Poustinia:

Hermitage Retreat

 

Poustinia is a Russian word that means "desert." Catherine Doherty wrote a book in 1975 called Poustinia: Encoutering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer, which is considered by many to be a modern spiritual classic and explains the practice of making a poustinia. A poustinia entails going apart from the community to a cabin or hermitage where one can escape the noise of the world to fast, pray, and encounter God.​

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"What can help modern man find the answers to his own mystery and the mystery of Him in whose image he is created, is silence, solitude – in a word, the desert. Modern man needs these things more than the hermits of old."

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- Catherine Doherty, Poustinia