Cultivating The Desert

Nam et in primordiis rerum, cum omnia Deus in sapientia faceret, et singula quaeque futuris usibus apta distingueret, non utique hanc terrae partem inutilem et inhonoratam dimisit; sed cuncta non magis praesenti magnificentia, quam futuri praescientia creans, venturis, ut arbitror eremum sanctis paravit. Credo his illam locupletem in fructibus voluit, et pro indulgentioris naturae vice hanc sanctorum dare fecundam, ut sic pinguescerent fines deserti, et cum rigaret de superioribus suis montes, abundarent quoque multiplicata fruge convalles; locorumque damna suppleret, cum habitationem sterilem habitatore ditaret. Possessor paradisi et transgressor praecepti, cum locum voluptatis habitaret, fixam sibi a Deo legem servare non potuit. Quanto enim jucundior ille amoenitatibus locus, tanto huic in lapsum pronior fuit. Unde non solum hunc legibus suis subdidit, sed etiam in nos usque suum illum stimulum mors tetendit. Proinde eremum colat, qui vitam cupit; quia amoeni incola mortem paravit.  Sanctus Eucherius Lugdonensis, De Laude Eremi

For in the first times, when God made everything in His wisdom and distinguished each thing for its uses, he did not leave this part of the earth useless and unhonoured, but everything not magnificent in the present, He created with prescience for the future, in coming times, and, so I judge, He prepared the desert for the holy. I believe that He wishes these places to give wealth in fruits, and that yielding nature he gave to the saints to make fruitful, and so they have made the ends of the desert fertile 1 and watered it from the heights of their mountains, that it might abound with the many fruits of the valley, 2 and that the dearth of the place be supplied when the sterile place is enriched with habitation. The possessor of paradise and transgressor of the command, when he dwelt in the place of delight, was not able to keep the law God established. The more happy the place with good things, so much more further he fell. Whence not only did He place this one under laws, but even against us He fashions death as a goad. Whence he cultivates the desert, who desires life, because a dweller of a better place prepared death. Saint Eucherius of Lyon, In Praise of the Desert  1 cf Ps 64.13  2 cf Ps 64.14