The document is a Lenten reflection on water in the desert by Fr. Dave Foxen. It discusses how the absence of water in the desert makes its meaning more apparent and a symbol of God's compassion. Though scarce, signs of water are everywhere through erosion and flash floods, and plants have adapted to conserve every drop. Water sometimes emerges from fault lines to form oases of lush growth. The desert moves slowly over time, patiently forming the land, and life may emerge where once there was only sand and rock. God's love is like water in the desert, slowly shaping lives and bringing forth new growth.

1. Water in the Desert A Lenten Reflection by Fr. Dave Foxen, MSC The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart  USA Province 305 S. Lake Street, PO Box 270  Aurora, IL 60507 (630) 892-2371  info@misacor-usa.org

2. In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. Isaiah 43, 18

4. You cannot walk through the desert and not think of water!

6. Perhaps the absence of pools, rivers, and lakes makes us even more aware of the meaning of water in a land that appears hostile to the thought of moisture.

8. Water becomes a symbol of God’s compassion and love which seem so absent in our world’s distorted values and apparent lack of caring for one another.

10. But in the desert, as in our lives, the signs of water, of God’s love, are everywhere for the one who sees.

12. Over thousands of years, water, even in small amounts, has formed the contours of the land, worn down granite, created canyons and washes.

14. Washes are fascinating, for they are dry and filled with sand and boulders. But the carved banks and the piled boulders tell of rushing torrents of flash floods or long dry rivers.

15. The plants of the desert have learned to treat water as the precious source of life. No drop of moisture is wasted.

17. Some plants drop leaves to conserve water. Are there any habits we need to drop in order to be able to accept the life-giving water of God's love in the desert of our lives?

18. Along earthquake fault lines water sometimes seeps to the surface, forming the lush abundance of an oasis.

20. In the desert you cannot think in terms of the present moment or even a limited number of years.

21. Life in the desert moves slowly,

22. the land and the plants are patient, seeds sometimes wait many years for the opportunity to be moistened and experience renewed life.

24. What once was may never come again. Where there is now only sand and rock may one day produce life.

25. The desert waits and does not measure itself in terms of what it produces or does not produce. How do we measure ourselves? Others?

26. The desert is open to what may be or what may never be.

29. We are amazed at how water in the desert is like God’s compassion and love!

30. God’s love is patient, slowly and surprisingly bringing forth new life from forgotten seeds,

31. appearing in the wrenching traumas of our lives, sometimes seeming to recede and hide but patiently forming and contouring the landscape of the human heart.

33. Our Lenten journey is a desert journey seeking out the life-giving water flowing in torrents and trickling from the baptismal font.

35. Photo Credits Slide #1: The Killpecker Sand Dunes of the Red Desert, by the Bureau of Land Management. Photo is in the public domain. (link) Slide #2: Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by Pravit. (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons (link) Slide #3: Sand and Desert in Death Valley, by John Sullivan (link) Slide #4: Beach Sand Background by Andrew Schmidt (used for several slides as part of the background) (link) Slide #5: Ripples on Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, from the website of the National Park Service (link) Slide #7: Desert dunes by Wikigab (link) Slide #9: Golden Canyon, from the website of the National Park Service (link)

36. Photo Credits Slide #10: Bisnaga by Teodoro S Gruhl (link) Slide #11: Bisnaga by Teodoro S Gruhl (link); Colorful Cactus by Vera Kratochvil (link); Desert Blooms by Andrew Schmidt (link); Prickly pear cactus, from the website of the National Park Service (link) Slide #13: Painted desert Arizona by Joyradst (link) Slide #15: Prickly pear cactus, from the website of the National Park Service (link) Slide #16: Colorful Cactuses by Vera Kratochvil (link) Slide #17: Single Water Drop by PetrKratochvil (link) Slide #18: Desert landscape with saguaro cactii (Carnegieagigantea) in Agua Fria National Monument, Arizona by BLM photo (link) Slide #19: Desert palm at an oasis on the San Andreas Fault, McCallum Pond, by Fr. David Foxen, MSC Slide #20: Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang Uyghur AutonomousRegion by Pravit. (link)

37. Photo Credits Slide #21: Desert of Akakus, by Jean-Pierre MALAVIALLE (Desert of Akakus) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons (link) Slide #23: Borrego Palm Canyon, a stream flowing down the canyon in Anza Borrego State Park, by Fr. David Foxen, MSC Slide #24: Windmill, by Fr. David Foxen, MSC Slide #26: Slide #7: Desert dunes by Wikigab (link) Slide #27: The Namib Desert at Sossusvlei by TeoGómez (link) Slide #28: Dune scenic, from the website of the National Park Service (link) Slide #29: The Killpecker Sand Dunes of the Red Desert, by the Bureau of Land Management. Photo is in the public domain. (link) Slide #30: Bisnaga by Teodoro S Gruhl (link) Slide #31: Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, from the website of the National Park Service (link); Painted Desert Badlands, Photographed by Doug Dolde at the Petrified Forest National Park in April, 2009 (link)

38. Photo Credits Slide #32: Storm over the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park, By National Park Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (link) Slide #33: Desert – Inner Mongolia (w:User:pfctdayelise) (Image taken by me using Casio QV-R41) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons; Edited by Fir0002 (link) Slide #34: late afternoon on Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, from the website of the National Park Service (link)