"It is even possible that in solitude I shall return to my beginning and rediscover the value and perfection of simple vocal prayer–and take greater joy in this than in contemplation.

“So that the cenobite may have high contemplation, while the hermit has only his Pater and Ave Maria. In that event I choose the life of a hermit in which I live in God always, speaking to Him with simplicity, rather than a life of disjointed activity sublimated by a few moments of fire and exaltation.”

Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1958. (pbk ed 1999), p.110.