Theme
Witnesses on loneliness
Witnesses who prayed alone — deserts, cells, exiles, rooms. Solitude is not the absence of God.
A few words
Arsenius, flee from men, and you will be saved.
I am only an instrument; it is not the instrument one looks at, but the hand that uses it.
Prayer is the little implement through which Men reach where Presence is denied them.
Love is the fruit of prayer.
In the bitterest bitterness I shall have peace, and in bitterness I shall dwell; I shall make of it a nest of rest, and in this nest of my own I shall die to myself, to live and live again by your warmth, which is refused to no one, which looks on what is lowly, and raises the poor from the dunghill.
I understand that you are trying to secure my release. But I am asking you not to do anything. Yesterday they killed fifty people. If I am not here, who will help them endure this suffering? They would go into eternity with all their sins, in a deep despair which leads to hell. Now they go to death with their heads held high, leaving their sins behind them. […] Besides heaven, this is the only place where I would want to be.
All 64 witnesses on loneliness
- Abba Arsène Chosen withdrawal, and silence kept as a piece of work.
- Alcuin d'York Praying where one has been placed, while missing the silence one has left.
- Alexandros Papadiamantis Praising God in the language of one's own village, without changing register for the printed page.
- Anna Hinderer Holding a modest post for a very long time, and still finding reason there to give thanks.
- Anthousa d'Antioche The voice of a mother who dares to say what she carries, without demanding anything.
- Antoine le Grand The desert as a school: a solitude that does not flee people but learns to carry them.
- Basile de Césarée Gathering the scattered mind back to God, and letting prayer open our hands to the poor.
- Benoît-Joseph Labre Destitution chosen as a form of prayer; a wandering that seeks nothing to keep.
- Bruno le Chartreux Inhabited silence; solitude as the place where one becomes available again.
- Catherine Doherty The inner desert sought in the midst of an active life, where one falls silent to listen to God.
- Catherine Labouré Staying hidden to leave all the room to God, faithfulness in obscure tasks.
- Charbel Makhlouf The silent prayer of a hidden life, that says nothing and yet shines.
- Charles Eastman (Ohíye S'a) Silence as the first act of prayer, before any word.
- Christine de Pizan Holding up a whole household with the only work one knows how to do.
- Clement Marau Holding a distant post alone, and making solitude an inhabited place.
- Columba Kang Wan-suk Organizational courage under mortal threat, refusal to betray others even under torture, leadership exercised fully as a laywoman when no other structure existed.
- Dag Hammarskjöld The prayer of yes: to consent to God in secret, in the midst of tasks and tensions.
- Dorothy Pattison Prayer held inside a working day that leaves no time for it.
- Ellen Lakshmi Goreh The hidden place one withdraws to, which fits inside the heart.
- Emily Brontë Faith held alone, with no consolation asked of anyone.
- Emily Dickinson Prayer held at arm's length, and held all the same.
- Évagre le Pontique Attention as work: what goes on in the head while one prays.
- Godric de Finchale A song received rather than composed, and long faithfulness to a single place.
- Grégoire Palamas The prayer of the heart: to stand in silence and let the light of God give itself.
- Guigues Ier le Chartreux The prayer of someone who looks his body's needs in the face without shame.
- Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia The desire to learn held against everything, and prayer stammered in a language not one's own.
- Henry Vaughan Light that gives itself at night, and grief that turns into watching.
- Herman d'Alaska Inhabited solitude: never being alone where God is, and beginning to love now, without waiting for tomorrow.
- Howard Thurman Going down to one's center: finding again in the inner silence the genuine voice God has placed there.
- Ignace Kung Pin-Mei The long faithfulness with no one watching, after the moment when everything was decided.
- Isaac le Syrien Radical honesty about the inner life, tenderness toward human weakness, a theology of mercy wide enough to unsettle the strict.
- Jacques Berthieu The prayer of someone who sows without seeing anything come up.
- Jean Climaque Climbing step by step: the spiritual life as patience, where the highest prayer is still a child's.
- Jean de Rila The short prayer repeated in working hands, until it holds up on its own.
- Jean Tauler Descending to the ground of the soul where God speaks, praying in bareness.
- Julienne de Norwich Trust against all evidence: believing, from the depth of night, that love will have the last word.
- Kateri Tekakwitha Stubbornly seeking what pleases God when everyone around opposes it.
- Kyrillos VI Leadership drawn from prayer, when action never leaves recollection.
- Lutgarde d'Aywières The exchange of hearts: giving one's own, receiving another's.
- Macaire l'Égyptien The shortest prayer: when words fail, stretching out one's hands and letting mercy do the rest.
- Madre Castillo Making of bitterness a nest you can live in.
- Marguerite Ebner Silence as a place where prayer can live.
- Marguerite Porete Silence before those who judge, and a stripping-away carried to the point of asking for nothing.
- Marguerite-Marie Alacoque The discovery that the heart of God loves first, and that one can answer that love in the most ordinary life.
- Marie l'Égyptienne The turning of a life, and the long patience of conversion.
- Matta el-Meskeen Prayer as God's work in us before it is our effort: stepping into a labor already begun.
- Maximilien Kolbe A life offered in exchange for a stranger's, courage that turned a death camp into the site of the clearest possible love, a sacrifice witnessed and outlived by the very man it saved.
- Mrs Prest The faith of an unlettered woman, held alone against her own household.
- Nicolas de Flue A self-stripping that makes peace: a disarmed man becomes the place where others are reconciled.
- Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini Faithfulness to the hour of prayer, kept without display, year after year.
- Omelian Kovch Staying where you are of use, even when a door opens to leave.
- Pacôme le Grand Common life as a way to God: serving one's brothers rather than saving oneself alone.
- Sadhu Sundar Singh Desiring God himself rather than his gifts, and making the whole road a prayer.
- Sarah du désert Holding fast in the battle without asking for it to end: praying for strength rather than for relief.
- Shushanik A quiet refusal when yielding would be comfortable; the fidelity of a woman standing alone against her own household.
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Intelligence held as a gift of God, and an imposed silence inhabited without pretence.
- Synclétique d'Alexandrie The dry beginnings of prayer: smoke that stings the eyes before the fire catches.
- Teresa de Calcutta Service of the poorest as an encounter with Christ, and fidelity held through the night of faith.
- Teresa de Cartagena The prayer of one who hears nothing from outside any more, and finds that silence is not a wall.
- Théophane le Reclus The patience of one who accompanies; prayer learned the way one learns to breathe.
- Thomas a Kempis Preferring to feel rather than to define, and finding a hidden life enough.
- Thomas Merton The search for God in silence, and the desire to please him even when the way stays dark.
- Titus Brandsma Resisting by the truth, keeping Jesus near even in the cell.
- Xénia de Saint-Pétersbourg Carrying another's name before God; the freedom of those with nothing left to defend.