The Value of the Desert

Moyses cum egisset pecus ad interiora deserti tunc resplendentem eminus Deum igne vidit innocuo; nec solum vidit, verum etiam audivit loquentem. Nempe tunc Dominus cum abjici pedum vincula commoneret, sanctam eremi terram pronuntiavit, dicens: Locus in quo tu stas, terra sancta est; manifesto tunc judicio meritum occulti honoris expressit. Confirmata quippe est a Deo sanctitas loci, sanctitate testimonii in quo (ut reor) etiam illud pariter et latenter enuntiat, ut accedens ad eremum pristinis curarum obligationibus vitae se absolvet, et anterioribus vinculis expeditus incedat, ne locum polluat. Ibi primum Moyses divini colloquii familiaris adhibetur interpres; accipit verba, ac vicissim refert; dicenda agendave et percunctatur pariter et docetur, ac mutuo confabulationis usitatoque commercio cum coeli Domino sermocinatur. Ibi virgam resumit in opera signorum potentem, ingressusque eremum pastor ovium, pastor ab eremo revertitur populorum. Sanctus Eucherius Lugdonensis, De Laude Eremi

When Moses took his flock into the interior of the desert there he saw from afar in fire that did not consume the splendor of God; and not only did he see, he even heard speech. Clearly then the Lord when he would remind us to rid our feet of our chains, tells us of the sacred land of the desert, saying, 'The place in which you stand is holy earth.'  With manifest judgement, then, he announces the value of this hidden glory. It is confirmed by God to be a place of sanctity, by which sacred testimony, I think, He also secretly announces that coming to the desert one may cast off the cares of life for one's original obligations, advancing free of one's prior chains lest one pollute the place. There Moses was first admitted to familiarity with Divine converse; there he received the words and in his turn he answered, speaking and doing and questioning and learning, and in mutual communion and common commerce discoursing with The Lord of Heaven. There he took up the staff powerful for the working of signs and having gone into the desert a pastor of sheep, he came out a shepherd of people. Saint Eucherius of Lyon, In Praise of the Desert