For years, I had avoided solo dining

from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ALTAR, One Man's Life in the Catholic Priesthood...

For years, I had avoided solo dining. Better to snack or even skip a meal than cook one for myself alone or, even worse, sit alone and eat a meal, staring across at no one in a public setting. Though known as solitaries, even monks ate together—cenobites living in common—supporting one another in their disciplined inner searching. But sitting in that cozy corner of English country comfort, I was trying to condition myself to feeling at peace with being alone—again. All of a sudden I was an altar boy once more, kneeling in adoration in my parish church back home, feeling alone but working hard to find a purpose to my aloneness. Could I be both alone and whole? This was the question I had come on sabbatical to answer...

My Review: I perused many pages of this book, parts of chapters-- and although I wouldn't necessarily agree with or come to the same conclusions as the author, found his take on Church life from the "inside" rather intriguing.