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| Maumee Bay State Park, Ohio |
As Henri Nouwen has told us, solitude is not the same as loneliness. Solitude is getting alone with God, which is not a lonely experience. Solitude with God is a very fruitful, organic, growing, experiential heart-condition.
"The movement from loneliness to solitude," writes Nouwen, "is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play."
- Nouwen, Reaching Out, cited in Seeds of Hope: A Henri Nouwen Reader, 62
I pray together in community with people; I pray in solitude in community with the Triune God.
