Waiting for the Presence

Waiting for the Presence is an ancient Eastern concept of staying in a holy place until God speaks to the pilgrim. In this book Fr. Wild shows how this way can still be practiced today. At once deeply personal and revealing, it is also discreetly silent on some special graces from the Lord. Here the reader will find a burning love for Christ the Lord who can accompany one on the lonely top of the Mt. of Olives or beside the starlit, midnight shore of the Sea of Galilee. Beyond a strong link to Catherine Doherty's spirituality and the Desert Fathers, you will discover here an openness to the Holy, which is in fact a profound interiorization of the Holy Places. Holy enthusiasm breathes throughout the book and can be contagious, as it was for the typesetter. I hope more pilgrims who come to the Holy Land will heed Fr. Wild's practical hints on how to do, rather, how to live a true pilgrimage experience.
--Fr. Raphael Bonanno, OFM, HOLY LAND magazine, Jerusalem


Fr. Robert Wild is a member of the late Catherine de Hueck Doherty's Madonna House community in Combermere, Ontario, Canada. He lives as a poustinik, spending much of his time in prayer, spiritual direction, and writing. He helped to edit Catherine Doherty's works but has also published several books himself, among which are Desert Harvest, The Post-Charismatic Experience, Journey to the Lonely Christ, and His Face Shone like the Sun. Ordained in 1967, he joined Madonna House in 1971. He came to the Holy Land in the fall of 1983.