SOLITUDE AND SILENCE: THE CLOISTER OF THE HEART by THOMAS A KEMPIS

In this book, the great spiritual writer Thomas à Kempis, author of The Imitation of Christ, helps the readers to understand the two pillars of monastic life that many people quickly point to as the hardest and most confusing parts of this kind of religious consecration.

He explains that all Christians are called to some solitude and silence in their lives while not taking on a complete eremitical life. He recommends the systematic and intentional incorporation of solitude and silence in a manner which is consistent with each one’s vocation and state of life.  

Thomas à Kempis stresses that it is important for one to cultivate these two habits in order to enter into contemplation and conversation with God. This vision of God may also be experienced (to varying degrees) even in this world, through the grace of contemplative prayer. Silence and solitude are the hallowed doors through which one must pass to arrive at the delightful and serene state of holy contemplation.