Well, so what? It is just that this morning I read II Corinthians Chapter 9 and wrote another bit about it, relating it to a friend's life as Day Four of a birthday novena using "9" not only as novena but for 90 years of life.
And then I responded to some readers' inquiries as to how to become a Catholic hermit by reposting an updated post that explains in what I consider to be boring detail, how to become a Catholic hermit in the ways most people who discern a call to the hermit life are desiring--that kind of information, more of what is written in the Church documents, institutes, and canon laws. And that all as formed from the traditional hermits, historically, over the centuries.
So then I got my pain-riddled body off the mattress and got some "gumption" (a word my mother used with emphasis on several occasions to spur us on in whatever tasks), and I headed out to sand and wipe with tack cloth, pieces of window trim. Then I got a clean paint brush and painted the first trim coat on the boards, trying my very best for God, omnia pro Deo--all for God. I try to make it all smooth-looking, although an old farmhouse hermitage offers much leeway in the way of exterior perfection.
While painting the boards, I realized my whole affect had altered from how the mind, heart and soul felt and perceived the gorgeous day, as it was reflected in the two pieces of writing I'd done earlier.
I considered once more the saints, the mystic saints in particular, and I realized Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross and Padre Pio never really wrote about the technicalities of the laws of men, the laws of the temporal Church but rather wrote of the matters of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, or of Mary and especially of Scriptures and the ascent to God and the law of God which is the law of love.
My heart tends to sing when writing of such as these mystics wrote; and my heart stutters like an unwilling, clogged transmission when I slog through the temporal and more technical matters, although I admit it is what at some point in my hermit discernment, I became aware of and read what the Church has written and decided upon, for not only the religious orders in the Consecrated Life of the Church but for the hermits and virgins and widows and various other categories of people who are avowed and professed and part of the Consecrated Life of the Catholic Church.
On occasion, as in yearly, I review the Church's requirements for a consecrated hermit and renew my vows once again privately, and in the past four years or so I have done so without renewing them with a priest as witness--as Christ is my witness in the silence of solitude here, these days and months and years.
So all the parameters and guidelines and the basics of vowing to live the three evangelical counsels, and to live the hermit life in the ways suggested and set forth in the church documents (cited in the posts such as the one reposted this morning)--all these are helpful in guiding and developing the structure, so to speak, of a hermit's daily life, both in temporal and spiritual ways.
But again the mystic saints come to mind, and it is as if John of the Cross is calling to me to free the mind, heart and soul for the ascent to union with God, and to write more of that process and of what trials and events occur in the temporal and mystical realms along the way! It is to live the life of Christ in us, and to live in following what He teaches in the Living Word, and to then add the structural elements of whatever vocation that God has chosen for us in which we are to traverse this life we are living here on earth.
When I think on these things, and ponder Scripture, and when I commune with God in the silence even if my hands hold a can of paint and a brush and the shoulders are moving the arm in brush strokes--my soul is elevated once more and rejoices in God my Savior! I emit flashing silent words of love and joy and delight in the Holy Spirit and in Jesus Christ my Beloved Spouse!
And even if the temporal bodily pain calls me back to the mattress for a lunch break and a bit more writing to clear the clogged transmission that occurred with the other writing that is basic, yes, but nothing to dwell upon as other than as a brief check-list of what can assist a hermit to live the vows professed and to then climb the holy mountain as God leads the soul forth, in His ways, His timing, and His providential omniscience.
God bless His Real Presence in us, and I am pleased that some readers recently have inquired about a hermit's life of solitude. That may provide a topic with which to sing about the silence of solitude in contemplation, or the silence of solitude in time-speckles of union with the Spouse.
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