Almighty God really exists, and He is found by us when our attention and love are free from occupations and attachments connected with what is "not-God," i.e., created realities. He is found in the desert. He is found when we are alone. Above all, He is found in solitude, the solitude of soul that is detached and empty of created being, created noise, and self-inflating created activities. Such solitude is possible in the midst of a noisy city by those who choose interior recollection of soul in union with God, rather than the spiritual dissipation that comes from allowing the mind to roam free, and to ride a merry-go-round comprised of the chatter, noise, and ceaseless activity that comprise modern life. But be careful! If you choose to go into real solitude, you will find a Being there whose Love will not allow you to remain in lukewarm mediocrity. You will find a Someone there, Who will begin a process of spiritual healing, which will enflame and burn your soul, and which will certainly change your mind and your heart, day after day, and year after year, until you become "another Christ!"

The Spirit of God is the Solitary Source of all goodness, happiness, fulfillment and joy. The ten thousand things of creation are but pale imitations of this Reality. Therefore, when we choose to unite our souls with the insignificant trinkets, beads, and possessions of the created world, we are dooming our spirits to dissatisfaction and ultimate suffocation. For our souls are made in the image of God, and are vastly superior to all of creation. And our hunger is of a spiritual type that can only be filled by the Solitary Spiritual Source in Whose image we have been made. And we are unable to know that Source, or to share in the Spiritual Abundance for which we were created, until we we too become solitary, and give up our love affair with the paltry baubles and beads of creation, whose strangle-hold on our soul seals it off from the spiritual solitude and emptiness necessary to receive the Abundant Life awaiting us from the Spiritual Source of all Good. For our longing for solitude is nothing less than our longing for the fullness of God! And our God is a Jealous God. He must be first in our hearts, in the solitude of our nuptial union, above all competing created loves, as attested to by Richard Rolle below:

"Truly affluence of this everlasting love comes not to me in idleness, nor might I feel this ghostly heat while I was weary bodily for travel, or truly unmannerly occupied with worldly mirth, or else given without measure to disputation; but I have felt myself truly in such things wax cold, until, putting aback all things in which I might outwardly be occupied, I have striven to be only in the sight of my Saviour and to dwell in full inward burning."(Richard Rolle of Hampole, "Prologue," Fire of Love)

So perfect interior solitude, or perfect emptiness and detachment of the will, is the necessary purity of soul required for our participation in the Joy of communing with Our Creator. And exterior silence and solitude, while not always possible, nor absolutely necessary for those seeking sanctity, nonetheless, are extremely helpful to the development of interior emptiness and detachment. That's why people busy with the affairs of the world go on solitary retreats where they hope to get in touch with the Spirit of God. And that's why some people, lay and religious, become hermits. For their souls tell them that the fullness of Life lies in that direction. And that's why lay people must not be timid about simplifying their lives and, more and more, directing their time and activities to the love of God. Yes, laymen must make a place for solitude in their lives if they are to know the ongoing Joy from "the Soul" of Solitude.

For the soul moving towared the Spiritual Marriage, and for those nearing perfection, solitude and being alone, except for occasional short periods of dryness, becomes the ongoing quality of soul in which one experieces the fullness of God and spiritual Joy. The more one's attention is drawn to created distractions, the less intense the experience of union and complete Joy. Therefore, such souls long for silence and solitude, because they are synonymous with their longing for God, and the fully satisfying happiness that only comes from His Spirit.

However, solitude is not always pleasant for those who have not yet advanced in inner detachment, nor reached the higher climbs of the spiritual mountain. For some, solitude is often experieced as ongoing loneliness or the withdrawal pains connected with the removal of created supports and realities from which they are not yet fully detached. At times, solitude becomes a "desert experience" where the weaknesses of the flesh, our woundedness and brokenness, and the residue of concupiscense and Original Sin move powerfully to dominate the mental faculties not caught up in the fog of external busyness. In the clarity of our isolation from people, things, and activities, we come face to face with the true state of our being, i.e., spirtual poverty. In the stark reality of our helplessness and our nothingness, we learn humility and the truth about ourselves and all our little projects to conquer and possess more and more created being. And we learn to greatfully transfer all our prior self-conceit to the love of the One Who seeks us out as His own children, to care for us, and to love us, in spite of our abjectness and misery. And simultaneously, as we accept our abjectness and poverty, and surrender to God, we are given a share in His Being, and His Glory, to use and possess as if it were our own.

It is in such experiences that one learns new respect for the power of Jesus Christ, Who alone among all spiritual remedies, is able to confront and conquer evil temptations seeking to destroy the soul. Here the Holy Name of Jesus proves itself stronger than sin in the fires of temptation. And it is here that forgotten memories resurface and tempt one to sin, anger, and hatred. And it is here, in the heat of emotion relived, that we must learn forgiveness and to implement the "Mind of Christ" in our lives in connection with those same memories. For those with a spiritual journey to make, solitude teaches perseverance and fortitude until our spirits are sufficiently detached to receive the inflowing of the wonderful Joy of the Divine Spirit. And we must never forget, that by our own power we could never achieve such detachment. As God sees that we are faithful, He will join us to His power in such a way as to insure our ultimate personal victory.

In the Spiritual Canticle, stanzas 34 and 35, St John has some interesting comments on interior "solitude."

"When the soul has become established in the quietude of solitary love of her Bridegroom, as has this one of whom we are speaking, she is settled in God, and God in her, with so much delight that she has no need of other masters or means to direct her to him, for now God is her guide and her light. He accomplishes in her what he promised through Hosea: I shall lead her into solitude and there speak to her heart [Hos. 2:14]. In this promise he reveals that he communicates and unites himself to the soul in solitude. To speak to the heart is to satisfy the heart, which is dissatisfied with anything less than God. (Ibid.stanza 35)

"The soul, represented by the turtledove, lived in solitude before encountering the Beloved in this state of union. There is no companionship that affords consolation to the soul that longs for God; indeed, until she finds him, everything causes greater solitude. and now in solitude has built her nest;

"The solitude in which she lived consisted of the desire to go without the things of the world for her Bridegroom's sake - as we said of the turtledove - by striving for perfection, acquiring perfect solitude in which she reaches union with the Word. She consequently attains to complete refreshment and rest, signified here by the nest that refers to repose. It is similar to saying: She formerly practiced this solitude, in which she lived, in trial and anguish because she was imperfect, but now she has built her nest in it and has found refreshment and repose in having acquired it perfectly in God. David, speaking spiritually, says: Truly the sparrow has found a house and the turtledove a nest where she can nurture her young [Ps. 84:3], that is: The soul has found a place in God where she can satisfy her appetites and faculties and in solitude he guides her,(Ibid.35)

"In this solitude, away from all things, the soul is alone with God and he guides, moves, and raises her to divine things. That is: he elevates her intellect to divine understanding, because it is alone and divested of other contrary and alien knowledge; he moves her will freely to the love of God, because it is alone and freed from other affections; and he fills her memory with divine knowledge, because it is now alone and empty of other images and phantasies. Once the soul disencumbers these faculties and empties them of everything inferior and of possessiveness in regard to superior things, leaving them alone without these things, God engages them in the invisible and divine. It is God who guides her in this solitude, as St. Paul declares of the perfect: Qui spiritu Dei aguntur, and so on (they are moved by the Spirit of God) [Rom. 8:14]"(Ibid.35)

"The meaning of this is not only that he guided her in her solitude, but it is he alone who works in her without any means. This is a characteristic of the union of the soul with God in spiritual marriage: God works in and communicates himself to her through himself alone, without using as means the angels or natural ability, for the exterior and interior senses, and all creatures, and even the soul herself do very little toward the reception of the remarkable supernatural favors that God grants in this state. These favors do not fall within the province of the soul's natural ability or work or diligence, but God alone grants them to her. And the reason he does so is that he finds her alone and does not want to give her any other company, nor does he want her to trust in or profit by any other than himself alone.

"Since the soul has left all and passed beyond all means, ascending above them all to God, it is fitting that God himself be the guide and means of reaching himself. And having ascended above all things, in solitude from all things, she profits by no other than the Word, the Bridegroom, who helps her to ascend further. He is taken with love for her and wants to be the only one to grant her these favors. And he goes on: in solitude the wound of love. (Ibid. stanza 35)

"That is, he is wounded with love for the bride. The Bridegroom bears a great love for the solitude of the soul; but he is wounded much more by her love since, being wounded with love for him, she desired to live alone in respect to all things. And he does not wish to leave her alone, but wounded by the solitude she embraces for his sake, and observing that she is dissatisfied with any other thing, he alone guides her, drawing her to and absorbing her in himself. Had he not found her in spiritual solitude, he would not have wrought this in her. (Ibid. Stanza 35)

"Isaiah declares this of the one who has practiced the works of perfection and arrived at the summit of which we are discussing. Addressing the soul, he says of this perfection:

'Then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be as the noonday. And your Lord God will give you rest always and will fill your soul with brightness, and deliver your bones; and you will be like a watered garden and an unfailing fount of water. And the solitudes of ages will be built in you. You will raise up the beginnings and foundations of generation and generation, and you will be called the builder of the fences, withdrawing your paths and ways to quietude. If you separate your labor from the day of rest and from doing your will on my holy day, and call yourself the delicate, holy, and glorious Lord's day of rest, and if you glorify him by not doing your own ways and not fulfilling your own will, then you will delight in the Lord, and I will extol you above the heights of the earth and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob' [Is. 58:10-14]...

"Jacob's inheritance here is God himself. Accordingly, as we said, this soul is no longer engaged in anything else than joy in the delights of this pasture. (St John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, stanza 36)

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Richard Rolle has some definite thoughts about the superiority of the exterior solitary life, or hermit life, for those who are called to it, as a means for seeking perfection in the love of God:

"Forsooth he that chooses solitary life for God, and leads it in good manner, is not near woe but fair virtue; and the name of Jesu shall continually delight his mind; and the more they give themselves to that life without man's or creature's solace, the more shall it be given them to be gladdened with God's comforting.(Richard Rolle of Hampole, Fire of Love, Ch. l3)

"Ghostly visitations ofttimes they receive; the which, if they remain in company, they know not at all. Therefore it is said to a beloved soul: Ducam cam in solitudinem, et ibi loquar ad car ejus. That is to say: 'I shall lead her into the wilderness, and there shall I speak unto her heart.'(Ibid.)

"Some truly are taught by God to desire the wilderness for Christ, and to hold a single purpose; the which forthwith, that they may more freely and devoutly serve God, forsaking the common clothing of the world, despise all transitory things, and cast away temporal things; and excelling in height of mind they desire only everlasting joy, and are only given to devotion and contemplation, and every effort of their life they cease not to give to the love of Christ. Of whom full many, although from men they dwell full far, yet they stumble not, because their minds are full far from wicked conversation.(Ibid.)

"The righteous hermits have also a single purpose. They live in the charity of God and of their neighbour; they despise worldly praise, and as much as they can they flee man's sight. They hold every man more worthy than themselves; they continually give their minds to devotion; they hate idleness; they refuse fleshly lusts; they savour and burningly seek heavenly communion. Earthly they covet not, but forsake; in sweetness of prayer they are delighted. Truly some of them feel the sweetness of eternal refreshment; and with chaste heart and body, with the undefiled eye of the mind, truly behold God and the citizens of heaven. Because by the bitter drink of penance they have loved great labour, they are now set afire with the love of high contemplation, and alone are worthy to take heed to God, and to bide the kingdom of Christ.(Ibid.)

"Therefore great is the hermit's life if it be one's proper vocation and calling. And truly the blessed Maglorius was full of miracles, and from his childhood gladdened by the sight of angels. When according to the prophecy of his former father, Saint Sampson, he was made archbishop, and had a long rule in that estate, being warned by the visit of an angel, he left his archbishopric and chose a hermit's life. Saint Cuthbert also went from his bishopric to an anchorite's life.(Ibid.)

"Therefore if such men have done thus for to have more devotion, who of good mind will be hardy to set any state in holy pilgrimage before solitary life? Truly in this they occupy themselves with no outward things, but only take heed to heavenly contemplation; and that they be continually warm in the love of Christ, and set worldly business perfectly behind.(Ibid.)

"Wherefore a heavenly noise sounds within them, and full sweet melody makes the solitary man merry; for clatterings distract them who are set among many, and but seldom suffer them to think or pray. Of which solitary the psalmist speaks in the Song of Love, saying: 'I will go into the place of the marvellous tabernacle, into the house of God.' And he describes the manner of going, in rejoicing and songs of praise, saying: In voce exultationis et confesionis; that is to say: 'In voice of gladness and praise.' And that loneliness without noise and bodily song is needful to that—that man may receive that songful joy, and hold it in joying and singing—he openly shows in another place: Elongavi, inquit, fugiens; et mansi in solitudine. That is to say: 'Fleeing by myself, I have withdrawn, and in the wilderness I have dwelt.'(Ibid.)

"In this life truly he is busy to burn in the fire of the Holy Ghost; and into the joy of love to be taken and, comforted by God, to be glad. For the perfect lonely man hugely burns in God's love; and whiles in surpassing of mind he is rapt above himself by contemplation, he is lift up joying unto that sweet sound and heavenly noise. And such a one, is likened to the seraphim, burning within himself anchorite without comparison and most steadfast, whose heart is figured to godly fire; and in full light and burning he is borne up into his love. And after this life he shall be suddenly taken up to the high seats of the heavenly citizens, For so great is the burning of love and more than can be shown to him that has sought solitude only for the glory of his Maker, and who, going meekly, has not considered himself above sinners.(Ibid.)

So just as the world makes a stand for solitary time in which to pursue and succeed at career goals connected with art, music, science, making money, and creative activites, you must make a stand for solitary time in your daily life in which to pursue the One Who is already pursuing you, and who loves you beyond measure, and beyond understanding. If you never succeed at anything else in this life, you will have accomplished "everything," or "the one thing necessary," to the extent that you make a stand for this God who is yearning to enflame your heart with the passion of His burning Joy, and Who blesses every minor effort on our part with a hundredfold reward of Bliss and Gladness in this life.

Note and Schedule this prayer solitude with God, this tremendous, life giving Love Affair for your soul, as the most important item on your daily calendar!