With Saint Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I thought It might be good to return to something I wrote on solitude for a course on Celtic Spirituality years ago.
Solitude and Silence
Earthed Spirituality
We’re actually not sure how, but the Celtic church was greatly influenced by the desert fathers and mothers. These Christians were the beginning of the monastic movement. They ventured out into the Egyptian and Syrian deserts to spend a life of solitude and prayer. They didn’t go to escape the sins of the city, but to do battle with the devil – the desert was not a spiritually safe place in their minds.
One of the most famous of these desert fathers was Saint Anthony of Egypt – His biography was written by Athanasius and is likely available from the library. Amazingly, Antony appears carved into the top of many high crosses across Ireland!
The Celts held these hermits in high regard, as they did the martyrs of the church and they tried to emulate them. But since there is no desert in Ireland, and by the end of Patrick’s life there was no persecution or opportunity for martyrdom, they created what was called “Green Martyrdom.” In Green Martyrdom a person would go off into the Irish countryside and find a cave to sleep in, or they would sleep in the open, living a life of sacrifice and solitude
But the Irish countryside is not the desert, and many of the Celtic solitaries found an abundance rather than a lack of provision in their hermitage. Here is a prayer that I have in a frame up in our little cabin in the woods:
I wish, O Son of the living God,
Eternal, ancient King,
For a secret hut in the wilderness
That it may be my dwelling
A very blue shallow well
To be beside it,
A clear pool for washing away sins
Through the grace of the Holy Ghost.
A beautiful wood close by
Around it on every side
For the nurture of many-voiced birds
To shelter and hide it.
Facing the south for warmth
A little stream across its ground,
A choice plot with abundant bounties
Which would be good for every plant…
This is the housekeeping I would get,
I would choose it without concealing,
Fragrant fresh leeks, hens,
Salmon, trout, bees.
My fill of clothing and food
From the King of good fame
And for me to be sitting for a time
Praying to God in every place.
Esther De Waal, The Celtic Way of Prayer, p.100
Green Martyrdom was not the only way of Solitude – for many of the monks who put out into the sea in their little coracles, they were venturing into the “Desert Ocean.”
The Celts got their cues from the Desert Fathers and Mothers, but they did not just copy them. If someone went out to be a hermit in the desert, It was likely he or she would remain there for the rest of their life. The Celts on the other hand might retire into solitude at some times in their lives, or at certain times of the year, and then later on re-emerge to join the community once again.
Great missionaries like St. Columbanus and Columba are recorded as seeking out and solitary spots as part of the pattern of their public activities.
What is Solitude?
Just as fasting is the abstinence from food for spiritual purposes, solitude is the withdrawing to privacy for spiritual purposes. The period of solitude may last only a few minutes, or for days. Solitude may be sought in order to participate without interruption in other Spiritual Disciplines, or just to be alone with God.
Solitude and Silence
In both Foster’s and Whitney’s books on the Spiritual Disciplines, they partner the disciplines of Solitude and Silence. They do so rightly because the two do go together. Even when we do not fill our lives with people, we can fill our lives with noise – the T.V. or radio on to “keep us company.” In modern times we have every convenience to fill our ears and eyes with noise which serves to drown out the voice of God in our ears and the image of God from our eyes. True solitude removes ourselves from company, but it also removes ourselves from other distractions as well.
While I turn off all distraction in Solitude, I often keep a very vocal conversation going with God! I often walk through the forest, or paddle down streams talking out loud to God as I go. So my silence and my solitude don’t always go together.
The Joy of Solitude
Out of all the Spiritual Disciplines, this is the one that makes me sigh - like you might when you think of chocolate. For a guy that loves people, and loves a good party, I would like nothing better than to spend time in solitude with God. When life gets really busy, and even when it doesn’t, my heart cries out for a day or just a portion of a day when I can get away on my own and be with God.
Nothing replenishes my soul like solitude.
Bono sings about his yearning to get back to the loneliness of Africa in “Where the Streets Have No Name”
“I want to run,
I want to hide.
I want to tear down these walls
that hold me inside.
I want to reach out
and touch the flame,
Where the streets have no name
… and when I go there,
I go there with You
It’s all I can do.”
There are times when I am able to go out with just one of my kids – either to do something special, or to run errands. Inevitably doing these times, they will say to me, “Dad, I really like these times when we’re together, just you and I.” When I can get away for extended periods of solitude, inevitably, I say to God, “Father, I really like these times when we’re together, just you and I.”
The Fear of Solitude
Once, when I went on a solo retreat at a hermitage at Mount Alverno Retreat Centre, Sister Wendy, who runs the place, said to me just as I started up the hill to the hermitage, “If you find you can’t take it, you can always come back down the hill for a conversation.” I said, “No I’ll be alright.” She replied that some people hardly last a half an hour before the quiet and loneliness get to them and they come running back down the hill to find another human!
Some people fear being alone.
Foster writes, “Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. We keep up a constant stream of words even if they are inane. We buy radios that strap to our wrist or fit over our ears so that if no one else is around at least we are not condemned to silence. T. S. Eliot analyzed our culture so well when he wrote, “Where shall the world be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence.”
But loneliness or clatter are not our only alternatives. We can cultivate an inner solitude and silence that sets us free from loneliness and fear. Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment. Solitude is not first a place but a state of mind and heart.”
- P. 84
He says at the beginning of the chapter: “Jesus calls us from loneliness to solitude.”
For some of us, we don’t like to be alone because we don’t much like our own company, or because our personality is so shaped by the people around us, we don’t even know who we are when we are alone.
It may have to do with whether you are an introvert or an extrovert – introverts gain their energy from within, and are drained by exterior stimulation. Extroverts, on the other hand gain their energy from exterior stimulation and are drained by interior work.
I once went on a canoe trip with an extreme extrovert friend. I’ve never seen him so depressed! He only had me to bounce off of. Once, I left him to get some alone time for myself, and it was the worst thing I could have done to the poor soul. He kept getting lower and lower until we met up with a gang of people on their own trip – It was like he found water in the desert!
Introvert, or extrovert, fearful, or expectant: we need to practice solitude because it will strengthen your soul.
Solitude in Scripture
We only have to look at Jesus life if we want to find the practice of Solitude in scripture. Jesus inaugurated His ministry by spending forty days alone in the desert (Mt. 4:1—Il). Before He chose the twelve He spent the entire night alone in the desert hills (Lk.
6:12). When He received the news of the death of John the Baptist, He “withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart” (Mt. 14:13). After the miraculous feeding of the five thousand Jesus made His disciples leave; then He dismissed the crowd and “went up into the hills by himself . . .“ (Mt. 14:23). Following a long night of work “in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place . . .“ (Mk. 1:35). When the twelve had returned from a preaching and healing mission, Jesus instructed them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place . . .“ (Mk. 6:31). Following the healing of a leper Jesus “withdrew to the wilderness and prayed” (Lk. 5:16). With three disciples He sought out the silence of a lonely mountain as the stage for the transfiguration (Mt. 17:1—9). As he prepared for His highest and most holy work, Jesus sought the solitude of the garden of Gethsemane (Mt. 26:36—46). One could go on, but perhaps this is sufficient to show that the seeking out of a solitary place was a regular practice with Jesus. So it should be for us.
We need to heed Jesus’ command, or invitation to “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place . . .“
The benefits of Solitude
Being Real
Some one once said, “True character is who you are when you are alone.” So if we are going to be real with God, we need to get alone with him more often. In the quiet of solitude, all pretensions can be striped away, all the things in life that are trying to mold us in their image are removed, all the requirements of the world disappear, and we can stand before God “just as I am” as the song says.
This might be scary for some, but for me it is a relief, because it is in solitude that I am reminded that above all else my identity is caught up in the fact that I am God’s adopted, chosen son. If you are not really sure of what God thinks about you, being alone with him might be pretty scary! Maybe the reason I cherish solitude so much is that, on my best days, I’m really sure of what God thinks about me – he loves me. If you’re not so sure that he loves you, get alone with him, listen to his voice – the first thing that the Holy Spirit teaches our spirit is how to say “Abba, Father” If you can get alone in silence with God, the first thing that you will hear is the Spirit whispering in your ear “you are God’s adopted child – he chose you, he loves you.
Strengthening
Dallas Willard writes,
“We must reemphasize, the “desert” or “closet” is the primary place of strength for the beginner, as it was for Christ and for Paul. They show us by their example what we must do. In stark aloneness it is possible to have silence, to be still, and to know that Jehovah indeed is God (Ps. 46:10), to set the Lord before our minds with sufficient intensity and duration that we stay centered on Him – our hearts fixed, established in trust (Ps. 112:7-8) – even when back in the office, shop, or home.”
Do you know what Christian strength looks like?
Listen to Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians:
“I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
Christian strength is the ability to know the love of God for us!
Getting Centred
It is in my times of Solitude that I able to take the broad view of my life and remember my calling and purpose in life. I can make big decisions and plans without the distractions of other voices etc. You can see that Jesus sought out solitude before the big events in his life. Trudeau’s long walk in the snow before he resigned as prime minister has become part of Canadian history lore.
Whitney tells of how Billy Graham was being pressured by Charles Templeton to give up his belief in the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. Templeton had many convincing arguments that Graham had trouble refuting, and it was a tumultuous time for him. Graham took some time in solitude and meditated on the many times in scripture that it said “the Word of the Lord came.” He saw how Jesus treated scripture, and he realized that intellect alone would not solve his problem – that it was an issue of faith. So he placed his Bible on a stump and knelt down and said, Oh God; I cannot prove certain things. I cannot answer some of the questions Church is raising and some of the other people are raising, but I accept this Book by faith as the Word of God.” And through that time of solitude and the perspective he gained that night, Billy Graham was shaped into the man the world has known since.
In Solitude we learn to live in integrity.
In Max Lucado’s children’s book, “You are Special,” the Wemmicks spend all of their time judging each other. They give gold stars to those who impress them, and gray dots to those who fail to impress them. Punchinello, the main character discovers that – the dots and stars don’t stick when we spend time with the maker! (read the book, even if there’s no kid to read it to.)
When we are tempted to live in a way that will please those around us, rather than live in integrity with who the Father has called us to be, the more time we spend in solitude with the Father, the less other’s judgments stick to us!
How to practice Solitude
Daily Solitude
Traditionally, Christians have called this practice “having a quiet time.” It is taking 10 or so minutes out of your day, finding a place that you can be alone and quieting yourself before God. Start with 10 minutes, and then you may find that you want more time. Martin Luther felt that he needed 5 hours a day in solitude with God just so he could accomplish all that he had to do!
Some people may find it easy to quiet themselves before God, others of us need exercises to still our minds and our hearts. Take a look at the exercises in the Christian Meditation pamphlet for helpful ways to quiet your soul.
Many people read and meditate on scripture or use a devotional guide to help them. It is also the time that people bring their requests to God, but it is important that you listen to God during this time and not use scripture and prayer as a distraction from God’s presence. The important thing is to get alone and recognize God’s presence with you before you read or pray.
Dawn Comber has introduced me to this wonderful website called Sacred Space. It is maintained by the Irish Jesuits and it enables you to shut the world off and meditate of God’s presence even while you sit at your computer.
It would be great to set a space aside as Solitude space, so that even when there are people in the house, if they see you in that space, they know that you are wanting as much solitude as can be afforded. Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles had a very large family. When she needed solitude, she would bring her apron up over her head, so that she could pray and read scripture without being bothered by the myriad of children.
Spontaneous Solitude.
Once you have learned the discipline of solitude, you can steal solitude in the most everyday places when you get alone. Try not turning on the radio when you get in the car. Recognize God’s presence as you ride the elevator alone. Walk through a park on the way home and be conscious of walking with God. I try to make myself aware of God’s presence in the solitude of my long-distance runs, bike rides and swims.
They say that you can be alone even when standing in a crowd. So, if you have honed the discipline of solitude when you are alone, you could also practice it when you are waiting for the subway.
Retreats
Taking a retreat is probably what comes first to your mind when you think of the discipline of solitude. There are places where you can go to be alone with God. I’ve listed a number of them in this pamphlet. You might have a piece of geography where you have really connected with God – you may go back there. For me, there is nothing like a canoe to help me connect with the Father. Go for a day, or even half a day, once you’ve done that, you can think of practicing solitude for longer periods. If you have no idea how to spend your time during your retreat, many retreat centres have spiritual directors who will listen to your needs and give some direction on how you could spend your time. I would be willing to help in this way if you want to meet before any retreat.
You might think that going on a solitary retreat is only for super Christians, people in full time ministry, or people who are really messed up, or all of the above. The truth is, I believe that all Christians should take a daylong solitary retreat at least once a year. I think that 4 times a year would be more beneficial. I try to take a day away at least once a month, and a multi-day retreat once a year.
If you have a issue to resolve in your life, think about all the time that you have taken worrying about it and trying to work it out, wouldn’t it be good to take a day to ask God what he thinks? My retreats help me to study, get connected with God as my friend, and I often am able to do some very important planning on those days. I do all of this in the presence of God.
Jesus says to us, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place . . .“ will you heed his call?
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