Echoes in Solitude

Thoughts, musings and commentaries from one hermit's journey

THE TRUTH

A Reflection on Acts 20:17-27 and John 17:1-11a

¹⁷From Miletus Paul had the presbyters of the Church at Ephesus summoned.  ¹⁸When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.  ¹⁹I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, ²⁰and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes.  ²¹I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.  ²²But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.  What will happen to me there I do not know, ²³except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me.  ²⁴Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace. responsible for the blood of any of you, ²⁷for I did not shrink from proclaiming.  ²⁵“But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again.  ²⁶And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not  to you the entire plan of God.”  Acts 20:17-27

¹Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, ²just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.  ³Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.  ⁴I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.  ⁵Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

⁶“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  ⁷Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, ⁸because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.  ⁹I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, ¹⁰and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. ^11a And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.” 

John 17:1-11a

"Never did I shrink from telling you what was for your own good.... I take the blame for no one's conscience, for I have never shrunk from announcing to you God's design in its entirety" — the words of St. Paul to his spiritual children in Ephesus as he neared the end of his life.

 "I have made your name known to those you gave me out of the world.... I entrusted to them the message you entrusted to me" — the words of Jesus to the Father as he neared the end of his life.

Will you be able to say the same thing at the end of your life?

To a certain degree, Terry A. Modica is correct that we live today in a very “polite society” in that we often will hide the truth from others for the sake of being “nice”.  We often allow others to violate the truth for the sake of being “politically correct” or at least not to “rock the boat”.  But Jesus came specifically to rock the boat.  He was not always polite and He certainly was not a politically correct type of person.  He gave us the Holy Spirit so that we could be His true witnesses to the Eternal Truth, not humanity’s weak version it.  We, His true and faithful followers, were given the sacred task to be witnesses for the Father’s Truth to all peoples, in all places, throughout all ages sometimes by words but always through actions in the Holy way in which we live.  We were charged to be bold, visible, and confident messengers 

As devout followers of Jesus, we must ask ourselves whether we really want him to be our Lord and teacher. Do we really want to imitate him?  Do we really want to be faithful followers of this Rabbi from Nazareth?

We teach others His Way through how we live our lives.  Our conduct speaks much louder than our words and it is usually a far more reliable measure of our beliefs.  Modica asks, “How many times have we noticed coworkers struggling with a problem and we've not asked if we could pray for them?    When did we see a stranger in the pew next to us at Mass who seemed unhappy and we didn't reach out to show that we cared?  How many times have we heard someone quote Jesus inaccurately or misrepresent His teachings and held our tongues, looked away sheepishly, afraid to confront their ignorance with the Truth because we were too shy or timid, too lazy and couldn’t be bothered, or felt it just wasn’t important enough to engage in what might well become an argument, especially if the person(s) involved are family or friends, co-workers or bosses?

Every day we encounter opportunities to evangelize; sometimes they are hostile confrontations, most often they are not.  The true acolyte or follower of Jesus Christ keeps an eye out for such opportunities.  Modica has a very useful suggestion to help us develop the awareness necessary to spot the opportunities because if you can’t do that successfully, everyday golden opportunities will slip on by.  I personally believe natural opportunities that pop up during conversation or joint observation of an act or news story make the best teaching moments because they don’t seem nor usually sound preachy which puts a lot of people automatically on the defensive.  Modica suggests that as we watch for these opportunities, count them and at the end of day, write them down in a notebook.  Place a ‘plus’ by each incident in which you made an effort to give witness to Christ and a minus next to the ones you forgot or held back on.  Then ask the Holy Spirit to help you improve tomorrow.  With His help, you will become a better teacher, preacher, and witness to the Way of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

posted by: ksmabba at 04:51 | link | comments |

Living in the Now

Commentary on James 4:13-17

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit”– you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.”    (James4:13-17)

How often do we hear this in Church?  We are constantly reminded that there is no time other than the “Now”.  A very Buddhist concept and yet, so true regardless of one’s religious persuasion.  In fact, it doesn’t even matter whether you are an atheist; the truth of it endures nonetheless.  So what do we do, where do we proceed from this realization?  Does this mean the past has no meaning?  Of course not!  If nothing else, the past has served as a proving ground of sorts for all kinds of false beliefs, attitudes, and actions.  The prudent individual looks to the past for lessons learned.  Life proceeds at a break-neck pace and one rarely has the opportunity to stop to reflect on events and choices we made in response to that moment.  Sometimes those choices were correct; often times they were not.  We only learn which they were through reflection. So it is useful, nay necessary, for us to spend some time reflecting on the past.  There is a great difference however between reflecting upon the past and living in the past. 

It is all well and good to look at the past and decide it was a better time in which to live.  I find myself frequently coming to that conclusion myself, although the utility of the whole exercise is certainly suspect.  If one is going to spend time reflecting on the past only to wind up drawing such a conclusion, the vital question that makes it all a useful exercise would be, why?  The answers lie in the lessons learned as they relate to today.  It is not a useless exercise to look to the past for life lessons.  The danger lies in refusing to leave the past and deal with the present.  A second danger is to romanticize the past and ignore the downside of life then.  This is dangerous simply because the past no longer exists, it does not represent the circumstances one must contend with and confront in the daily life of the here and now.  And let’s face it; our memories tend not to be unprejudiced and all inclusive.  Rather they are selective, either favorably or otherwise, depending upon our emotional response to the particular time period or our experiences during that time.  For some the 1960s represent a halcyon time of flower children, love and peace, sunny days of beach and surf, wide-eyed innocence and on and on: a veritable idyll.  For others the memories are of a terrible war, governmental betrayal, racial unrest, young lives tragically cut short due to assassination, drugs and the crime that accompanies them, addiction and a loss of innocence.  It all depends upon which events one relates to or one’s own personal experiences and emotional reactions to their memories.

The point is the past is done, it’s over.  Oh it serves a purpose, warm memories of times and people long gone.  We can reflect back and learn from our mistakes and therefore make better choices and decisions in the future.  Our past accomplishments are sand castles on the beach of life wiped out by the relentless march of the waves of time.  And the future, who knows what it will bring?  All of our dreams are like castles in the sky, with no sure base in reality.  Much of the time we are tied to the past through wounds we feel others, or even we ourselves, have inflicted upon us and the romanticism of the glory years reflect our displeasure with our present circumstances.  In either case, we need to learn forgiveness.  We need to forgive those whom we believe hurt us or slighted us in some way, small or large, a hurt or hurts we carry with us as constant companions into all our todays.  Our unhappiness with our present situation often revolves around feelings of regret and dissatisfaction with ourselves and therefore forgiving ourselves is often just as necessary though sometimes much harder to accomplish.  Ultimately, the point is that if we are not living in the now, we are living in the never – the past is gone and the future never comes.

How do we let go either of the past or the future?  The answer, quite simply, is to trust in the Lord.  We hear many times over, throughout the Gospels, that Jesus heals; all we have to do is to turn to Him and give our hurts and anger and disappointments over to Him and trust that He will heal us because of His infinite love for us.  What about the future and all our fears and uncertainties, the anxieties and worries that bedevil us?  James gives us the answer to that question: “If the Lord wills it, we will live to do this or that”. 

But I think the real pearl of wisdom in this short passage from James is the observation, “You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.”  Wow!  If that’s not an ego-buster, I don’t know what is!  No one can reflect on that statement and fail to be humbled by it.  The gist of his statement is that the existence of any given human being is no more noteworthy than that of the tiniest ant on this earth.  Therefore it follows that the present moment in any given human’s lifetime amounts to nothing more than a stepping stone between a past moment and a future one.  It is important to understand that that present is not the future; it is merely one step out of a countless number of steps, each of which leads into another future step.  As a consequence, it does not matter what you have done in the past, once you have taken steps to secure forgiveness for things that you did wrong.  Nor does it matter what you will do in the future, as that future may never come.  What matters is the present moment and what you do in that present moment.  Are you making the most of every moment?  Are you praising God, honoring God?  Are you making the most of every now moment and will what you do make a difference in eternity?

If we see ourselves as the puff of smoke James speaks of, then we realize just how important it is to do all God wants us, command us, to do in every now moment.  Only a fool waits.  I have often used the image of the Fates in Homer’s The Odyssey spinning a person’s future (fate) as a single, fragile thread that can so easily be cut in two with a scissors – an effortless snip! and the life ends – a snap of the fingers and it’s over.  Seen in this way, we realize how important it is not to waste precious moments in acts of unholiness or unhealthy mental thoughts and attitudes.  We cannot afford to wait another day to get ourselves right with God through an act of contrition and penance, participation in confession or the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or to speak with a spiritual advisor/director/friend – your anamchara.  Just as important as getting ourselves right with God, it is equally important that we reveal God’s love to others as well.

Procrastination, the Scarlett O’Hara Syndrome from Gone With the Wind of putting off until tomorrow that which can be done today, is numbered among the seven deadly sins as sloth, laziness, and it is one of the deadliest – literally!  A mortal sin is one which destroys the soul and apathy, doing nothing when something needs to be done, is a horrible weapon of the Enemy.  Procrastination, sloth, apathy, laziness, fear literally paralyzes us, delays us from stepping into our vocation and most importantly, creates in us a reluctance to repent!  Not only are we unwilling to admit we’ve done anything wrong, we are unwilling to change behaviors we know are contrary to God’s Law.  We may claim that what we are doing or saying or believing is what everyone else does or says or believes.  We may excuse ourselves with the argument that whatever we are doing isn’t all that bad.  The worst however is the arrogant and totally unfounded conviction that regardless of what I do or say or think, Jesus loves me anyway.  That part is certainly true but what is a total and complete lie is the implication that this means He will forgive anything I do or say or think because He loves.  All the responsibility is on Him and we owe Him nothing at all.  None of us, as adults, would ever accept such logic as that from a child.  We would agree I think that a child is responsible for their own behavior and, though we may love them it would be irresponsible for us not to punish any willful wrongdoing or rule breaking with consequences.  Why should we expect anything less from our Father in Heaven toward us, His children?  But these folks don’t and as a consequence, they refuse to assume responsibility for their own actions.

All of this procrastination shuts us off from what God wants us to do NOW.  In so doing, we allow the Enemy to keep us from experiencing and enjoying God’s love, friendship, and the joy of accomplishing whatever purpose(s) He has set for us.  St. James said quite clearly, “When one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin” (Js     ).  What’s not to understand?  Sin cannot be redeemed any other way than by the sinner ceasing the action or thought that causes it NOW and by seeking reconciliation with God through genuine sorrow, regret, and sincere promise to never commit it again.  When we have offended Jesus, we owe Him a heartfelt apology and we must have the confidence of faith to believe He will forgive so we can once more move forward to our next moment together.  The question for you is this: What is He asking of you right now?

posted by: ksmabba at 02:01 | link | comments |

Hermits and the World Around Them

In a message dated 4/20/2008 6:03:40 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Carollina@ecr. net writes:

Do you, as hermits, take it upon yourselves in quiet ways, whether by print or on the internet, to learn of particular suffering and particular realities around the globe?  When I write, "take it upon yourself," it is indeed taking the Cross upon your shoulders.  Imagine Dafur, Burma, Tibet, the countries of the Pacific Rim, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nothern Ireland, Bosnia-Croatia. refugees, hunger, war, famine, abuse?  In a sense, holding these realities in one's heart and in one's prayer becomes not only solidarity with the suffering ones, but also a sort of noble suffering in itself., to carry such hurting sorrows.  After all, no one requires those prayerful ones living "in greater separation" from the world to learn about the horrors of our world.

This is a great question! Actually, I would say the vocation itself OBLIGES us to take on these horrors in one way and another. The eremitical vocation involves greater separation from the "world" (in the monastic sense of contemptus mundi), at least as I understand it, only so that she might love the World (in the sense of God's good creation) more truly in a way which contributes to its healing, transformation, and fulfillment. (Note I have used the term "world" in two distinct though overlapping senses: the first sense is world as that which promises fulfillment apart from God; the second is in the broader sense of the world around us we see, taste, smell, and delight in in holy ways, that is, the whole of created reality.) We absolutely work to reject "the world" in the first sense (that which promises fulfillment apart from God), but we do so in order that God's creation (world in the second sense) can be brought to fulfillment in Christ.

So, at least as I understand it, there is a paradox involved in the hermit's "greater separation from the world". The hermit's vocation is above all one of love. Love must be free of enmeshment, and actually I think it is impossible in the face of enmeshment for love requires distance as well as closeness. The hermit frees herself from various forms of enmeshment (especially that found in her own heart) and reapproaches the world through God who is the ground of all existence. She returns to "the world" (God's creation) and embraces it in contemplative compassion. I personally don't think this compassion can be wholly abstract or untouched by the concrete needs and brokenness of this world. For that reason, while the hermit must be careful not to allow herself to become enmeshed in the world and its concerns, she must also be familiar with them and committed to their resolution in Christ. That means being aware of what goes on --- at least in broad strokes --- in Dafur, Burma, Tibet, etc, etc --- how ever one comes to that awareness!

I am reminded of the Carmel in Indiana (Indianapolis) whose apostolate is "Praying the News." These deeply contemplative women strike the right balance between separation from the world and engagement with and on its behalf. They know, I think, that contemplative prayer is focused on God, but that for that very reason embraces all of reality in its concrete needs and potentialities. To the degree hermits are united or in communion with God, they must also be in solidarity with their brothers and sisters, and the whole of created reality. We are indeed called to carry the world in our hearts --- not as we once did when the world had control of our hearts, but in the sense of our hearts (and hermitages more generally) being the place where God and the world meet in a unique and creative way.

Sincerely,

Sister Laurel M O'Neal, erem.

Stillsong Hermitage

Diocese of Oakland

I believe Sr Laurel is absolutely correct here.  There are many forms or degrees of eremetical life but I do think that any notion of total separation from the world around us is anti-thetical to the mission of the hermit.  I think we do live a life more separated from the world in its material sense but if our mission was simply contemplating the glory of God, what would our prayer life address?  We do spend the majority of our time reflecting on the Divine, communing with the Divine, immersing ourselves in the Divine in any number of ways.  But I think we are also called to engage in an active intecessory prayer life that goes beyond a drab sort of general prayer.  I think we must be actively aware of the particular injustices plaguing the world even though we could lump specific instances under several broad categories and raise a prayer that addresses genocide for instance.  Yet at the same time I think we need to relate specifically to a particular instance such as Darfur because doing so I believe honors and addresses the suffering of those particular people as individuals rather than just another holocaust out of how many throughout human history.  It is bad enough no one will remember their names, their faces, their lives.  At least by referring specifically to their particular incident there is some sense of personal remembrance.  I am thinking of how more powerfully people respond to the specific suffering and sorrow of an Anne Frank as opposed to 6 million dead Jews.  Attach a face, a name and the person becomes real.  Unfortunately, we cannot for the most part do that with the victims in Darfur, Croatia and elsewhere.  But we come close to that when we remember the victim groups of Darfur, Croatia, Poland and so forth separately.  So I don't think a hermit is called to remove him/herself from the world and its events.  Doing so seems a selfish and cowardly retreat from what is, in my opinion, the most difficult spiritual path of all to travel.

posted by: ksmabba at 21:27 | link | comments |

Lay Hermits

Lay Hermits, by Eugene Stockton

This article was originally published in the Australia journal Compass Theology Review, vol. 34, no. 2, 2000, pages 46-50, and is reprinted here with permission of the author. Fr. Stockton is a Catholic priest in Australia. (Section headings added and paragraph sizes edited to facilitate on-line reading.)

Seekers of solitude came to my attention with the writing of Wonder: A Way to God (1998). It became clear that there is a natural affinity between certain types of prayer and a certain style of life. There are stages or levels of mysticism where one is alone with God anyway and a person tends to enframe that in a mode of living.

During research for the book and from reactions afterwards I became aware that many Christians, without a vocation to the religious state, were seeking a deeper spiritual commitment, though that might mean opting out of normal concourse, even of religion. The title of this study became for me a shorthand term for such seekers of solitude.

Sinetar's "secular monks"

People are naturally suspicious of this way of life. Hermits are assumed to be odd, anti-social, psychotic or just drop-outs from society. Such assumptions are dispelled in a book by Marsha Sinetar synthesising case studies of "secular monks" (i.e. whether or not religiously motivated) and closely following the observations and terminology of Abraham Maslow. Her findings can be backed up by the biographies assembled by Peter France.

In general Sinetar concludes that such people display remarkably balanced and integrated personalities, that their mode of life is a means of "self-actualization " (Maslow's term). They typically go through two stages, first a radical pulling back from others, secondly a beginning of service to others ("stewardship" ). All the while personal growth ensues with increased self- knowledge and the ability to live out their true selves, their "authentic personality" .

From her case studies can be listed the typical characteristics of the solitary:

1. Social transcendence
   An emotional independence or detachment from societal influences (rules, customs, idols, etc. of the external world) as one pursues the inner call to become more what one already is, ”one's personal truth."
2. Autonomy
   Maslow understands autonomous individuals to be those ruled by the laws of their own character, rather than by the laws of society. There is an inner authority, tied to one's own integrity and truth, to which one obeys. This can at times express itself as a voice of discontent within oneself.
3. Sacrifice
   Sacrifice is inevitable in answering the call to social detachment, that is detachment from collective opinions, customs and security, from living unconsciously, from the direct and safe routes to accomplishment, from risk-avoiding tendencies and ultimately from one's own separateness ("the personal small self')
4. Metamotivation
   Maslow's term for a motivational thrust to wholeness. As self-actualization develops a person knows self as part of an integrated whole and wants to function effectively and responsibly as such. It is precisely in standing back that one sees things (including self) as a whole.
5. Structure
   The externals of place and time are ordered to enlarge the precious time to be. A person's resources are ordered for independence and self-sufficiency, tending to a life style of frugality and "voluntary simplicity". One deliberately scales down social obligations.
6. Radical break
   Radical break from ordinary life to follow one's inner dictates to live truthfully. Such a break is both perceptual and physical and can come at considerable cost but with a great awareness of the real self.
7. Growth in stewardship
   Subsequent to one's radical withdrawal, metamotivation leads one to a sense of kinship or relatedness to others-as-self, to an expenditure of one's recognised gifts for the whole and a giving of self through a strong emotion of love.
8. Self-discovery
   Coming to a greater knowledge of oneself, a person also discovers in oneself abilitiesto
   • interpret oneself more truthfully in a bigger world view
   • manage resources creatively and efficiently
   • let go conventional pressures
   • tolerate more ambiguity
   • merge "self-and-other interests"
   • increase creative problem-solving skills

Marsha Sinetar's enthusiastic appraisal of the secular monk and his/her life style may strike the cynic as another of the personal development publications which seem to stream out of the United States. And indeed her subtitle "Lifestyles for Self-discovery" would sound bizarre to a person driven by a love of God, with a recklessness of self; but one can sympathetically see a case of grace building on nature, that the kind of life to which one is drawn by grace is inherently and humanly sound.

My study of lay hermits

In 1999 Bishop Kevin Manning (Diocese of Parramatta) granted me three months leave to study lay hermits. In Australia I contacted a few who were trying out this kind of life but their efforts tended to be experimental and isolated. Then I shifted my attention to the United Kingdom where there was a longer experience of the solitary life. It was of course more prevalent before the Reformation.

At the time of Julian of Norwich there were said to be some 40 or 50 solitaries living within the walls of Norwich. Frequently a monastery or parish church had a cell in which an anchorite lived out his/her life. Rather different was the hermit, as described by Clifton Wolters in his introduction to hermit Richard Rolle's The Fire of Love (pp. 18-19)

...Solitary he might be and remote from habitation in his cell, yet the hermit was not tied to it in the sense the anchorite was. He could roam at will, and often he did. He could move house whenever he wanted… Apart from the ideal of prayer which he shared with the anchorite, the hermit could practise good works impossible to the other and live a totally different sort of life. There are instances of hermits acting as unofficial lighthouse-keepers, in a day when a lighthouse service was unthought of; of hermits keeping bridges in repair, or mending roads, or guarding town gates, or ministering to lepers in lazar-houses, or acting as guides in difficult terrain, or collecting for charity, or being the recognized do-gooder of practical works in a district. There are few things they could not turn their minds to. Basically of course they prayed, counselled and advised. A hermit could even marry, seemingly without prejudice to his standing…

In this one is reminded of the Russian poustinik as described by Catherine de Hueck Doherty in her Poustinia.

Since its hey-day the eremitical life did not altogether disappear from the British scene but in recent decades it seems to have staged a comeback and now enjoys some public profile. There is a network linking isolated individuals in the Fellowship of Solitaries, with its own Newsletter (as in U.S.A. where Raven's Bread and The Roll reach out to many hermits).

There is also a high degree of official acceptance. An important landmark was the gathering of some of the leading exponents of this life from the major Churches at St. David's, Wales, in 1975, from which the papers were published in Solitude and Communion (1977).

In response to numerous requests for advice or help, the London-based Commission on the Economics of the Contemplative Life presented a well-considered paper on hermits calling for more official recognition, discernment, assistance and means of formation for hermits, while rejecting "any idea of institutionalising or uniforming the way of life."

There is one Catholic and two Anglican houses of formation, which however can channel only a trickle of candidates. The new Canon Law of the Catholic Church recognises the eremitical life as a specific vocation to be lived under the guidance of the diocesan Bishop (Canon 603). Some candidates have sought to make vows under this canon but Bishops are often hesitant to accept these applications, perhaps uncertain as to the commitments they thereby take on, while others have resorted to a few well-known and experienced hermits for advice.

For the purpose of my study I talked with Bishops, religious superiors and spiritual guides who had dealings with hermits. Solitaries themselves I found, as in former times, exhibited a wide variety of states and life styles. They were religious belonging to convents and monasteries, parish clergy in active ministry, married couples, business people, retirees, singles in high rise flats, women baby-sitting houses, animators of houses of prayer, a priest straddling a place of strict solitude and a place of hospitality, one like a guru or starets seeking and imparting wisdom in an Indian-style ashram, persons on the pilgrimage round of holy places or settled assisting at a holy place, dwellers of lonely locations, members of third orders, members of a skete (hermit community).

Many clearly exemplified one of the two stages noted by Marsha Sinetar:

1. A radical withdrawal from society with an austere asceticism and rule of life
2. A "return to the marketplace" embracing a stewardship of service to others. These, though less austere than formerly, showed an unmistakable holiness coupled with ease, urbanity and balance - possibly what Sinetar means by "authentic personality" and certainly a good advertisement for such a way of life.

The other characteristics noted by Marsha Sinetar were certainly in evidence, to a greater or lesser degree, in all the persons I interviewed, as will be detailed later on.

Can lay persons be hermits?

As my enquiries proceeded it became clear that the crucial question was whether lay persons could be hermits. Naturally the doubt arose among religious who quoted the Rules of St. Benedict and St. Francis, which counselled long maturing in the community before venturing out to combat the devil on one's own.

On the other hand lay persons felt that religious underrated the lay vocation and that the world, far from being a hostile arena, was for the laity a locus and means of sanctification. Just as land animals and sea animals may wonder how the other survives in their dangerous environment, for each the land and the sea respectively is their natural habitat, to which they are tuned to breathe vital oxygen. For lay persons the world is where holiness awaits them, the street is their cloister, the city bustle their liturgy.

The lay solitary, far from being a quasi-religious out of place in the world, is one who seeks solitude with God in the midst of the world, indeed in communion with the world. Some interviewees, familiar with Eastern traditions of mysticism, wondered whether religious practice and thinking might not be imbued with dualism (as evidenced by the language of combat and mortification) and that there might be a non-dualistic way of asceticism.

But what then is a hermit or solitary? The best definition I have come across is that of Paulo Giustiniani, who described himself as one "who seeks to live with God alone and for God alone." One is impelled by a passion for God alone, a passion that drives to a union that has to be absolute and exclusive.

This looks to expression in a certain lifestyle which may take many different forms, each sharply idiosyncratic to the individual so expressing him/herself. But when a suitable and desirable lifestyle is for the time being unattainable, there is still the seeking. Fr. Paul Gurr (Jamberoo, N.S.W.) aptly summed it up for me, that at base it is a matter of self-perception: one (like him) can be naturally gregarious yet feel alone in the midst of the crowd and on the journey one is overwhelmingly conscious that one's constant companion is God.

How does a lay person balance the demands of work and family with the solitary vocation? In fact I came across those who do so successfully, and there was no doubting their grace of solitude and their effective management of life's demands. Just as Orthodox theology speaks of transfiguration of the mystic one can also say that for the mystic the environment itself is transfigured. Teilhard de Chardin called it the divine milieu: our natural environment now seen to be charged with Christ. By faith, we find Christ in all about us, in the heart of matter, in the heart of the other.

A spiritual gradualist understanding of the Second Coming would have us on the look-out to welcome Christ constantly coming to us in the persons and things in our immediate environs. Surely in Christian marriage this would occur pre-eminently in one's spouse. This is consonant with the richest theology of marriage, yet tip-toeing on the edge of sexuality we seem unwilling to dare to press it home.

The Tantric Tradition, especially in Tibetan Buddhism, may contribute to our Christian appreciation of the spirituality of sexuality. Thomas Moore underlines the link between sensation and mystical experience, each feeding the other. Patricia Mullins claims that some accounts of sexual ecstasy show that it is akin to mystical ecstasy. More generally the senses, far from being enemies of the soul or at least a danger (as in older spiritualities) can be seen as oenings for God seeping through to us from our environment.

There arises the question of relative or rhythmic solitude. Just as a mystic is still a mystic even though not all the time wrapped in prayer, so a solitary need not be always in absolute solitude. St. Francis and other saints have been known to follow a rhythm of solitude and active ministry. The present Coptic Pope is said to alternate weekly between the solitude of his cell and the administration of his Church.

There is no reason why a housewife, once she has dropped off the children at school, might not find the next six hours a time to be alone with God, even in the midst of her chores. Likewise the traveller, whether on a prolonged journey or routine commuting, might echo the breviary hymn: “Alone with none but thee my God I journey on my way.”

Retired priests or those still in active ministry may feel called to solitude apart from their public functions, or even within them. It was objected to me that such compromises might seem to dilute the eremitical status. What is important for a person so called is not to strive to conform to a certain definition of hermit but to seek to answer the call to be alone with God in the given conditions of his/her life.

Characteristics compared

The study brought to the fore a set of characteristics which the interviewees tended to have in common. These could be compared with those listed by Sinetar, although there is no attempt to match her list one to one, or to use the categories of her discipline.

1. Strong sense of call
   The subjects spoke of something stronger than the normal vocation (say to the priestly or religious state). For some it went back to childhood and often enough they spoke of being contented loners as children.
2. Passion
   Naturally coupled with the foregoing, it was readily spoken of as a relentless fire, something like a primal urge to be one with God.
3. Emotional distance from society
   This meant not only freedom from the pressures of civil society, but even from the concerns of the Church, such that one could look on Church happenings in a detached objective way. This needs delicate interpretation as it does not mean any lesser love of the Church or sense of belonging.
4. Autonomy
   A sense of sureness in ordering one's own life, fixing priorities, omitting what seems superfluous or inappropriate (for that individual), appraising one's own
5. Self-sufficiency
   Generally subjects did not look for support, whether material or spiritual, from Church or Congregation. It was understood one earned one's own keep or drew a pension.
6. Simplicity
   This found expression not so much in poverty as in frugality. Possessions and concerns beyond one's present needs were seen as so much distracting baggage. Common was a disarming unconcern to provide for old age or sickness.
7. Stillness and silence
   This was the treasured bonus afforded by a simple, uncluttered life. Some spoke of a rich emptiness which sourced all creativity in their life, an emptiness filled by God alone.
8. Growth in stewardship
   As mentioned before, some found, after an initial radical withdrawal, a sense of service in the world by prayer or ministry without detriment to solitude, a sense of communion with others in loving concern and compassion. Following the daily news was a spur to prayer. I was reminded of flag-bearers accompanying an army into battle, unarmed, vulnerable, useless - except to show others direction and solidarity.
9. Detachment
   A letting go of everything that has not to do with aloneness with God. There was a distinct wariness of being drawn into causes no matter how worthy or into activities (e.g. in the parish) which might develop into absorbing and distracting chores. For some, their way of life or location (like the Desert Fathers) might mean being deprived of the regular reception of the sacraments. In the spiritual life all such adjuncts are a means to an end and only God is the End, to whom some may be graced to attach themselves without intermediaries. All this calls for prudence and discernment, but it must be allowed that God may reveal Himself to the soul in ways out of the ordinary.

It is commonplace to compare the spiritual life to marriage. The image is all the more appropriate as the solitary goes out to seek her Lover, of which the following are pertinent:

• the passion of love seeks absolute exclusive union with the Other
• a definitive stop, a radical break (like a wedding) initiates a stable union
• there follows a honeymoon and then a more routine life together (which is less spectacular but no less loving)
• the home of their love is open in hospitality to others (children, visitors)
• the couple remains a self-sufficient mutually enriching unit.

Conclusion

My final observations are prompted from noting how some solitaries are more successful than others in their way of life. This does not suggest a list of judgments or imperatives but rather caveats. For example I became strongly aware of the advisability of having some sort of order in life, e.g., a loose timetable, a planned balance of activities, instead of letting things happen.

Some of the characteristics listed above need constant attention, e.g., there is need to keep working on simplicity (beware of collecting clutter), mindfulness (deliberate attention to little things) and stillness. Other traits come from the development of grace.

Above all at a time when it is fashionable to go after solitude for its own sake (as with some New Age exponents), or for the sake of personal ends (e.g. health, quiet, study, shamanic reputation, self- discovery, personal integration) , the Christian solitary can entertain only one Goal, without any others accompanying, even in a minor role. The sole undivided focus must be God revealed to us in the incarnate Word. With Him alone one seeks solitude.

"Who seeks to live with God alone and for God alone."

¶

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

1. Allchin, A.M. (ed.) Solitude and Communion, Fairacres Publication No. 66 Oxford, 1977.
2. Doherty, Catherine de Hueck, Poustinia, Notre Dame Press, Indiana, 1975.
3. France, Peter, Hermits: The Insights of Solitude, Chatto & Windus, London, 1996.
4. Moore, Thomas, The Soul of Sex: Cultivating life as an act of love. Harper-Collins, New York, 1998.
5. Mullins, Patricia, "After the Games ...Theology from the perspective of an Australian woman" in Peter Malone (ed.) Developing an Australian Theologv. St Paul's Publications, Strathfield, 1999, pp.133-147.
6. Sinetar, Marsha, Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics: Lifestyles for Self-discovery. Paulist Press, New York, 1986.
7. Stockton, Eugene, Wonder: A Way to God, St Paul's Publications, Strathfield, 1999.
8. Wolters, Clifton, (trans

posted by: ksmabba at 19:24 | link | comments |

posted by: ksmabba at 14:58 | link | comments |

What's a Hermit?

The hermit's battle                                                                                

Una Kroll

 The hermit has been seen in Christian tradition as a person who confronts evil in a special way. In the past hermits often went into the desert; today they may live in towns and cities. The author is an Anglican solitary in life vows.

 When, as a novice in a religious order, I was first asked to be a handmaid to a hermit, who lived in a caravan on convent land, I was ready to be greatly impressed. I expected her to be a gaunt, ascetic, hollow-eyed, silent person who would take one look at me and know me to the very core of my being. We would, of course, never speak to each other, but I would receive, I thought, darshan, as the Hindus call it, from just fetching and carrying for her.

 I was told that each week she would leave me a note telling me what her needs were. Each week I would leave the goods in a basket in an appointed place.

 All went well, I thought, but when I went to get the hermit’s list after the first week there was a different note from the one I expected. "Novice Una", it said, "you gave me cornflakes, and I only eat All-Bran. Please get it right next time."

 A human hermit? Yes, very human, with likes and dislikes just like the rest of us. My illusions went out of the window, and so they should have done. Hermits are human. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and some of them can get quite egocentric at times.

 Since then I have had contact with many other hermits. Their lifestyles vary greatly. Some say a monastic office; some do not. Some never talk; others chatter nineteen to the dozen whenever they get the chance. Some get up at night; others sleep soundly all night long. Some are waited upon by other people; others go out to work. Some are obviously ascetic; others are not, or not outwardly so. Some live in hovels; some in comfortable houses. Some live in beautiful country surroundings; others in high-rise flats in ugly inner cities. A few are sombre; most are wonderfully joyous – at any rate, with their visitors.

 Hermits overlap with solitaries on the one hand, and anchorites on the other, so the terms need to be clarified. Solitaries are people who live in an inner solitude, even though many may live in community. Hermits have physical solitude. They have withdrawn into the "desert". They live in some degree of physical separation from the community around them, be it in country or town. Anchorites and anchoresses are hermits who are anchored to one location, usually close to a church.

 All hermits are called by God to dwell in solitude, but they sometimes live close to each other, like the Carthusian communities of hermits. It is surprising how many hermits through the ages, from the fourth century onwards, have been quite gregarious, quite mobile, quite involved in the affairs of the world. Charles de Foucauld, for instance, craved for solitude, but also longed for community, and he went visiting the Tuareg surprisingly often. Thomas Merton received a surprising number of visitors and kept up a large correspondence. Both men found God among people, in city streets, in social contacts, as well as when they were alone.

 To be alone is not the essence of such a vocation. Living in solitude and dwelling there all the time is. Hermits find God everywhere, because in solitude with Christ they are present to everyone who is in the Heart of Jesus, and so to the whole world. De Foucauld and Merton must have dwelt in inner solitude. Otherwise they could not have written as powerfully as they did, nor had so much influence on monasticism and contemplative spirituality as they both did. And this is one hallmark of true hermits – they have an inner space where they dwell all the time, and that is where, if you are fortunate, you meet them.

 Hermits go into solitude to become the place where Christ confronts evil. That is their special task in the Church – which is not to say that other people do not have this vocation.

 Formerly, many hermits trained for their vocation by living in a regular monastic community for some years. What is exciting now is the growth in the numbers of hermits who have never belonged formally to any religious order, who are not necessarily trained in monastic ways at all and who are going into solitude, as into a desert, to seek and worship God, to pray continually and to combat evil through prayer.

 Many of these non-monastic hermits are living in towns and cities. Some are under vows to God, protected by their bishop, but most are not. Their lives are "hid with Christ in God". Some begin their lives as solitaries, then gradually become hermits because they know that they have to shape their lives to suit their vocation.

 They are given special qualities which help them to fulfil their purpose in life, especially a thirst for solitude so great that it will lead them to look for it externally at periodic intervals. If they do not succeed, their vocation will wither on the vine. They use holiday time, for instance, to get away to lonely places, to walk alone, to make a formal retreat of some length. They create places in their homes which remind them that they are always dwelling in solitude – at least they commonly do these things at an early stage in formation. I would be loath to allow this discipline to lapse even in an experienced person.

 Hermits need spaces in each day when there is sufficient external silence, space and aloneness to reinforce the interior solitude. This may mean, and often does, that, rather than trying to fit their vocation into their work and lifestyle, they choose a lifestyle and work to suit their vocation. Provided that they get what they need – and the amount of external solitude needed varies with each person – they will feel well, function well, be quite gregarious when with other people and be well socialised. If they do not, they will either wither or be destroyed in other ways, becoming reclusive, dysfunctional, unsociable and less than fully human.

 The second quality such people have is an ability to cross boundaries in prayer. For them to be "in Christ" means finding everyone else is also there. They can transcend natural and created barriers between themselves and those with whom their lives become intertwined. Space has no boundaries for them.

 They are able to be as present, for example, in a condemned cell in the United States, a harem in India or a scruffy hovel in South America, as the inhabitants themselves. Sometimes they have the gift of bilocation, and are felt to be physically present by the people with whom they are praying. But this is rare. Quiet, unseen, hidden "being present with" other people is much more common.

 The third quality found in modern hermits is an ability to hold two opposites in tension. From time to time everyone who has this vocation will have to hold good and evil, his or her own good and evil, in full consciousness and stand before God waiting for Christ to accomplish the victory.

 This means that the hermit will be aware not only of the evil in the cosmos, the world, the locality, the people for whom he or she is interceding, but also of his or her own evil – upon which the external evil is fastened – and be content to feel consumed by it, knowing that he or she is absolutely safe because Christ has already overcome the evil. (To some extent we all are the space in which Christ continues his work of overcoming evil – the hermit simply exists to point us all to our baptismal vows and to encourage us to be true to them in our lives.)

 Hermits have to learn to be so rooted in Christ that in his strength, not their own, they can endure the worst storms. And this is where the devil often has a lot of fun, because "young" hermits tend to be swept away in the storm for a while and confuse what is happening to them with the belief that they have become evil incarnate. So they feel they are betraying God, and indeed some of them do launch into real sin because they are unable to hold themselves in balance. Others have psychological breakdowns because of the strain, which is just God’s way of ensuring that they get sufficient time to recover their balance.

 I am not talking about weird psychic experiences here, nor about deliverance ministries. I am talking about prayer that reflects Christ’s descent into hell, the prayer of Holy Saturday, the prayer that feels as if there is no resurrection, but knows by faith alone that one is safely held in resurrection life.

 This Holy Saturday prayer, which has been referred to by St Gregory the Great, Andrew of Crete, Thomas Aquinas, Nicholas de Cusa, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and Silouan ("keep thy mind in hell and despair not"), was in our century experienced by Adrienne von Speyr and interpreted theologically by Hans Urs von Balthasar. This concept of Holy Saturday prayer needs further exploration, particularly I think in the light of St John’s account of the crucifixion (Jn. 19:31-38), but it does make sense of some kinds of human experience in prayer.

 Hermits, monastic and non-monastic, need to have one visible sign of their attachment to Christ, our rock, to whom we must hold during cosmic storms even though we may feel uprooted. For one person I know, that means lighting a candle morning and evening . . . just that. For another it means lighting a candle at every meal. For another it means ringing the Angelus on a church bell. You may smile a little that such small things could have such great significance, but I assure you that they do.

 Hermits without formal monastic training often find it difficult to obtain the help they need. Disciplines which help members of monastic communities or Religious are not necessarily appropriate for them.

 We are only just at the beginning of breaking away from the monastic traditions of the past thousand years to find out what twentieth-century people need by way of help to fulfil their particular callings. Happy are those who find someone who understands what is happening to them and can help them to hold the balance. A good soul-friend or spiritual director is invaluable to a hermit.

 It is an exciting time. Why is God asking people to devote their lives to prayer, to dwell in solitude, to become places where Christ confronts evil and reconciles us to God? Why is God asking some to be solitaries, others to be hermits, a few to be anchorites? Because, I believe, of the terrible plight of the world, because no amount of good works or good living has been sufficient to halt our lemming-like rush towards the precipice of destruction, because if there is to be justice in our world it can now only come about by repentance on a large scale.

 Hermits exist not for their salvation but because Christ wants to save the whole world. Hermits cannot accomplish this by themselves, so they have to point us in the right direction and help us all to give more of our time than in the past to prayer, solitude and spiritual warfare.

posted by: ksmabba at 14:21 | link | comments |

Who are Lay Hermits?