There are always likely to be some men and women who feel that ‘material’ solitude is essential for their spiritual life. They can no more do without it than without food or drink, and if they are deprived of this isolation their lives become spoilt, cramped, and distorted, and they never find their true vocations. The ‘born solitary’ is drawn to an eremitical life for various reasons, partly natural, partly supernatural. … They discover that they need to separate themselves from their fellow-creatures, in order that their latent powers may have room for expansion and growth, that they may be more fitted so to serve mankind generally.

Solitude and Communion: Papers on the Hermit Life (Fairacres Publications) .

The above is a quote from Peter F Anson’s The Call of the Desert. (A book, btw, I do not own or have read so if anyone wants to donate it to The Anchorage Library please do!!!!). It is quoted in the collection of papers from the 1975 conference on the solitary life. The essays are a must-read for anyone interested in the topic, especially those in the wider Anglican world.

I was struck by the line: “The ‘born solitary’ is drawn to an eremitical life for various reasons, partly natural, partly supernatural“. The vocation of any individual is (partly) a call to use natural gifts for a supernatural end. The inclination of the individual to be alone is not the supernatural end! Or, to look at it slightly differently, a vocation is not a role one plays but a life one lives.

No matter what the gift – music, solitude, art, intellect, caring – it must be pointed to Jesus to become a vocation. St Paul calls it “upbuilding”, as does Kierkegaard. Your “happy place” only becomes a vocation when it is used for the upbuilding of the people of God.

Anyway ….