Real silence is both supremely simple and yet not easy. It draws us into a dimension always open to those who will allow themselves to be centered. ... We enter into silence to let the holiness of mystery take possession of us.
~ S. Wendy Beckett
If you are truly called to a solitary lifestyle, eventually celibacy must follow. Solitude invites the presence of God, a presence which so consumes the soul, there is no lover energy available for an intense human commitment to intimacy. The deeper one goes into spiritual solitude, the lighter one travels. But it is not for us to divest ourselves -- at our own willed choosing -- of the things that are necessary for life within society. It is for God to strip us, often painfully, of them at a time when God knows -- if we do not -- that we must go more lightly into this Heart of Love.