LONELINESS by Christopher Notes

"Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone." This comment by theologian Paul Tillich points out how much our feelings color our experience.

To be lonely is to feel isolated - cut off from others and locked into ourselves. It is to feel loss and sadness and self-pity.

But to experience solitude is to be alone with something, such as a book or music - or with God, in meditation or prayer. It is to feel peace and well-being.

To turn loneliness into solitude, we need to concentrate on something outside ourselves. That's why prayer can free us from isolation. It connects us with the beautiful and the universal, with God.

O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet You are enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our ancestors . . . trusted, and You delivered them. (Psalm 22:2-4)

When the "lonelies" come, God my companion, console me.