Tessa Bielecki

Tessa Bielecki is a Christian contemplative teacher, retreat facilitator, and author based in Tucson, Arizona, known for an earthy mysticism rooted in the Carmelite tradition, Celtic spirituality, and the wisdom of the Desert Mothers and Fathers.

Born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1944, Bielecki studied Russian and French at Trinity College in Washington D.C. and planned a career in international relations before meeting Fr. William McNamara in 1965. That encounter redirected her life: together they co-founded the Spiritual Life Institute, a monastic community of men and women. Over the following four decades she helped establish four hermitage retreat centers — Nada Hermitage in Sedona, Arizona; Nova Nada Hermitage in Kemptville, Nova Scotia; Nada Carmelite Hermitage in Crestone, Colorado; and Holy Hill Hermitage in Skreen, County Sligo, Ireland — and served as Mother Abbess for nearly forty years. Her contemplative formation was deepened by decades of inter-religious dialogue, most notably with Buddhists throughout the 1980s at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and by participation in gatherings including the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Lindisfarne Fellowship in Crestone, and the first meeting in Rio de Janeiro to draft the Earth Charter.

After leaving monastic life in 2003, Bielecki co-founded the Desert Foundation in 2005 with Fr. David Denny — a small, informal Circle of Friends exploring the wisdom of the desert and the inner desert of loss, grief, and injustice, gathering in what they call a Tent of Meeting. She went on to serve as an adjunct professor at Colorado College for nearly fifteen years, teaching courses on Fire and Light: A History of Christian Mysticism and Sand and Sky: Desert Spirituality from the Middle East to the American Southwest. She has led pilgrimages to Spain, Italy, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan and represented Christianity at a gathering of major world religions at the United Nations Chapel under the auspices of the Embrace Foundation.

Her published works include Teresa of Avila: Mystical Writings, Holy Daring, Ecstasy and Common Sense, Season of Glad Songs: A Christmas Anthology, and Desert Voices: The Edge Effect, co-authored with David Denny. She also created the Sounds True audio learning course Wild at Heart: Radical Teachings of the Christian Mystics, and has appeared on podcasts including Messy Jesus Business, Contemplify, Spiritual Wanderlust, and The New Monastics. She offers an e-course on the Christian mystics, a webinar on interspirituality, and a masterclass on St. Teresa for the Women Mystics School. Together with Denny she produces the ongoing podcast Fire and Light.

Since 2017, Bielecki has lived in Tucson, exploring the Sonoran Desert and what she calls the life of an "urban hermit." Her retreats — such as the gathering she and Denny led in Patagonia, Arizona — weave poetry, shared story, contemplative prayer, and time outdoors into an intimate, circle-based format that draws participants into what she describes as "putting contemplation on the roads of the world." The Desert Foundation reaches people through its website sandandsky.org. Bielecki is currently writing a memoir.