Catholic Hermit: Exercising Gifts

It's been a week or so since writing--writing a blog post, that is!  Have been catching up on some correspondence and writing in another venue.  But mainly, this very tired out, nothing consecrated Catholic hermit has been working hard, exercising gifts that God has given.

Today's first reading from Romans 12 expresses a broad variety of gifts which we mortals are given in varying measure and forms.  What seems crucial despite variety and amounts, is that we utilize the gifts God gives us.  This simple statement reminds us.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
let us exercise them....

There was an urgent need in the family, and this hermit has been away from the hermitage for the bulk of a week.  Working as a team, we built up one another, utilizing each others skills and strengths, sharing ideas, coming up with viable solutions, and remaining positive in what could be a devastating situation.  

We made much progress as a unit, for we are members of the Body of Christ.  We are part of a holy Whole.  There is genuine love and mutual respect, despite individual uniqueness and our mortal, ever present flaws.

Now, having returned to Te Deum Hermitage, this hermit's body is trying to recover from the added push of driving, sitting, conversing, and negotiating with people out in the world.  We had to make progress in problem-solving and in making headway for whatever is next.  

Today, the silence of solitude includes both external and internal, whereas in the past week there was not as much external silence.  It does not matter, for the silence of solitude is an individual and interior attribute--partly learned, partly acquired.  Given by God's grace, a hermit chooses or chooses not to exercise it.

The Lord has been with us all in the moments past, present and will be in future no matter the temporal crises which wax and wane in our external circumstances.  And the externals do affect our interior lives to some degree.  Either we will be buffeted about, or we will hold firm in faith, hope, and love.

Let us choose to affirm one another in love, respecting and honoring everyone in God's law of love!

Now to rise, stretch, dress, eat with gratitude something simple yet regenerative to the body.  There is manual labor to be done here, in the slow process of progress in some externals.  The mind, heart and soul remain fixed on God's law of love of Him and love of others.  

Whether the body be perched on an extension ladder tied into the house through a window and on top of a steep porch roof, painting a gable, or if priming a ceiling and trim pieces for an interior bathroom--or getting a spiritual book ready to ship to a person far away--God is within, and we may in simple consideration, remain in His Love.

God bless His Real Presence in us!