvation in fear and trembling?” And if you know anything about monasticism, he’s in a very dangerous spiritual place at that point. He then decides to leave the monastery where he’s spent most of his life and goes to another monastery in the desert near the Jordan River. The custom in that monastery is to go out into the desert during the time of Great Lent, for each of the monks to just be alone in the desert with God, and then come back together for Pascha. He goes out into the desert really hoping to find someone who can teach him more about being a monk. As he’s…

People in this episode

Host: Fr. Justin (Edward) Hewlett

Topics covered

  • Great Lent
  • monasticism
  • spiritual struggle
  • Saint Mary of Egypt
  • Elder Zosima
  • desert spirituality

Keywords

  • Great Lent
  • St. Mary of Egypt
  • Elder Zosima
  • monasticism
  • spiritual disciplines
  • desert
  • Christianity

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Jordan River

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