“Solitude and silence are wonderful refreshment, a healthy alternative to the noise and chaos of this modern world. But anyone who as spent more than just a few hours or days practicing this knows that the process of rebirth from death to self is often found only through some experience of travail. Only then do we know the joys of the newborn child of the Spirit of God.”

Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010, page 23.

Comment: Talbot says that the suffering of the dark night will indeed hit us – he says sooner, rather than later – once we begin the disciplines of silence and solitude. But he also assures us that it’s a period we have to go through in order to reach the joy of new life in Christ.