I don’t know if any of you have managed to watch Extreme Pilgrim. In it Peter Owen-Jones, a vicar in a Sussex parish, sets off on three extreme pilgrimages. In the last episode he follows the footsteps of St. Anthony who spent a good deal of his life alone in prayer in the Egyptian desert.
Peter spends just 3 weeks alone. Before he goes he is warned of those who have gone before, driven to madness by just a few days’ solitude. Spending time alone without anything to do whether in prayer or not is a difficult experience. In the TV programme Peter soon discovers his own fears and phobias as well as the blessings of a more focussed time with God.
Perhaps one of the curses of contemporary society is the need to always be on the move. Even at rest TV, radio, music, other people make living constant. It is as if the thing we fear most of all is the “sound of silence” – a place where we are left alone to listen to the cries of our soul.
Lent rminds us of the forty days and nights Jesus spent in the wilderness in solitude and isolation preparing for his ministry. It also reminds us of our need to spend time away from everyone else in quietness and prayer. i used to think that Jesus’ hardest test was his wilderness encounter with the Devil. Now I wonder if it was his commitment to prayer alone in a place of desolation.
David Moss