The advantage of a retreat made in solitude and silence - 3

Jesus Christ, Who had no need of solitude to be recollected and united with God, in order to set us an example, often retired from intercourse with men and withdrew to mountains or into deserts to pray: Having dismissed the multitude he went into a mountain alone to pray (Matt. xiv. 23); and He retired into the desert and prayed (Luke v. 16). He also desired His disciples, after the fatigue of their missions, to retire to some solitary place to rest in spirit: Come apart into a desert place and rest a little (Mark vi. 31), declaring by this that the spirit, even amidst spiritual occupations, being obliged to treat with men, becomes somewhat relaxed, whence it is very necessary to renew it in solitude and retreat.

Worldlings, who are accustomed to divert themselves in conversations, at banquets and plays, imagine that in solitude, where no such things are found, one must suffer insupportable tediousness. This is indeed the case with those who have a conscience defiled by sin. As long as they are occupied in the affairs of this world they do not think of the things of the soul; but when they are disengaged and in solitude where they do not seek God, they feel all at once remorse of conscience, and thus they find nothing but tediousness and pain. But in the case of one who seeks God, he will find in solitude not tediousness, but contentment and joy. Of this the Wise Man assures us: For her (wisdom's) conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness (Wis. viii. 16). Oh no, to converse with God causes no bitterness, no tediousness; no, nothing but peace and joy.

The Blessed Cardinal Bellarmine, during the season when the other Cardinals went to pass their holidays in country seats and villas, used to go to some quiet house to make the Exercises for a month, and these he called his holiday, and certainly his heart found more delight in them than others did in their pastimes.

St. Charles Borromeo made the Exercises every year and found in them his paradise on earth; and it was while he was one year engaged in these Exercises on Mount Varalle that his last illness and death came. Hence it is that St. Jerome says that solitude was his paradise on earth: "Solitude is a paradise to me."

But, perhaps, some one will ask: What contentment can a person find, being alone and having no one with whom to converse? St. Bernard answers: "He who seeks God is by no means alone in solitude, for God Himself is there with him, and renders him happier than if he had the company of the first princes of the world." " I am never less alone," wrote the holy Abbot, "than when alone." Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

The Prophet Isaias, describing the sweetness which God gives to those who seek Him in retreat, says: The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof; and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as a garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of praise (Is. li. 3).

The Lord well knows how to comfort a soul that withdraws from the world. He compensates a thousandfold for the loss of all the pleasures of the world. He changes solitude into a garden of delights, where the tumult of the world being excluded, the soul thanks and praises God, and finds a very paradise of peace.