Book excerpt: By the fourth century, many ordinary men and women with a strong spiritual awareness retreated to the desert following Christ’s example. These early Christians around the Mediterranean became known as Desert Fathers and Mothers. They preferred long hours of solitude and quiet but they still accepted visitors and people wrote down the things they said. A Little Daily Wisdom from the Early Church gathers the best of these sayings and anecdotes, expressing it in clear, modern English. With brief daily meditations throughout a year, we can experience spiritual nurturing from the Desert Fathers and Mothers in our own quiet corner of this busy world.