I would say that the desert deserves to be called a temple of our God without walls. Since it is clear that God dwells in silence, we must believe th… - Eucherius of Lyon

The desert holds them as in their mothers’ lap while they long for eternity, despising this brief life; indifferent to the present life, they are confident of the life to come. In this way, by hastening toward the world’s end, they manage to attain the world without end.

In former times it was customary for illustrious men, after wearing themselves out in business affairs, to turn to philosophy as to their proper home. How much more fitting is it for people today to direct themselves to the study of the highest wisdom, and how wonderful for them to withdraw into the leisure of solitude and the solitary places of the desert! This enables them to be free for philosophy alone and to wander in the desert with more pleasure than athletes exercising in the gymnasium.

Then our prowling adversary howls in vain, like a wolf in the sheepfold when the sheep are well guarded, as the vast expanse of the desert protects them like a strong wall.