The issue is not loneliness, which is a universal human experience; nor is it solitude, which the praying celibate has presumably found to be a positive dimension of life.
–Fr Bernard R. Bonnot, “Stages in a Celibate’s Life,” Human Development v. 16 no. 3 (Fall 1995)

A Jesuit friend very kindly sent me a packet of articles from the “Catholic seminary trade publications,” on various aspects of celibacy and homosexuality. This particular line struck me not so much because of its context, but because of the idea that solitude can be presumed to have deeply positive aspects because of its support of one’s prayer life. That’s a perspective I needed. (And especially fascinating to me as I work on the novel, Intimacy, with its varying portrayals of divergent human solitudes.) …Will likely post a longer excerpt from a different piece tomorrow, about friendship.