Remember, You Are a Hermit!

Remember, you are a hermit!

The willowly, ancient, holy hermit appeared while nothing was busy struggling painfully with heavy chores, amidst people wanting this and that.

He caught nothing's attention and said sweetly, pointedly, glancing over at nothing with a nod:

Remember, you are a HERMIT"

Immediately, all wearying activity ceased. Guilt of not doing this or that, reminiscences of an earlier stage of life in which the world beckoned with glittering opportunities--all the but then and what if and why--ceased. Black forest sleep opened up to dense fog floating atop Lake Immaculata, the pond just outside Agnus Dei Hermitage.

With effort, nothing roused itself, said a few words to the Sorrowful Mother and asked prayers for F. and his family, and dragged its pained, mulch-shoveled-stiffened body to dress for early Mass.

Yes, nothing is a hermit and must remember that vocational fact when the body depletes from too much manual labor, and the frets creep in like the voles that have come in force to assault roots of Mary's Garden expensive specimen trees and plants.

That is why accompanying folks to a medical appointment, knowing the conversing will be a struggle (subjected to listening...talk of people!), is rather like the hectic, heavy house repair scene of the night before. That is why the sagacious holy hermit said, "Remember, you are a hermit!"

The hermit life is as the canon lawyer confessor said, this morning, without referring to it as such. We are in the school of the Lord. Nothing has always called it Soul School. Yes, the same thing. The priest said that one's disposition is very important to the Lord. And we are always in process. If our disposition is good and desiring to do the Lord's will, then He knows this and that is what He desires so He can teach us, and we can learn.

Nothing thinks about the talk of people, and it recognizes that in its writing, when giving examples, the examples are yet too specific, as nothing has in mind this or that situation. Well, it is all right to refer to what the Pope says or some saint, for that lends credibility and support. But otherwise, nothing is learning to be more general. In fact, it is like the voles.

Voles are critters nothing had never heard about, never anticipated they were out there, waiting to come in and threaten Our Lady's Gardens. Once voles arrive on the scene, it is said they are never rid out completely. It becomes a matter of control and management, requiring consistent and constant effort with traps, poisons or acquiring a cat or some kind of rat terrier dog. Any of these control techniques require effort--and much effort for nothing--but good for the goal.

One might wish to allow the voles to just eat all the trees and be done with it. But then the voles would move on to other gardens, once all roots were eaten and vegetation dead: a wasteland.

So it is with sideways crosses, vices, the various lessons of soul school. My, oh my! It takes vigilance and consistency, and much hard work!

But the confessor reminds that the Lord does not intend for soul school to be misery and difficult. No, nothing considers that His yoke is easy and burden light. One must keep in mind and heart and soul that the Lord assists greatly, every step of the way for the soul that is disposed to doing His will. One must love, unconditionally, soul school and the lessons therein--the processes.

There are many graduations. Nothing desires to climb the stairway to heaven now, and so the sideways crosses must be eliminated, like the voles. It is as the saints have said, to "do violence" to one's sins. They must be purged, expunged, eradicated. Saints have done so in what others may view as extreme measures. But, controlling and reducing the population of plant-killing voles requires radical measures.

Ah, yes, the little varmints are only trying to survive, reproduce (in hoards!), and eat their fill. So too do many sideways crosses cause us to take pity and sublimate the damage the sins--or do we call them weaknesses or alternatives?-- can cause.

Nothing Catholic hermit has noticed the splinters of this recent behemoth sideways cross. It will pull out any splinters stuck in its socks, and crush them to dust for the gardens. And, too, be willing for the next sideways cross, and the next, and the next.

The pain of the body has no business taking on too much manual labor right now and will wait a few days for the next load of mulch. Pondering time is needed, and a little effort in placing vole traps around some trees. Not frantic or exhaustngly strenuous. Recall one's roots and the vocation to which it is called. Not too much of this or that. Embrace the Nine S' of its rule. Pray. Love. And remember, you are a hermit.

[How subtle are the tiny flowers of the Lady's Mantle, photographed one morning in the Mary Garden. Usually the immense, fuzzy leaves capture the view, and the amazing way in which tears drops of dew remain on them. The flowers blend in, unlike that of the iris or lily. Know that as the delicate flower, so the soul is tenderly nurtured into bloom under Our Lady's loving mantle.]