Keeping the Faith: Elected Solitude

The Rev. Dr. John Leech, Oblate OSB Cam.

Keeping the Faith: Elected Solitude

I'm an Episcopal priest, affiliated with St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Armory Park, Tucson, Arizona, and a Camaldolese Benedictine Oblate (that is, an associate of a contemplative monastic order headquartered in Camaldoli, Italy), as well as a friend of the Iona Community. [My spiritual director forwarded me an essay by a nun from New Jersey on her long-learned practices of "social distancing", which got me thinking. Here are some of my own thoughts.]

As the coronavirus approached I began to think more about the resources monastic practices have to offer us, and as an associate member of a contemplative monastic order myself, some of them, blended with my work as an Episcopal priest, came to the fore. My thought is that we can - with help - turn from forced isolation to chosen solitude. At least to some extent. As we do in Lent - or Ramadan, or other fasting periods. This happened to me this year: my doctor had me begin a no-carbohydrate Mediterranean style diet last summer, which I got serious about once I heard of a family member's cancer treatments. But this was not elected solitude.

Camaldolese Benedictine Hermits have over a thousand years of practice with 'social distancing' - and more important with balance. The Camaldolese Threefold Good of community, solitude, and witness, will play out differently for people outside monastic enclosures. We connect with friends and neighbors at a distance, sometimes through electronic means, telephone, or letter, and sometimes en paseo, that is, as we pass each other on our evening walks. Witness takes so many forms. Care for each other, however expressed, is one of them. And of course Camaldolese Benedictines are much more concerned with solitude than isolation.

Perhaps we can learn, through newly adopted very old practices, such as sacred reading, contemplation, and prayer, how to turn simple isolation into something more profound.
What I am doing now, in this time of pandemic isolation, are the intentional practices of solitude of many intentional religious communities: daily prayer, weekly Eucharist and annual retreat. God willing I'll be able to go to New Camaldoli this summer for the retreat...

As for weekly Eucharist, I can commend "Spiritual Communion" and the prayer of St Alphonse of Liguori:

O Lord, in union with the faithful at every altar of your Church where your blessed Body and Blood are being offered to the Father, I desire to offer you praise and thanksgiving. I believe that you are truly present in the Holy Sacrament. And since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, I pray you to come spiritually into my heart. I unite myself to you, and embrace you with all the affections of my soul. Let me never be separated from you. Let me live and die in your love. Amen.


For the Arizona Daily Star, "Keeping the Faith" section in Home and Life. Published May 3, 2020.

https://tucson.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/keeping-the-faith/article_148ecede-751c-5182-9aec- 7050e3cfb27b.html 

— The Rev. Dr. John Leech, Oblate OSB Cam. Leech is an Episcopal priest, affiliated with St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Armory Park, Tucson, Arizona, and a Camaldolese Benedictine Oblate (that is, an associate of a contemplative monastic order headquartered in Camaldoli, Italy), as well as a friend of the Iona Community.