Life, Life, Life: Carmelite New Monasticism, Tolkien, and Interreligious Dialogue with Tessa Bielecki

In this fourth episode (actually our first recorded episode), we interview Tessa Bielecki, former Mother Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute and a Carmelite hermit in Tucson, Arizona. Tessa talks with us about her Polish Catholic background, founding a Carmelite reform movement, and four Carmelite wilderness monasteries. She also discusses her life today as a “urban hermit,” the impact of Fr. William McNamara, the relationship of “Holiness and Vitality,” life-affirming Christianity, the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings on the Spiritual Life Institute, contemplation as “personal passionate presence,” Teresa of Avila and Carmelite spirituality, interreligious dialogue (particularly related to the historic Buddhist-Christian dialogue at the Naropa Institute in the 1980s), and interspirituality today. 

Tessa Bielecki is a Carmelite Christian hermit and a pioneer in interreligious dialogue. Co-founder and former Mother Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute (a Carmelite reform institution), she founded four eremitical monasteries in North America and Ireland. Later, after leaving the Spiritual Life Institute, she founded the Desert Foundation (with Father David Denny), exploring connections between the Abrahamic faiths. Today, Tessa lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she considers herself an “urban hermit.”

To learn more about Tessa, or to donate to her 'urban hermitage,' go to: sandandsky.org

Links: 

Charis Foundation

Golden Turtle Sound