Carlo Carretto, one of the great spiritual writers of our time, once spent a number of years living by himself, as a hermit, praying in the Sahara desert. When someone asked him what he thought he heard God saying to him in all that silence and after all that prayer, Carretto replied: "God is telling us: learn to wait — wait — wait for your God, wait for love, be patient with everything. Everything that is worthwhile must be waited for!"

Ronald Rolheiser, Against an Infinite Horizon