The experience of solitude is necessary because only in solitude and silence is the living God revealed as the binding source of all that is. The veil is lifted, and we begin to see the wonderful possibilities of life together that surround and inhabit us. This means that, at our worst and darkest moments, we can affirm that we are God's handiwork, that God's image has marked us forever, that the most real thing about us is the Spirit who dwells in every human heart. We may be fundamentally and utterly nothing, we may be creatures marked for death, but we are peculiar beings whose very emptiness has been designed to be inhabited by nothing less than the living God. And it is in the living God that we meet one another. The life of prayer revolves around two poles: solitude and community. God is encountered in both places.
As you see the world as part of yourself
you will care for it;
As you see yourself as part of the world
you will be cared for.
When alone with your thoughts,
listen and hear the Silence.
Listen and see the Silence.
Listen and taste the Silence.
Close your eyes and feel the Silence
deep within.
Let the woodlands become your chapel --
your body the altar.
In the Silence, as you begin to
communicate with the Creator,
receive peace.