I have always read articles and updates in The Fiji Times every Easter on the cross-walk by the Catholic youths on Viti Levu to the Kristi Jyoti Ashram, Namata, Lomawai.

On Sunday, June 5, I decided to join the Mount St Mary’s parish, Nadi on a pilgrimage to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

My intention was to go see the place because I had heard so much about the place.

I can quickly say how the environment could inspire such a desert-deafening stillness.

There is little speed and very little noise.

I suggest for “spiritual seekers and interior peace”, this is the place.

This place inspired me so much because I had just completed reading books on The Desert Mystics, i.e., the introduction to the lives and practices of the 4th and 5th century Egyptians, most of them laughable, who are known collectively as desert fathers, desert elders or desert mystics.

In order to draw closer to God, these spiritual pioneers went to the desert. Among them was St Antony of Egypt.

There was also Macarius the Great, Abba Moses and many more. Each of these great seekers left the cities and trampled into the wilderness.

They lived in unadorned, austere solitude, some as hermits.

I am so happy I made the trip. Catholics in Fiji are so blessed to have this peaceful and serene environment.