Catholic Hermit: Encouragement from Imitation of Christ

At this time, an unknowing and unrest rolls throughout the world and very much is affecting the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic ramps up in numbers tested, afflicted, and those who have passed on.  And, at this time, those of us who are consecrated to Christ as Christians of whatever stripe, or as myself, a consecrated Catholic hermit, privately professed and avowed over 19 years, we all must bond together in prayer and encouragement one with another.

Also, as a Catholic hermit, my personal spiritual life and practical life are affected as is anyone else's.  We are all in this challenge together--this great trial which is heightening during Lent (no coincidence, I feel).  Today our country's president has set the goal of Easter for all of us to continue in our efforts to stay in, to cooperate in physical distancing and only going out for medical, occasional grocery, or if in a high-needed job.

Why Easter?  The President finds Easter as do many, to be a hopeful, historical, and spiritually meaningful celebration of resurrection.  Will the coronavirus be on the stable or downward trend in all areas of the United States in 19 days?  Only God knows.  And only we individually and communally can cooperate with one another, with our leaders, and with God  to do as needed to slow and stop the spread of a highly contagious, respiratory disease...and to PRAY.

Of course, also as a Christian, consecrated to Christ, professed and avowed Catholic hermit love the goal of our country resurrecting physically, economically, and spiritually on Easter!  On behalf of the peoples of the whole world--as an example of how to come together to battle against a pandemic and a witness to God of all of us, I am going to continue sheltering in place, praying, keeping up with prayer specifics but also to focus on the prayer of silence in solitude, of even blind faith in asking His Real Presence to be with us all and inspire everyone to follow the Slow the Spread guidelines, and to PRAY.

In a selection from the classic spiritual treatise of the 15th century The Imitation of Christ (authorship ascribed to Thomas a Kempis), there is encouragement which is appropriate to our crisis. The author, obviously inspired by holy wisdom of the Holy Spirit, encourages us today in keeping and nurturing faith in God.

"Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe?  'Whoever examines the majesty of God will be crushed by His glory' (Prov 25:27).  God can do works that pass man's understanding....  

"Faith is required of you and sincerity of life; not high intelligence, nor penetrating knowledge of the mysteries of God.  If you do not understand nor grasp what is below you, how will you comprehend what is above you?  Be subject to God, submit your feeling to the faith, and the light of knowledge will be given to you as much as you need and can use.

"Some have grave temptations concerning faith and sacrament; which are not to be imputed to them, but rather to the enemy.  Take no notice, do not argue with your thoughts, nor answer the doubts with which the devil attacks you; believe God's word, believe His saints and prophets, and the wicked enemy will be routed.  It is often most profitable to God's servant to endure such things.  For the devil does not tempt the infidel or sinner, of whom he has already secure possession; but he uses various means to tempt and harass the devout faithful.

"Go on then with simple unquestioning faith, and approach the Sacrament with reverent beseeching.  Anything you cannot understand, commit it surely to God who is omnipotent.  God does not deceive you; the over-confident person deceives himself.  God walks in step with the simple ones, He shows Himself to the humble ones, He grants understanding to the little ones; 'He reveals hidden meanings to little ones' and hides away His grace from the inquisitive and the proud.  

"Human reason is feeble and fallible; but true faith cannot be deceived.  All use of reason, all human inquiry should walk in the footsteps of faith; it should not go on in front of it nor call it in question."  

So we will be tempted in many ways during these days and weeks of greater trial than most of us have experienced as nations and countries and the world nor has visited us since World War II--and of a different nature:  an invisible enemy of disease.  Most of us in most states have our churches locked; we do not have the tangible Sacraments.  

We must pray and adore in our holy hours within our abodes; and we, in faith, receive spiritual Communion for the inner asking.  All the while, our faith leads to hope in God that Easter will come after Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Whether or not on April 12 (although in prayerful faith and hope in God and in charity to all we will do our very most diligent efforts to slow and stop the spread of COVID-19), Easter will come.  We will rise up yet again with Christ, in Christ.  Our time of suffering will pass.  We will resurrect by the grace of God's glory and of His Son's death for our sins and the resurrection promise of our salvation.

Keep the faith!  Fan the holy flames of hope in God!  Do all in charity, including charity in prayer for others and in uniting one with another--no more enemies among us--and do what is tangibly and physically necessary to humble ourselves and sacrifice our self-wants to be out and about, to hoard products.  Pray for God's protection of our leaders, our health care professionals, law enforcement, elected politicians as they vote on aid to those most harmed economically and physically.  

Let us lead by holy example whether or not anyone sees us but God alone.  Be an imitation of Christ--ever a witness of righteousness and great belief in God.  Praise God for His mercy and love! God will lead us through this pandemic.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

Catholic Hermit: On Deepening and Furtherance, Soul in Christ and His Church

While I've benefitted plentifully and by the grace of Jesus Christ, in the gift of grasping and being uplifted by the writings of not only St. Pope John Paul II (Vita Consecrata) and a brief offering by Pope Francis I on Consecrated Life, I am also much edified by writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  

The joy is serene joy.  If my life on earth will be as it has been for these two decades past, in my private profession, avowal, and living the eremitic vocation of the Church, the roots will deepen and spread all the more, while what is above ground will lessen.  

Although I realize that there is a continuous attempt (has been and on-going) to discredit, disparage, and seemingly sabotage my personhood and my God-chosen vocation as a consecrated (or not) but very much a Catholic hermit, I have great trust in the Lord.  

I also turn to the protection and guidance of the Blessed Mother Mary, St. Michael the Archangel, and my late Spiritual Da (who realize I have the devil by its tail, essentially and some literally).  They and many others praying for me, will see me through whatever next in this deepening and furtherance of my body, mind, heart, and soul into His Real Presence and His Church, the Body of Christ.

I was unable to do manual labor today.  But praying and reading has been helpful, and with the increased pain today thus keeping me more in bed, all that suffering is pain-prayer, being utilized by Jesus for so many souls needing healing and to be drawn into conversions and deeper conversions with Christ.  I must not forget the reminder by my confessor, that not only as a hermit, but as a suffering servant (Victim Soul of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), the pain is providing unfathomable good for the entire Body of Christ.  I pray so!  I hope in God so!

Recently the Lord has brought to the silence of my Solus Deus Hermitage, a person from the past.  This "bringing" is in terms not of any physical visitors other than the little neighbor girl bringing a small bowl of drywall mud last evening), but is a bringing across cyberspace.  It is a suffering person I knew between 2005 and 2012.  She suffers greatly, and as a supportive victim soul, so does the person's faithful spouse.  They both are devout Catholics.

I am especially taken by the person who suffers tremendously from a mental illness that had onset earlier in life but has required much medication and even last-resort type treatments.  Yet the suffering servant of God, continues in the devout life, and in fact loves St. Francis de Sales' classic:  Introduction to the Devout Life.  Also the person reads a numeric section daily from The Imitation of Christ (Thomas a Kempis).  [I have joined in reading across the miles, this spiritual tome.] At other times of the day, the person gazes for a time upon two icons,  Our Lady of Czestochowa (also known as the Black Madonna) and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  Each images of Our Lady have personal, family meaning, as well for this couple.

So the Lord re-connected us through internet, for brief contact of which the other is of course in active, married life--but yet with a disability that affects both husband and wife.  Amazing couple, though, continuing to "row the boat" across the rougher waters than many experience in the journey of life.  They keep on, in tremendous faith and steadfast devotion in Christ and Our Lady, in God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Also, just day before yesterday, there was a marvelous reconnection with a woman and her adult daughter who live in the UK.  The adult daughter suffers from mental illness and has anxiety regarding continuance of stipend or what in USA would be called disability pay support.  The mother, a widow, lives in another location from the daughter, and has been through yet another death of a dear and beloved friend, perhaps four years or so after the passing of her beloved spouse who had been a deacon in their parish for the past decade or more.

It is quite something, when we are in a phase of great opening to all the positive and good that God has for us, to then see the actual effects of waiting upon the Lord for Him to choose for us in whatever ways He wills.  Sometimes His choosing includes having us free others so that they might themselves, make more effort to live their own vocations, such as if laity in the active life, or young and married with children, to seek out those in similar vocation and apostolate...rather than to be dependent upon an old Catholic hermit who is being freed so as to deepen the living out of my own hermit vocation, and to focus also on the suffering in union with Christ.  

The Lord is focusing me on better prayer life and increasing silence of solitude, of the way in which the Lord has chosen to more strictly separate me from the world than in some ways more than ever despite the previous "phase" being quite arduous.  Yet, I have a long way to go in the stillness, the silencing of the senses as the pain is quite "loud" it's own silent but distracting "shouts" for my attention.  Even if the Lord keeps me for Himself in profound ways, 

Christ will always guide and form my mind, heart, and soul.  The more I remove myself from the more external aspects of hermit vocation, and give also due to the victim soul reality, and rest in the Lord peacefully in all matters without and within, the mystic will choose the better part, always, in whatever situation.

We all must remember, as it is truth, that no matter the means or ways obstacles, or the persecutions, or no matter the tricks of the devil, Jesus is not only our Judge, but He is our Savior, our Redeemer, and for me and surely so many others, Jesus is our Beloved Spouse.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

What Thomas a Kempis Writes About Hermits

More and more, this Catholic hermit comes across beneficial information in its spiritual reading of the classics by saints and mystics.  This it was with great joy yet with serious reflection, that the hermit found much good in discovering what Thomas a Kempis reminded about the hermit vocation, in The Imitation of Christ.

Now to present it, verbatim.  Who can improve upon a holy man's writings, especially if read as the result of a scholarly and gifted translator's efforts?  Yes, it is well to research a bit to make sure that we select to read in spiritual classics, that which has been translated by an excellent translator.

[From The Imitation of Christ Thomas, à Kempis, Chapter 18, "The Example Set Us by the Holy Fathers," formatted]

• How strict and detached were the lives the holy hermits led in the desert!  What long and grave temptations they suffered! How often were they beset by the enemy! 

• What frequent and ardent prayers they offered to God! 

• What rigorous fasts they observed! 

• How great their zeal and their love for spiritual perfection! 

• How brave the fight they waged to master their evil habits! 

• What pure and straightforward purpose they showed toward God! 

• By day they labored and by night they spent themselves in long prayers. 

• Even at work they did not cease from mental prayer.  

• They used all their time profitably; every hour seemed too short for serving God, and in the great sweetness of contemplation, they forgot even their bodily needs. 

• They renounced all riches, dignities, honors, friends, and associates. 

• They desired nothing of the world. 

• They scarcely allowed themselves the necessities of life, and the service of the body, even when necessary, was irksome to them. 

• They were poor in earthly things but rich in grace and virtue.

• Outwardly destitute, inwardly they were full of grace and divine consolation.

• Strangers to the world, they were close and intimate friends of God. 

• To themselves they seemed as nothing, and they were despised by the world, but in the eyes of God they were precious and beloved.

• They lived in true humility and simple obedience; they walked in charity and patience, making progress daily on the pathway of spiritual life and obtaining great favor with God.  

We consecrated Catholic hermits everywhere, today, ought take to heart and action any one of these proven efforts of our holy hermit exemplars.  We can bring respect and joy to our vocation, advance the spiritual life in our and others souls, humbly pray to be Christ light in the world, uplift the Holy Catholic Church, and offer sacrifice of praise to His Real Presence.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another!  Remain in His Love!