So I drove out to the middle of nowhere today to visit St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery, which is in the Sonoran desert near Florence, Arizona. I’ve never been to Arizona. This is a big, hot, dry, empty state. The desert looks so very, very desolate. How in the world do people cope? But they do. Hey, Arizonans, New Mexicans, and other people who live in desert states, help me to understand why you love it here. I grew up in a lush, green state (sometimes too lush, and definitely too humid), so this is about as alien as it gets for me. Help me to see this place through your eyes, and what you love about it.

Inside the monastery grounds, though, it’s an oasis, as you can see above.

I only had time to spend about 90 minutes, but during that period I was able to walk around and to pray. I got to venerate relics of St. Panteleimon (4th century) and the 20th century Athonite monk Elder Joseph the Hesychast (his relic was the top of his skull, which I kissed; his entire skull is inside the reliquary, though only the top is exposed; keep it blessedly weird, Orthodoxy!) I spoke privately with Abbot Paisios, who heads the monastic community there.

On the way out, I stopped a second time by the bookstore, and fell into conversation with a luminous young monk, Fr. Nektarios. He asked me what brought me out to the desert, and I told him I’m going to be giving a couple of talks in Phoenix about Dante and the Divine Comedy, which is the subject of my new book. He asked me to tell him more, and I did.

Then he told me that he credits Dante with playing a major role in bringing him to Orthodoxy.

Wait … what?!

True. He said that reading the Divine Comedy put him in such a different frame of mind, and made him think of God and the spiritual life in a fresh new way. He said it opened the doorway to him to ultimately find his way to Orthodoxy, and then to the monastic life. I told him how startled I was to discover how Dante’s Paradiso was all about theosis, which I didn’t realize there had been a tradition of in the West. Father Nektarios was very generous, and said that he hopes readers of my Dante book, whether or not they find their way to Orthodoxy, find their way closer to God, and to spiritual healing, by making the poet’s acquaintance.

“Don’t forget to pray for Dante,” Father Nektarios said, which just delighted me to no end. You never know who you’re going to meet at the end of a desert road.