There may be not only an obsession with temporal laws, but also an obsession with some intent on twisting what I write. Promoting temporal church laws (created by humankind), is in truth, not the best path to promote or to take in making a stand for oneself or in any one's personal, spiritual growth.
The reality remains that God's Law of Love is the Law excels and exceeds over any other law, according to Jesus Christ. In my preceding post, this point is made, but it is best to simply read the Scriptures and learn what Jesus and the apostles have to say about Loving God Above All Things, and loving others as one's self (or, as Bernard of Clairvaux explains, the love of God is the supernal love, and by loving God, learning to love in God and as God loves, one thus does begin to love in God's Love. This means that one loves others (and self) as God loves others and ourselves. We become lovers in God's way of love, and through God's love, we thus learn to love, and we then do love--as God loves.
This way of loving as God loves is a grace. But we must be giving up our way of love in order to even begin to approach being open to receiving such a grace. To learn to love and to love in in the way of God's love, to love according to God's Law of Love which the Apostle Paul and the other apostles, and Jesus Himself explains is the law above all other laws, is well worth the humbling of ourselves to see and embrace the truth of this reality.
A person who thinks he or she is that entrusted by God to be the one to make the laws or who cannot grasp that such as a recent canon or church law made up by human beings is equivalent to or is necessary to commit to or embrace will miss out on the grace that is free to every human soul, and that is the grace to learn to love as God loves, and to love then, in God's love, as a participant in God's love, and to love thusly as God loves.
I hightly recommend those who take issue with what I write--or anyone--to read for themselves Bernard of Clairvaux's On Loving God. Also, read and re-read the Scriptures in which Jesus speaks of the greatest commandment, and also those Scriptures in which the Apostle Paul writes of the love of God, of God's Law of Love. A full and solid grasp of God's Law of Love is necessary for the spiritual development and progression of all Christians, as well as is basic to anyone who aspires to be or has avowed him- or herself to the hermit vocation within the Catholic Church--or for anyone who is embracing and living the hermit vocation who may not be Catholic but are aspiring Christians and lovers of God--who have given themselves in full commitment and avowal to God as one living the eremitic life.
I also can recommend reading and getting to know the various Christian Catholic hermits over the centuries, all of whom are not hermits per a canon law created by humankind be it a bishop or promoter of creating a type of hermit dedicated to a canon law and approved by a cleric, but rather are avowed to and consecrted by God, and called by God to their eremitic vocation. Some of these hermits have been of the highest order of love of God and love of others such as St. Xenia of Petersburg, as to have given up the temporal to the point that they are referred to as "Fools of God" or "Fools of Christ" or in Bl. Ramon Lull's case referred to as "A Fool of Love." This "Love" is that of God Is Love--a life avowed and consecrated to giving oneself fully away from the temporal and offering onself totus tuus to God and living fully God's Law of Love.
As for books, try to access out of print and older books. Reading of, for example, St. Bruno and of Carthusian history from books closer or to the original time period provides accurate information of Bruno, such as why he left Cologne and removed himself to the French Alps. Gain accuate information, not that of what some online invent or interpret inaccurately. Go back in history, including with rare and old books written as primary source research, otherwise will not have accuracy.
Of course, any and all Christians are invited in by Christ to "remain" in His Love. And all Christians and indeed all human beings with souls--are invited into embracing and learning to live by God's Law of Love--the only law necessary in reality and truth, to love as God loves, and thus to love others as God loves, including the love of self, as God loves the self. By grace we may enter into God's love and thus learn to love as God loves. All temporal civil and temporal church laws, then, are rendered moot if one truly lives God's Law of Love, of one truly remains in Christ's Love.
Pray and think about it. Test it by considering the supremacy of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit compared to that of humankind's capacity to love or even create laws that can reach any depth or height of God's Law of Love--that of coming to being able to love in God's Love, to love as God Loves. Open not only the strictures of the human way of thinking, but open the heart to Christ's Word and His Reality in what is His Love.
I'm striving to adapt to and accept further calling from His Real Presence, and this calls me all the farther from the temporalized and more recent developments of humankind, for whatever the motivations and intentions. I all the more follow God's Law in something the Lord has asked of me which is beautiful challenge in holy perspective and spiritual death and rebirth, as well asl in far greater suffering of all levels and types. Am finding the Lord's guidance in beautiful ways, in tangible yet spiritual as well as in mystical insights and loving interactions.
My prayer is that the ladies who write about and who enjoy hermit life as diocese and canon law hermits come to a peace about their decisions and way of living their vocations. We have differed for at least 16 years in our paths as hermits, both paths in keeping with the Church and our respective bishops. May God help them accept the realities of the allowed differences, and proceed in what they find fulfilling in their vocational choices.
We each may write of our spiritual journeys, and it is hopefully a positive means of providing each of our readership with considerations and suggestions that help them, along with their own thoughts and ways of living their hermit lives or in determining their vocational paths. What I do find discouraging and "old" is the ladies' bitterness toward my writings, ask if my voice and lived, consecrated, avowed, God and Church approved eremitic vocation is somehow "wrong" and should not be allowed and valid, or given considerate respect of expression as a Christian Catholic Hermit Mystic and viable member of the Body of Christ--and of the Roman Catholic Church--in these present times.
I wrote of the Love of God and the Law of God, the Law of Love, the greatest commandment, as being the way forward, in essence, for anyone's spiritual progression and eventual union with God, in Love. I don't need my readership to grow exponentially, which is what happens when the one lady has a comrade write her a "question" regarding what I wrote, quoting something I wrote, but most often taken out of context or clipped. Or, my content is not quoted but is misconstrued to fit the one lady's agenda of seemingly needing to "win." The consecrated life of hermits in the Catholic Church is not meant by God to be a competition. We consecrated Catholic hermits each simply have valid yet different, approved, ways and means of living our eremitic vocations.
The value of sharing one's spiritual journey with others is to do just that. Of course, despite the ladies' resentment that I write and share to an audience of readers who choose to read what I have to share now and then, I will continue to do so, but my content will vary from the other blogger and her following because our writing styles and content will always vary. That's the spice and beauty of the spiritual journey and the love and consideration of the Living Word of God, for one...with many other and varied aspects to share with others, as well,
God bless His Real Presence in us. Let us Love in His Love!
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