Robert Anthony Sizemore

The Franciscan Desert Pack Robert Anthony Sizemore

Many people have gone into the desert. Some have come out. Others have stayed because they sought the desert's solitude and nothingness, which put them closer to the eternal being of God. St. John the Baptist and St. Anthony of the Desert lived in desert solitude. Jesus sought the desert as a place of prayer. The desert therefore, has not been neutral but rather the very context in which people change and evolve, usually to higher levels of spirituality. The main character, Fritz, in this story, is such a person! He is asked to place his complete trust in God, during World War II, as he leaves the German General Rommel and his tank corps and goes to America to live in Baja, California. He takes with him his Franciscan spirituality, which permeates everything he does. He is not graced by having other people with him, but rather, a pack of German short-haired pointer mixes, which he trains with typical Rommel-like precision. One day he meets a different dog-a buff- colored Border Collie named Jack. They are both attracted to each other and their interspecies communication defies imagination. As a "foster son," Jack is given full rein to direct the pack with Fritz's permission. What they accomplish is the stuff of legend, bordering on myth.