The Nothing Hermit (Catholic) Visits the Da

The nothing hermit (Catholic) left off the agonies of the parish volunteer dinner with the spiritual da, the other day. It apologized after an hour of dishing out the sensitivities to the situation, for there was a tone of complaint and grumpiness--egged on by the heightened bodily pain.

There we have it, for hermits and aspiring hermits to taste reality: There may be few out there who comprehend the progression in the hermit life, once one steps forth on this path. And, it is one that God chooses for the soul--much as the nothing has been trying to express in kind for the vocation of victim soul. God chooses the vocation, and the soul thinks it has asked for it or been desiring it, or not. But if the former, it is God who put the desire within, if it is a pure desire; and in the later case, God lets the soul know His will even if the soul initially regurgitates the cud-call.

When the nothing was finished expressing how overwhelming and miserable was the ordeal of being in a large facility with swarms of people and the sensitivity especially to that which stood out as incongruous or conspicuous in some souls (and this to the unpalatable tastes), the spiritual da immediately remarked: This is not your nature. You are better off and created to be with your flowers, gardening.

So the nothing related how the three priests had each come up with definite reasons why a hermit should go to such an affair. But they do not comprehend the nothing's essence, and they do not quite follow the plan for the nothing's hermit life in returning more and more into nothingness and less and less of any something. A hermit soul chosen for nothingness but everything to glorify God alone must be like the cabbage butterfly in drabbish white, winging solo through the garden, nibbling cabbage and learning to avoid being dusted. Unlike the beautiful butterflies which fly in hordes, the common cabbage butterfly is seen solo, and very unremarkable at that. In fact, it is a garden pest to the few who even take note of it.

It is as common a butterfly and numerous, as the priests who comprehend a hermit soul are rare. Don't expect understanding, but rejoice if progression is made in understanding, for the hermit life is propagated in part through the priests who, although not comprehending the essence of the hermit soul, do lovingly and generously refrain from dusting the hermit wings and who follow along the path, learning about such matters along with the hermit!

When a kindred spirit in the hermit life is gifted by God to the hermit soul, rejoice!

The nothing rejoices in the spiritual da. Yet it also rejoices in the three who perhaps do not quite comprehend what it would be like to be a cabbage butterfly contained in an enclosed banquet room with no cabbage to nibble, no means to fly, and but a few fingers reaching out to grab its white-drab butterfly wings. Does even the likes of a common cabbage butterfly sit still for all that?

So the Da and the nothing laughed a bit with the realization that there was misunderstanding of what might be best for the nothing--at least what the nothing was made of and made for. The da said the nothing was not created for such events, or at least not to be comfortable in them. "No, you never were to be one like that."

Well, it is true, and although socialized by parents and given expectations, the nothing innately was groomed by God for that which destined contemplative life.

He mentioned the Pope speaks of "subsidiarity"--that we are to be supportive of one another. But the nothing hermit (Catholic) has a subsidiarity with the Alone, with God, and through God -is-Love with others, but not with them in a physical sense. Yes, as Jesus is quoted in St. Mark's Gospel and said of St. Peter and the other disciples: They thought and saw not of the spiritual view but from that of human beings. And we are to learn to see and perceive as God Is.

So this morning, after Mass, the nothing asked the confessor who celebrated Holy Mass, if he had time to bless the St. Fiacre statue. He did so, and asked a bit about St. Fiacre. Then as an act of charity and politeness as well as a kind of test of what the Da had said, the nothing thanked this elegantly meek priest for having hosted such a lovely volunteer dinner.

"Did you have a good time?" he hopefully asked the nothing. "Oh, yes" was the reply (which could be considered a blatant lie if one viewed as a human being). "Yes, it was full of much suffering, for the padded seats caused great pain, and I had to stand until the last moment possible, and bought and drank a glass of beer to help stave off the pain, and then had to take a pain pill, and had to leave early, and listened well for talk was prohibited by the need to focus on pain management, but offered the suffering for Sister M., and also loved the company of M. and C. who are very dear people."

So this poured out, and the elegantly meek Reverend Father smiled with appreciation, for he so seems to want to have the nothing fit in and be socialized.

Then the nothing added as he headed for the rectory, "Father, I am going to take up the harp!"

"Oh? That is a peaceful and calm kind of music, but it is complicated, isn't it?"

"I guess we'll find out!" replied the nothing. "I ordered it just last night! It is a way to adore God without words!"

The nothing had yet more affirmations of the dichotomous nature of trekking up the holy mountain as a hermit in this 21st century, in a parish, with little other-comprehension of how the nine s' begin to re-conform the soul and its body, mind and emotions, to God's preordained desires.

Perhaps the nothing will explain some day, to this elegantly meek priest, just how miserable was a cabbage butterfly in a container full of monarchs and preying mantes and sundry other bugs, with much noise and flurry and scurry and beef and chicken and just desserts, and sitting and seeing from multi-faceted orbs from inside out and outside in.

And the Da said, too, that if the pettiness continues in the Sacristy with the women, and the pecking gets too distracting, to have nothing more to do with it. But if the nothing can stand back and behave as a maidservant of the Handmaid of the Lord, and not be bothered and learn to ignore such silliness--but the Lord will determine through how He effects the scene for the outcome. A cabbage butterfly is best to remain in its place, and that is not with Monarchs.