Nemeck doesn't look at the small bit of paradise as a vacation spot, but as a place of transformation. This is a place for serious spiritual seekers,'' he said. Isolation vs. solitude At Lebh Shomea, guests can study as well as practice spirituality in the 30,000-volume library, which offers the works of hundreds of authors, often in their original language. The library also contains specialized Biblical and Middle Eastern, Byzantine, Russian, Patristic, Oriental and Judaic sections. The library subscribes to more than 50 periodicals, magazines and newspapers.
Guests can also receive spiritual counseling from resident priests and nuns.
They attend Mass at 7 a.m. and eat three meals a day in silence. Those who stay more than 10 days are asked to participate in some form of manual labor. Nemeck, who worked as a parish priest and a missionary in Oaxaca, Mexico, before coming to the silent South Texas community said that in his 25 years of near-silence, he hasn't become lonely. There is a difference between isolation and solitude,'' he said. Isolation is being alone with yourself.