“The great joy of the solitary life is not found simply in quiet, in the beauty and peace of nature … nor in the peace of one’s own heart, but in the awakening and attuning to hear of the voice of God … ”

Thomas Merton, in The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals

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What if the only peace and fullness of person you could experience required you to live in solitude, to remain alone so that you might hear what alone would bring you to wholesness and peace?

Would this not prompt in you a discreet exit from all the obligations, demands and noise that comprises most of modern life? Would not the computer and the cellphone be abandoned rather easily? Does that not speak of liberation and contentment?

Is it not the case that Jesus entered the world at a time when mankind had far fewer possessions and distractions?

Does it not stand to reason that silence and solitude are most likely the essential conditions to knowing God and knowing who you are?

If one assumed this was so, would not crowded cities likely be the antithesis to our peace and tranquility and knowledge, and the experience of God?

With this in mind, I ask: Are you whole and content, at peace and ease? Are you settled and sufficiently free of the domination by today’s culture and today’s gadgets, worries, occupations and manufactured “needs?”

Shalom.