O admirable desert, how right it is for the holy monks to live or desire to live near you and within you, for you are rich and fertile in all the goo… - Eucherius of Lyon

Scripture says that the Lord Jesus was accustomed to go into a desert place to pray. The desert may rightly be called a place of prayer, for God himself has approved it and taught by his example that it is appropriate for prayer. The prayer of a humble petitioner will more easily penetrate the clouds if it rises from the desert, because that solitary place gives it increased merit. The Lord Jesus, seeking that place for prayer, showed us where he prefers us to pray.

Did not he also live in the desert who was greater than any man born of woman, he who was a voice crying in the desert? In the desert he instituted baptism, and in the desert he preached repentance. In the desert the Kingdom of Heaven was first heard of. In the desert he first commanded those mysteries to his listeners, because by going into the desert they could sooner merit them. It was highly fitting that this desert dweller, this angel sent before the face of the Lord, should open the way to the heavenly kingdom. He was both a precursor of Christ and a witness worthy to hear the Father speaking from heaven, to touch the Son as he baptized him, and to see the Holy Spirit descending.

How pleasant is the solitude of a remote place to those who thirst for God! How attractive for those who seek Christ are those solitary lands stretching in every direction under protecting nature. All things are silent there, and the joyful mind is spurred on by silence in its search for God, finding nourishment in ineffable ecstasies. No sound is heard in the desert save the voice of God. Only that sound that is sweeter than silence, the holy activity of a moderate and holy way of life, breaks into the state of quiet peace, while only the sound of the desert outpost interrupts the silence.