Poustinia

Four times a year I spend a day away in Poustinia as guest in the home of a local religious community.

What is Poustinia?
Catherine Doherty writes about it in her book of the same name(first edition 1975, new revised third edition 2000). She arrived in Canada as a Russian refugess over half a century ago and has used her heritage as a Russian Christian as a matrix for responding to the needs of Christian life and work in the western world. Her own personal pilgrimage has led her to be "poor with the poor in Christ" in the slums of Toronto and in Harlem; and, in 1947, to the establishing of a spiritual centre in Ontario, the Madonna House Apostolate. Poustinia is the keynote of this apsotolate. It is a Russian word meaning "desert". In her book she writes in a chapter with the title "Approaching Poustinia" that "You should approach poustinia, in great peace, looking forward to your rendezvous with the Lord. If I were to draw up a list for you as a kind of road map for your first trip to the poustinia, it would look something like this:
1. The poustinia is a place where you are going to meet Christ in joyful solitude.
2. There is nothing to be afraid of, for Christ is perfect love, and perfect love casts out all fears.
3. The poustinia is a prayer house which you enter to be alone with God.
4. You don't take any books with you because the only book that should be read in the poustinia is the bible; it is there waiting for you.
5. The poustinia is not only a place of rendezvous with Christ and a time of solitude and silence; it is also a time for penance. For when you lift your heart to the Lord in prayer you should, in a manner of speaking, lift both spiritual arms, or penance and prayer, as Moses did on the mountain.
6. When you go to the poustinia we give you a loaf of bread each day you are staying. Also a thermos of hot water to make tea.
7. Above all, be at peace, because you enter with Christ into his solitude and peace."

I commend the concept to you. If drawn then seek and go.