In the fourth century, a flock of Christians fled from the hustle and bustle of city life in the Roman Empire to seek silence in the desert. Perhaps they, like us, were worried about a world so flattened by the meaningless chatter of life.…To pursue silence, boredom, even loneliness, is a radical choice in our world, but it was a radical choice in theirs as well. We must choose to turn away from the constant entertainment that vies for our attention. We must allow ourselves to be lonely. 

If, like the Desert Mothers and Fathers, we desire to taste of the blessed boredom, the full emptiness, and the communicative silence, we too must flee to the desert sometimes.