C-19 Reflection #58: Solitude is the Way to Hope

C-19 Reflection (#58)

Theme: Solitude is the Way to Hope

Scripture: Lamentations 3:19-29

I remember my affliction and my wandering,

    the bitterness and the gall.

20 

I well remember them,

    and my soul is downcast within me.

21 

Yet this I call to mind

    and therefore I have hope:

22 

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

    for his compassions never fail.

23 

They are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

24 

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

    therefore I will wait for him.”

25 

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

    to the one who seeks him;

26 

it is good to wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

27 

It is good for a man to bear the yoke

    while he is young.

28 

Let him sit alone in silence,

    for the Lord has laid it on him.

29 

Let him bury his face in the dust—

    there may yet be hope.

Reflection:

“Intuitively, we know that it is important to spend time in solitude. We even start looking forward to this strange period of uselessness. This desire for solitude is often the first sign of prayer, the first indication that the presence of God’s Spirit no longer remains unnoticed. As we empty ourselves of our many worries, we come to know not only with our mind but also with our heart that we never were really alone, that God’s Spirit was with us all along. Thus we come to understand what Paul writes to the Romans, “Suffering brings patience . . . and patience brings perseverance, and perseverance brings hope, and this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:4–5). In solitude, we come to know the Spirit who has already been given to us. The pains and struggles we encounter in our solitude thus become the way to hope, because our hope is not based on something that will happen after our sufferings are over, but on the real presence of God’s healing Spirit in the midst of these sufferings. The discipline of solitude allows us gradually to come in touch with this hopeful presence of God in our lives, and allows us also to taste even now the beginnings of the joy and peace that belong to the new heaven and the new earth.” ~ Henri Nouwen

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