What is faith?

“The ancient monks, seeking quiet for contemplation, found the desert’s emptiness perversely hectic, wild with inner demons, and were tempted to despair; the tidy faith they had brought with them failed before such overwhelming bafflement. But that failure eventually revealed itself to be the point. The faith that the desert teaches is a faith that risks and trusts, a faith that survives in the wilderness of the world not through the fortress of routine and unassailable vows but through the simple reliance on the mercy of God. And God in His mercy has made us human beings.”

…from The Monk Downstairs by Tim Farrington

(photo: yesterday's snow)