Catholic Hermit: Being Reminded of Holy Focus

St. Augustine, centuries ago, experienced quite the re-conversion and returned to Jesus Christ for salvation.  From that point onward in his life. Augustine kept his Holy Focus.

In an alternate Gospel reading for today's Mass, Matthew 22:23 seems clearly what I am to ponder in keeping a Holy Focus.

Jesus told His disciples after a series of woeful warnings to the scribes and Pharisees' hypocrisy and focus on externals even in religious laws and practices:

"...one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God
and by Him who is seated on it."

The past couple of days this pained, consecrated Catholic hermit is transitioning from the mind attending to details in fine-tuning the hermitage, readying it for whoever is next to dwell here--to a major lessening of attention to requisite finishing work and into vast swaths of contemplative pondering.  And, with this freedom has come from the Holy Spirit several dire prayer intentions emailed, messaged, and phone-called, asking me to pray and in some cases also counsel those in great need.  

The Lord is with us, always, and we are through, with, and in Him!  Remain in His Love--Jesus asks this of us!  It is simple enough to comply; we give ourselves to Christ in thought, word, and deed by simply accepting His love and offering ours--which is actually His love in us--back to Him.

In that love for Christ and remaining in His Love, and His Love for us, it seems inconceivable that we could have other than love for our fellow humans, creatures, and all of God's creation.  However, we lose our Holy Focus rather easily, it seems.  

As in Jesus' time on earth, it can be lost through a type of obsession with power, prestige, position as well as with the laws of the times--and it did not take long for the laws developed in the early Church to increase over the centuries and to divert Holy Focus in some instances, or to become a distraction, hamstringing some to swear more by that which is not the throne of God and He Who Is seated on it.

I know how easy it can be to drift into lesser than Holy Focus.  We all are probably aware of having slipped into less than that which is love, light, and all things holy and which is of above.

This morning I received a call and am praying for a man, husband, and father to let go of resentments or whatever has gotten to him, so that he does not have a hatred for the family dog.  The dislike has grown over a couple of years, and the man keeps at it--wanting to get rid of the pet.  Granted, the little dog is not a highly intelligent breed and has a stubborn streak (does not obey commands impeccably), but he is a sweet little dog, easy to be around people, enjoys snoozing, and rather simple in needs and desires.

The caller and I discussed possible reasons for the man to have developed and maintained increasingly this dislike for the dog, and it will likely end with their giving the dog away--which is a sad end in some ways, although there will be any number of persons wanting this dog.  

But what is most sad about the situation besides the dog needing to adapt to new people and place, is that the man will not have learned to overcome his resentment and unnecessary dislike, nor will he be stopped in what is rather an obsession that has more taken over his mind and core than will ever be a problem for the little dog.

Where is the Holy Focus?  It is so far buried as to have nearly been forgotten by me, a Catholic hermit writing about it as an example of how easy it is for us to lose Holy Focus in our daily lives.  Perhaps it is a matter, also, of how easy an obsession and dislike can be planted like a tiny bacteria within and then grow into a massive infection that takes all thought, heart, and spirit to deal with that of rather external disease and dis-ease. both.

And to this point, dear readers, yes, people have brought it to my attention that there is yet someone out there who has continued now for ten years to seemingly be smitten and obsessed with detraction from any angle imaginable.  I am aware of it, I forgive the person, I do not resent in the least, but rather have compassion and commit to pathos and prayer.  

Some of you have thought the person "crazy", others say "shameful", "envious", and "sick".  I think not of any analysis, for does not trying to ascribe a label or reason to someone else's issues, just a means of the evil one to distract us from our Holy Focus in our daily lives and in the heart of our very souls?

Just as with the man who has developed an obsession and dislike of the little pet dog (of whom I consider to be one of the sweetest dogs and have often referred to him as "Lambie-pie" for his little face and muzzle have the appearance of a lamb's head), the only recourse is to have compassion for someone who allows a fellow creature to make him imprisoned by dislike and to be annoyed with any even remotely factual aspect.  For it then leads to deceive self, justify self to attack and demean the object of personal issue.

Detraction and dislike held onto for any period of time simply is not holy in any manner; and the great sorrow is that it deprives the person of a Holy Focus.  The man with the dog is a practicing Christian, the one who can't seem to let go of detracting me is a fellow Catholic.  Yet there it is--on going obsessive dislike.  Just see how we Christians can lose our way, by one means or another, and can keep up an obsessive dislike for days, weeks, months and then years?  There is no way, truth, beauty or freedom in Christ in that form of imprisonment.

St. Augustine lost his Holy Focus, having been reared as a devout Christian by his holy mother, St. Monica.  But thankfully, through prayer and love, Augustine returned to Jesus Christ and a Holy Focus, later on and in time for him to do much good for so many people and for the Lord Jesus Christ.  

And I ask you readers who have personally commented to me, to continue praying for the person who for whatever reasons (seemingly quite logical to that person), continues to be shackled by whatever personal dislikes and disgruntlements. You also do not need to let me know when the person erupts; it serves no holy purpose as it tends be reoccurring.  Rather, pray with me that the person can let go and let God, so to speak, and return to Christ's inner peace and consistent Holy Focus.  

I also ask you to pray for the man and the little dog, and his family.  While it seems a small matter, the problem lies within the person, and without trying to analyze how or why a person can develop such an obsessive disgruntlement, no matter how logical the reasons might seem to the person him- or herself--it is no way to live as a Christian.  It only makes the one obsessed be hindered and seem all the lesser or limited a follower of Christ.

This is also a good prayer for ourselves.  It is a prayer for myself.  And I ask you to pray for me, as well, in my time of transition from so much prayer in manual labor to be in prayer without the pressure of manual labor, as the Lord has called me into whatever is now and next.  

"Next" is continuing prayer for the needs of so many hurting people and distressful situations in their lives, yet without my needing to pour my body into physical work to the degree it had become accustomed.  Yes, it seems quite strange to not be in such solid ora et labora (prayer and work) and more so now in ora.  I must put my temporal body into manual labor as it is requisite for my pain management benefit--but far less in urgency of an earthly time frame and temporal reason.

The Holy Focus remains, but it has gone through a honing of massive proportions.  Yes, it is but seven weeks today that I could have easily been paralyzed or killed from the major smack of my body propelling through the air in the "flight from the stairway to heaven"--as I called the stairway my dear angel and I constructed in this temporal dwelling, the Te Deum Hermitage.

Gone is the need to have mental space allotted for remembering construction facts and figures, for figuring out detailed finishing work.  However, I still call upon St.  Joseph and Jesus and Mother Mary, and my Angel Beth, as Joseph and Jesus were carpenters, and Mary a mother.  All were of earth and of Heaven, and it is our Christ who reminds us, explains to us, admonishes us thus:

"one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God
and by Him Who is seated on it."

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another, for love is of God!

Catholic Hermit's View: Where Hermits Reside

Of a few recent inquiries, one reader wants to know more about where hermits live.  This seems timely to this your Catholic Hermit blogger--especially since someone sent an article about a couple of hermits in a diocese who professed vows and are living together.  Where a hermit resides has a few options and facets; how a hermit lives is yet another topic of perhaps greater magnitude.

A consecrated Catholic hermit, privately professed, is free to live anywhere in this grand and beautiful world God has created. A consecrated hermit can live in/on a woods, valley, city, village, mountain, river, ocean, beach, desert, plains, and so forth.  The dwelling itself can be a hut, tent, cave, trailer, garage, apartment/flat, condominium, townhouse, house, etc.  

A consecrated Catholic hermit, publicly professed, can live within its diocese and in whatever type of dwelling situation (examples given in previous paragraph) its diocesan bishop approves for said hermit.

So this is where consecrated Catholic hermits live or may reside, dependent upon if they are privately professed or publicly professed.  In case the reader inquiring as to where a hermit lives, also is asking how a hermit is to live, such as under what circumstances or within what parameters, here are further thoughts.  After all, how a hermit lives is a principled structure for a hermit's spiritual life.

An explicit detail in the Church's issuance on the eremitic vocation, as part of Consecrated Life of the Church (and in the US, the Bishop's Conference's adoption of same as quoted from The Catechism of the Catholic Church; see USCCB website) sets some parameters.   Particular to where or how a hermit lives, the section for eremitic life states, in part "a stricter separation from the world in the silence of solitude...."

Thus, when this consecrated Catholic hermit (privately professed now over 14 years which is not long in the full spectrum of life but well enough along to be into the nitty gritty of the vocation) heard of a the two older women (initial vows publicly professed) who are living together, as well as that of a very young woman living in her childhood home with her mother and father, it seemed to miss the point of that very basic parameter: solitude.

There are other considerations, of course.  One might ask, "What about the religious orders of hermits, such as the Carthusians or the Camaldolese?  The fact is, according to the Church institutes, these are religious orders foremost, and their charism, mission, lifestyle is that as hermits.  The distinction is that they are firstly religious brothers and sisters within the Consecrated Life of the Church.  Hermits are individual eremites with their vocation as such, within the Consecrated Life of the Church.  Can we see the nuanced but defined difference?

So, religious monks who are in a religious order of which the mission and charism is eremitic in nature, would live together or in proximity yet their monastery and cells would provide for the solitude implicit in the Church parameters on eremitic life, but also for them, defined within those set forth re. religious orders.

Hermits who are privately or publicly professed and living in accordance with the institutes of the Church pertaining to Consecrated Life, under the sub-section Eremitic Life, would live alone, in solitude.  To live with ones parents or with one another in a typical house would rather, it seems to this hermit, confuse the point of solitude.  Yes, one could stay within ones bedroom, but a house shared with others is not arranged to provide for the privacy of solitude such as one finds in a Carthusian Charterhouse.

However, this is yet one example again, of how bishops vary in attitude and norm for those they canonically approve or receive what they might call "first vows" (first or second or third or final vows are not actually required nor documented in the Church institutes on eremitic life).  What to one bishop seems to mean "solitude" is, in fact, to another bishop "not solitude".

It seems to this hermit and its spiritual directors past and present (including priest of 68 years in priesthood, a bishop, a monsignor of advanced years, and a religious order priest), solitude for a consecrated Catholic hermit means to live alone.  And, additionally, they have insisted that a privately or publicly professed hermit ought to have some life experience with relationships and suffering, be more advanced in years, and be well along in spiritual and prayer life.

The simple part of the inquiry of a blog reader is that of where hermits reside.  The more challenging aspect is not just how hermits live within their residence (solitude seems fairly obvious as meaning alone) but how hermits live out their vows and what is explicitly written in the institutes of the Catholic Church to be professed as a consecrated Catholic hermit.

The following is that most crucial piece of writing which should guide, form, and define each and every consecrated Catholic hermit, as cited in the pertinent Church document on the subject, as well as what the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has adopted, also, for hermits/eremites avowed and professed in the Consecrated Life of the Church.  (Perhaps, if a hermit finds its bishop or spiritual director strays from any aspect of what is accepted and adopted as to how a consecrated Catholic hermit ought live, it may be prudent to seek another superior/director who is in line with the Church's Institutes on eremitic life.)

III. THE CONSECRATED LIFE

914 "The state of life which is constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels, while not entering into the hierarchical structure of the Church, belongs undeniably to her life and holiness."⁴⁵³

Evangelical counsels, consecrated life

915 Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.⁴⁵⁴

916 The state of consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate" consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God.⁴⁵⁵ In the consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.⁴⁵⁶

One great tree, with many branches

917 "From the God-given seed of the counsels a wonderful and wide-spreading tree has grown up in the field of the Lord, branching out into various forms of the religious life lived in solitude or in community. Different religious families have come into existence in which spiritual resources are multiplied for the progress in holiness of their members and for the good of the entire Body of Christ."⁴⁵⁷

918 From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practicing the evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families. These the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved.⁴⁵⁸

919 Bishops will always strive to discern new gifts of consecrated life granted to the Church by the Holy Spirit; the approval of new forms of consecrated life is reserved to the Apostolic See.⁴⁵⁹

The eremitic life

920 Without always professing the three evangelical counsels publicly, hermits "devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance."⁴⁶⁰

921 They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is, personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.

[Note: Bold emphasis added for the specific paragraphs pertinent to hermits:  "The eremitic life."]