The third and final insatllment of Pete Owen-Jones’ series on spirituality is really rather good. Indeed it seems to me that while all three were interesting they got better as the series progressed. The show aired this past Friday – you can still view it by clicking here for the next few days at least.

This time he’s in the Egyptian desert following in the footsepts of St. Antony. For three weeks he lives in a cave, praying, and listening to the silence – and the occasional “wild dog”. I think I resonated well with this installment not only becuase it is a tradition that is familiar to me (both by academic training, and personal sprituality) but because having done so much back-country camping in the “wilderness” in the US before coming to the UK – I can readily appreciate some of the things he describes – and their connection to that particular spiritual discipline.

While this last installment did not have any profoundly moving reflections – like last week’s reflection on gratitude – it certainly goes a long way toward understanding a spiritual tradition within Christianity that is little understood; one that I think has a lot to contribute towards a re-evaluation of how we approach spirituality in our contemporary socieity.