During my doctoral studies at UBC, one of my fellow graduate students did a most unconventional dissertation.  He spent a year by himself on a small, windswept, rain-soaked island miles off the coast of southern Chile.  His dissertation, entitled A Year in Wilderness Solitude attempted to answer the question, What are the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual effects of living for an extended period in deep wilderness solitude?  The dissertation was eventually published by New World Library in 2009 as Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes: A Year Alone in the Patagonia Wilderness.

I write on January 17, the memorial of another man who decided to spend time alone by himself for an extended period of time – Saint Anthony of the desert, the 3th-4th century hermit of the Egyptian desert. 

At a certain point in life, in his mid-thirties, Anthony decided to follow Christ as a hermit in the wilds of the Egyptian desert.  He was venerated because of his holiness, attracted many disciples and is considered the Father of Christian Monasticism.

In the Scriptures, the desert or the wilderness is presented as that privileged place of encounter with the divine.  The people of Israel travelled the desert for 40 years from slavery into the Promised Land.  Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. 

The desert, devoid of all attraction and confusion is a symbol of clarity and revelation. In the desert one is forced to encounter the depths of their soul, of who they are, of what really counts. 

It is not by accident that Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, which is only the desert by another name.  St. Anthony is often portrayed as one tempted terribly in the desert. 

Many of us do not have the ability or even the inclination for such periods of extended solitude.  But, that does not mean that we are not called to enter our own form of desert.  We all need these desert times.  Christianity calls these moments prayer.  That time of entering into the wilderness of God, when we expose our heart and soul, our body and mind to the loving gaze of God. 

Sometimes we will need extended periods of quiet and prayer to go deep within, to seek how God sees us, not how we or the world sees us.

Entering the world of the soul is never easy.  The desert is that time of pilgrimage, of journey when the path or destination is not necessarily clear.  Enter the womb of our souls and we may be frightened by what we see.  We will encounter the possibility of darkness that lies within – that same temptation experienced by Jesus, Anthony – and my graduate colleague. 

But, our tradition tells us that unless we cross the barren desert, we will never come to really know.  That's what monks tell us.  We all hold that special place within, that divine spark, that will never flame out in faith, hope and love unless it is matured and quickened by the gift of the desert. 

You may not get to spend years alone in the actual desert but claim those daily desert times alone with the Trinity of Life.  It will do you a world of good.