Solitude Speaks

“It is in solitude that God speaks to us.” St. Jean Vianney

I see a meme or short video on social media often where a woman gives advice that we need to survive alone. When I was a child, after midnight mass, I went home with my family; but I had often wondered what the parish priest would do after mass. Did he open presents? Maybe he did other things. It left me curious always and then, as I entered university and the workforce, I realized many people are often alone. Circumstances dictate that people need to work on holidays or people need to travel or events might happen that ask us to be alone.  The reality is that the meme I see online leaves out something so dramatic. We are never alone. Someone greater is with us.

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, the feeling of being unloved. “ St. Teresa of Calcutta

Once, I told a coworker that loneliness is the new epidemic. This person asked me for statistics. I am not sure if those stats exist but that was not the point of the conversation. Popes often ate their meals alone. It was Pius X who ended that tradition and he found himself eating with a variety of people. It must be something incredible to be able to eat with the Holy Father. I had watched a biography of St. John Paul II and it recounted how friends often called at the Vatican and ate with him. St. Fabiola was quite the social butterfly and she disliked being alone. St. Jerome noted how much she did not like the idea. Eventually, she gathered the sick in Rome and cared for them with her own hands. I guess she was not alone anymore. I have visited various Catholic Monasteries over the years and they do not chit chat at dinner. They listen to talks, and though they are together, they focus on spiritual words in the refectory.

“If you wish to be saved, flee, be silent, and pray.” St. Alphonsus de Liguori

I went to a Catholic pilgrimage site not far from a large city. There was some special celebration going on so there was a line of cars miles long trying to enter. That was a bust, so we left. It is difficult to find solitude since there are distractions everywhere. When I visit the Carmelite Cloister, there is a partition or grill between guests and the nuns. I was reminded by these dear women that the partition or grill prevents others from entering, not to keep the sisters from leaving. There is a big difference. God will find a way to enter into our lives, but He needs quiet to do it. He likely does not want to compete with the useless chatter, frivolity and noise of the outside world. He appears in the silence. There are many instances of this in scripture. Maybe we need to avoid the crowds a little more often and we might be able to then listen better.

“Retiring into silence and solitude, man, so to speak, is exposed to the reality in his nakedness.”  St. John of the Cross.