Cistercian Monk and Bishop, Erik Varden, will guide listeners through a transformative year with the Desert Fathers.
[Fort Wayne, IN, December 23, 2024—]
A new podcast series, Desert Fathers in a Year with Bishop Erik Varden, will launch on January 1, 2025, in collaboration with Erik Varden, Bishop of Trondheim, EWTN, and Exodus 90. The series draws inspiration from the Desert Fathers of the Early Church, offering a fresh perspective on their timeless wisdom. The series can be seen and heard on the Hallow App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, X (fka Twitter), and wherever you listen to podcasts.
Wisdom for the Desert of Our Time
We live in a modern desert, filled with technological wonders but lacking the nourishment needed for our spirits to flourish. God remains seemingly absent behind a myriad of distractions and material allurements. Like those seeking God in the ancient world, it is time to embrace a different kind of desert, a place of silence and peace away from the daily barrage of sounds and images that overwhelm our senses and imagination.
The series is designed to help modern people find silence and balance in a hectic world. Each week, listeners will be guided through the insights of the Desert Fathers on prayer, asceticism, and community. The first episodes, recorded at the Cistercian monastery of Nový Dvůr in the Czech Republic, offer an insight into what monastic life entails. Bishop Varden shares reflections on how the teachings of the Desert Fathers can be applied in our time. “We live in a desert of distractions,” says Varden. “The Desert Fathers show us how to find true joy and meaning through Christ’s love. They learned to master distractions and temptations through prayer and silence, and this can inspire us to find direction in life.”
“My role is simply to pass on treasures I myself have received,” says Varden. Through the podcast, he hopes to show how the Desert Fathers provide us with tools to live a life in Christ. “They went out into the desert to learn what it means to live in Christ. This is what it’s all about, and it’s just as relevant for us today,” he concludes.
Meet Bishop Erik Varden
Erik Varden is a Cistercian monk and the Bishop of Trondheim in Norway. He has become a leading Catholic voice through his writings that engage our secular culture using the language of beauty to point us to the centrality of our search for God, even when we look in the wrong places.
A Catholic convert during his studies at Cambridge, he discovered the monastic tradition and the Desert Fathers, inspiring his own vocation at Mount St. Bernard’s Abbey in England, where he eventually became abbot.
Bishop Erik Varden has a unique way of guiding listeners through the insights won in the spiritual combat of the ancient desert which direct us to what we need most today: the love of Christ that conquers all obstacles.
About Exodus 90
Exodus 90 is a Catholic apostolate, which serves men in becoming uncommonly free. In a Catholic vision, freedom is not about doing your own will, but about taking up your life and laying it down in response to God’s will. And in this sacrifice we become fruitful in transforming our world in the love of Jesus Christ. “The Desert Fathers, and the ascetic tradition of the Early Church, were great influences upon the formation and development of Exodus 90 over the last ten years,” writes Jamie Baxter, Founder & CEO.
“It’s our mission that ultimately drew us to recognize a companion in Bishop Erik Varden from afar. In his teaching, we saw someone who is preaching the truths of our faith freely, and in terms that can be understood today. For about a year, we discerned together the project that’s become Desert Fathers in a Year. It’s our hope, through the teaching of Bishop Erik we can open up the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and share the wisdom they won in the desert with people today.”
Goal for the Podcast:
The podcast will offer many opportunities for spiritual growth for listeners, and is intended for a broad audience: men, women, young and old, the faithful and religious seekers as well.
Few are called into the actual desert, but everyone is called to transformation in Jesus Christ, bearing the weight of eternal glory. The wisdom of the desert can help us look into the reality of our daily lives with greater clarity: to discover the path of our transformation in the face of our spouse, our children, and our neighbor.
Subscribe and Learn More
- You can learn more by visiting desertfathers.com
- You can follow Bishop Erik Varden on his blog, CoramFratribus.com
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
- Listen on Spotify
- Watch on YouTube
- Follow us on X (fka Twitter)
- Grab the RSS Feed
- Listen on the Hallow App
Interviews and Media Requests
Interviews and media appearances are available upon request.
Please contact:
Adam Minihan
Head of Marketing | Exodus 90
