Seclusion

"Love comes from prayer

And prayer comes from remaining in seclusion" -Isaac of Syria

As I look at this phrase, I tend to dismantle it piece by piece. "Love comes from prayer," I think that is one of the best ways to describe where love comes from, because prayer is all about coming into relationship with God and, as St. John tells us, "God is love." (1 John 4:8) It makes sense then that prayer increases our capacity and ability to love, for the more that we come to know God, Who is love, the more we come to know what true love is. So, clearly, it is quite accurate to say that Love comes from prayer.

The second part goes, "and prayer from remaining in seclusion." This is an interesting concept to wrap one's mind around. I know that personally, some of my most productive prayer time is alone with the Lord in adoration. Yet, this seclusion eventually forces me to look inward and to assess my own weaknesses and my complete and utter incapability to do anything pleasing to God without His grace. Seclusion and prayer are like this intricate dance, each one helps the other out, like a couple doing a waltz. The ultimate result is something that is absolutely beautiful. As of late I've been wrestling with this single state of life. My room mate is most likely getting engaged at the end of the year and my other best friend is getting back together with his ex and I have absolutely no one who interests me right now. In a sense I am secluded. 

This leads me to wonder, God said of Adam, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him." (Gen 2:18) We all know what God was thinking, but I wonder what it was like for Adam? He really was secluded, there was no other rational human being for him to even converse with. Imagine what his prayer must have been like, all he had was God, the prayer born out of that type of seclusion must have been phenomenal. If one were to follow Isaac of Syria's quote, imagine how great Adam's love must have been, throw in the fact that at this point he hadn't sinned, and man, his prayer and his love must have been out of this world! Maybe all of us in the single state of life should take note of this and not wallow in our seclusion, but allow it to cultivate in us a powerful prayer life, thus cultivating in us a powerful capacity to love. This seclusion is only the preparation for my own ability to love whomever God has destined for me.