All of the social distancing and shelter-in-place guidelines, coupled with the spread of the coronavirus, surely has many folks on edge. Isolation, coupled with worry, can quickly lead to despair, and feelings of being alone in a desert of sorts.

Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote his classic ‘Thoughts In Solitude’ in 1953-1954, but it contains much that is relevant for us in our day. Since most of us now find ourselves with extra time on our hands, reading can provide a healing – yet often overlooked – respite.

This quote seems pertinent:

The desert is the home of despair. And despair, now, is everywhere. Let us not think that our interior solitude consists in the acceptance of defeat. We cannot escape anything by consenting tacitly to be defeated. Despair is an abyss without bottom. Do not think to close it by consenting to it and trying to forget you have consented.

This, then, is our desert: to live facing despair, but not to consent. To trample it down under hope in the Cross. To wage war against despair unceasingly. That war is our wilderness. If we wage it courageously, we will find Christ at our side. If we cannot face it, we will never find Him.