On solitude. from the Imitation of Mary

[martin]

When God wants to teach divine leasons to a soul and speak to her heart, He leads her into the desert. (Hos 2: 16)

Think, my child, what a taste for solitude and spirit of recollection the Saints must have had! Find your delight, then, in living far from the world and pay no heed to yourself apart from necessity. And when necessity does force you to take heed, be like the dove that, when forced to leave the ark, returned immediately because outside it could find no place to alight.

If you are not careful to flee the world, it will soon beguile you, and once you have tasted what the world has to offer, you will no longer have any taste for what God offers.

The spouse in the Song of Songs sought her beloved on the streets of Jerusalem and could not find him.

Bear in mind that never yet have you had dealings with the world without being worse off in God's eyes than when you began.

You must love solitude if you are safely to appear among men. For it is in solitude that you learn to act when you are amid the world.

[Jacki]

If you are not careful to flee the world, it will soon beguile you, and once you have tasted what the world has to offer, you will no longer have any taste for what God offers.

Can you please explain this to me, I don't understand.
The world is so fleeting, must having a 2 minute conservation with Jesus gives me so much peace...I have never experienced peace in earthly things and whenever I see a beautiful snowfall or something in nature or when something tastes good I always imagine how much more glorious heaven will be.

So I guess I don't understand who would ever want say the world is better than God?


Honestly the only thing I crave in this world is the eucharist...everything else in this world always leaves me empty.

[Patricia]

That is true.. I don't understand that part too.  Usually when one tastes what the world has to offer one is left empty. Only God can fill the vacuum.
But there are people who never tire of tasting what the world offers even if it leaves them empty.  They run after the things of the world and they are just running in circles, because the more they seek it the more it eludes them.  It is like a shopoholic who keeps shopping to fill the emptiness that keeps recurring.. Only by the grace of God would that person be able to break off that vicious cycle and turn to God.  Maybe the writer is referring to those poor souls.

[Shin]

Martin, Jack and Patricia you have it so right! It's so inspiring and moving. Thanks be to Our Lord for His grace in our lives. How precious it is! May more people find it and this love..

I think so many people think they are happy with the world, but they don't remember what happiness so often, they are stuck in habits.. to cover up their own unhappiness.. if only the would find God.. and give up things that are bad habits.. that obscure what needs to be done..