Week 5: Book One, Chapters XX–XXV — Solitude, Death, and the Amendment of Life

1.Chapter XX opens with a famous line: 'As oft as I have gone among men, so oft have I returned less a man.' Thomas is not counseling misanthropy, but he is diagnosing something real about how excessive socializing can thin the inner life. Is this honest with your own experience? What happens to your interior life after long stretches of busyness and noise?

2.Thomas writes in Chapter XX: 'Shut thy door upon thee, and call unto thyself Jesus thy beloved. Remain with Him in thy chamber, for thou shalt not elsewhere find so great peace.' What does your 'chamber' — your place and practice of inner withdrawal — look like? If you don't have one, what gets in the way of creating it?

3.Chapter XXIII on death is among the most striking in the book. Thomas writes: 'When it is morning reflect that it may be thou shalt not see the evening, and at eventide dare not to boast thyself of the morrow.' Medieval Christians meditated on death as a spiritual discipline (the ars moriendi tradition). Does the thought of your own death feel like a friend or an enemy to your spiritual life right now? Why?