The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

Unless one has experienced the unspeakable grace and profound delight of an inner communion with the Word, one cannot comprehend how terrible a famine of hearing the words of the Lord would be.  And yet in many ways I believe this prophecy is being fulfilled in our day.

There has become, in our time, such a glut of noise and images in the developed countries, such a profusion of words and distractions, that few take any real heed to the Word.  Where is that man outside the monastery who kneels and takes up the Word as for his daily bread?  And in undeveloped countries the poor suffer and labor to meet their basic necessities for survival.

Paradoxically, there is a resurgence of interest in things spiritual.  Books are written and purchased, and those called to spend time with the Word instead turn their hearts and minds to one after another book on spirituality yet never turn to the true well.  A soul who has had a taste longs with an indescribable yearning for a vast and general return to an adoration of the Word.