“For two years I have been a hermit and have not appreciated the fact, or lived as one. Nunc coepi. Father Barnabas Mary, the Passionist in Chicago, wrote to me about Father Charbel who lived as a hermit in Syria- he was a Maronite. Everyone forgot about him. He died. Fifty years later his body was discovered incorrupt and in a short time he worked over six hundred miracles. He is my new companion. My road has taken a new turning. It seems to me that I have been asleep for nine years- and that before that I was dead. I have never been a monk or a solitary. Take up thy bed and walk!”

– The Signs of Jonas, Thomas Merton