There aren't many hermits who expose their names and locations online, and there are fewer who write of their journeys. Now and then I peruse the internet to learn of contemporary hermits, not only of the Roman Catholic vocation but of the Orthodox, as well. We are one Body in Christ--two lungs as is said.
There is a hermit in the UK of whom I've kept up in the few media reports of her life and her website. She to me is an inspiration! A hermit, publicly professed (meaning according tot he provision of CL603), her profession, vows, rule of life approved by her bishop. I think she is in her 17th year as a consecrated Catholic hermit.
A couple or three years ago she was stricken with some form of cancer; prior to that time she was able to function in bodily health, tending her small hermitage and gardens replete with chickens and a cat or two and I think a dog. Being able to "sit", she has provided for herself financially through selling her mostly commissioned artworks of calligraphy. (I so appreciate her artistic bent; In the past, I too loved and practiced calligraphy and watercolor.)
Of her website, I'm impressed by what writing she's shared: some of her history of becoming a Catholic hermit having been a Carmelite novice before God called her to more solitude and the hermit vocation, as well as her coverage of topics such a rule of life, daily horarium, and her factually accurate, balanced presentation of how one becomes a Catholic hermit in the Church.
Through a series of personal essays written for and published by the Redemptorists, this humble Catholic hermit wrote of the challenges she has faced and is overcoming in the Lord, as a result of her illness and the reality of needing to change hermitage location for medically practical reasons. From more rural and quiet to city and people all about, this inspirational hermit has found the silence of solitude within her scaled down hermitage, within her inner cell, within her very soul which had been and remains in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Her (must be elderly) parents live in the area, so she can charitably check in on them; she is quite close to a hospital, and she has bus line close by for running brief errands as she yet courageously and in great faith, faces her exhausting illness.
From her writing, I am inspired by an essence of her being, that of a lovely mind, heart, and soul quite humble and peaceable, settled in her vocation although quite genuine and honest in describing the trials she has faced, is facing, and is overcoming in ways the Lord knows intimately and surely is most pleased with his devoted hermit.
I've considered trying to be in contact, as she has a couple Facebook sites and a twitter feed. But I no longer am on Facebook and do not use twitter other than I did look up her last few "tweets." (She infrequently posts tweets.) A main stay of her day, of course as is with all us striving hermits, is that of prayer and lectio divina; but her livelihood, her artistic work, is the calligraphy. She can utilize the artistic rendering of a few words, rich in spiritual worth and soulful meaning to her and to whomever purchases or has commissioned the artwork.
So she and I have this, also, in common--being wordsmiths, of sort. While I admire her brevity and her beautifully, rendered word-art, her work for the Lord, I have reflected today (in which I've been praying for and thinking of her a great deal) that my work for the Lord is in writing, in being a wordsmith, of writing my thoughts of this spiritual journey as a Catholic hermit, privately professed and avowed, if the mystic of me peaks through the words or content that is also my offering given.
This hermit in the United Kingdom, now in a different diocese and dealing with her health issues and the challenges and changes a transition like that can bring, is a hermit who inspires. All the more in her health trials, I am in kinship with her over the thousands of miles, across an ocean, in different time zone and type of hermitage locale. God bless you, hermit Rachel! I admire you immensely and thank you for your holy hermit example.
This afternoon I watched (on my laptop on Amazon Prime) more of a documentary of Mount Athos. I'd begun it last night, needing the sound-visual distraction as was having quite a pain struggle and difficulty falling asleep. Backing up some from where I'd dozed off, I watched more, including an Orthodox hermit priest who lived alone in a hermitage high in elevation. Yes, I admire him, as well. He verbalized some of his hermit journey and reason for being there.
He also expressed truisms and practical considerations as a hermit, and for hermits--such as the reality that a hermit cannot pray and read all the time; a hermit needs some work to do. He said that hermits need to sustain themselves from work done from their hermitages. His product by which he maintains a most simple life style is sculpting, carving small religious scenes and figures on squares of wood.
Another point this hermit made is that a hermit must learn to control his or her thoughts. Depression which could come with so much solitude (and indeed he lived the silence of solitude more than others even on Mt. Athos, such as hermits who lived among one or more others). His hermit life shifts with the seasons, as the winter months, he said, bring him to more reading and prayer and meditating, preparing for the joy and celebration of Christmas. At Christmas he leaves his hermitage to visit other hermits, for as he states, "We are to celebrate Christ's birth with others."
This hermit of Mt. Athos upkeeps his hermitage of which he was given to live in upon arrival on the island religious "state". His first year involved rehabilitating the dwelling; but after his first year, the hermit said he "knew I liked it here." The Orthodox hermit (if I catch his name with further viewing the documentary I'll insert it here) exuded peacefulness and tremendous humility. He feels humility to be a deeply rooted essential for any hermit--and that true inner peace does not come until we pass from this earth. Yet the life of a hermit is lived in Christ with the goal of attaining peace as we progress toward death.
I personally have gained much simply by peeking into these two hermits' lives. They inspire me in my "work" of writing, as a hermit wordsmith chronicling quite a bit, actually, of the spiritual journey and life as a Catholic hermit in a personal, case-study type of way. Given that the tremendous physical pain that the Lord has allowed me for 35 years has hindered activity, I am blessed that I have been able to up until this point, been able to garden and do manual labor somewhat and between pain sieges.
My call and living out in the consecrated life of the Church as a hermit is now into it's 20th year--or a bit more with the preparatory year. My hermit life has not been without many distractions; I cannot say it has been inspirational. But these two hermits I've observed uplift and encourage to press onward and forward, to continue to let the Lord guide and lead according to His will, what is feasible and holy in both the tangible and the spiritual aspects of yet another of His hermit's life until passing.
God bless His Real Presence in us, and God bless His devoted and striving hermits the world over.
