Renewal of simplicity

In Thomas Merton's, The Wisdom of the Desert, right before he goes into the dialogues of the desert fathers. He writes a going forth speech, if you will. He writes about how the desert fathers had an extreme lifestyle of solitude and not all of us may be called to that. Yet we might be called to return to the kind of simplicity the desert fathers embraced. Being removed from the world, physically that is. Not having cares for materialism or much else other than communion with God in prayer. He calls us to find liberation in following the path of the desert fathers and then going further in removing ourselves from this world and what it offers. Accepting the call of God with confidence and certainty in God and His ability to work in you. He admits that the world of the desert fathers and ours looks different, that ours is more dangerous. We are at more risk if we fail, because he suggest our time is shorter than we think. While you could take this as negativity, I think it is instead honesty. Maybe a harshness in the tone but Merton's point is made out of the reality that we must return to that simplicity the desert fathers exemplified and especially for our age, go even further to remove ourselves from the world. Act not just talk about being different than the world expects. The worlds expectations should mean nothing in comparison to Jesus' expectations of us knowing that we trust in Him.