Catholic Hermit: Christ Ascending--Am I with, in Him, Ascending?

Today is huge.  Not only is it the day celebrating the Ascension of Jesus from the temporal earth into the mystical, spiritual world of heavenly eternity, it is the birthday of St. Padre Pio.  Plus, it is the feast day for another favorite of mine:  St. Mary Magdalena d'Pazzi (mystic, stigmatic, victim soul).  And, it is the feast day for Venerable Bede of Middle Ages fame and that of Pope Gregory VII.  (The latter I know least about, but information is a Google away!)

My son is on his way on another solo bicycling trip from Hamburg, Germany to Zurich, Switzerland.  He will follow the Rhine River the bulk of the trip.  I continue to pray for his safety but also for the fascinating experiences--expect the unexpected!--along the way.  There are some temporal dangers traveling alone; but I always have noted that a person does gain perspective and depth when not traveling with family, friends, or a group of relative strangers.

For example, whenever we are with others, we interact with the others: speak, observe, relate, hear, and so forth.  When alone, we are totally open to whomever and whatever the Lord decides to visit upon us--persons, experiences, thoughts, observations.

This is true in the spiritual life, of course, and in our daily temporal lives.  Thus, when someone emailed concern as to how to handle a co-worker who resents the person from going to her car on lunch break from their working at a busy Walmart store, I found it of interest and also linking with something I'd read in one of John of the Cross' poems.

The person who contacted me is trying to do her spiritual reading on her lunch break and to have a bit of quiet time--respite from so many people in the work venue.  Her co-worker has tried to shame her--"So you are trying to avoid PEOPLE?"  Yes, she is doing just that.

I suggested she explain to the single co-worker who likes to chit chat on breaks and during lunch, that the person who desires a half hour of peace and quiet and time to do a little spiritual reading, has not that opportunity once work is finished.  She is married, and her husband resents her reading or praying at home, for he does a bit of what the co-worker is attempting: control over another person.

While going along to get along is how it, at this phase of their years of marriage, is wisest for various temporal reasons, the person has had to give up the spiritual reading and quiet time of more formal prayer at home.  The outcome otherwise is uproar.  But to have a co-worker attempt the control over breaks and lunch time is a point of setting boundaries.

Hopefully, simple communication and explaining the home situation and the person's need for quiet time and yes, to get away from people for the few minutes out of a day and night, is crucial to her spiritual well-being.  We shall see.  Darkness does not like the light, and this person has lived out the battles of darkness against light in her marriage; and when we have a pattern of being controlled, the devil delights in having others line up to try to gain control, also.

I thought of Jesus, taking leave of the disciples and crowds, from time to time.  He'd go off to the mountains, or take a boat himself to cross the waters; the crowds and disciples would try to follow after, try to find where he had gone.  Ultimately, to get some peace and quiet to pray, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked his disciples to act as guards of sort, to help insure he had privacy and hiddenness so that he could pray on the night of all nights--prior to his pending crucifixion.

Then in John of the Cross' poem, these words from the Bridegroom (Christ) to the bride (John of the Cross, the soul--any of us) made a point excellent for a hermit but also for anyone.

From "The Spiritual Canticle":

from the Bridegroom-

"She lived in solitude,
and now in solitude has built her nest;
and in solitude he guides her,
he alone, who also bears
in solitude the wound of love."

Today I went to civilization to get some supplies, get gas for Precious Blood (truck), and got a huge load of black bark mulch.  A young Haitian man is going to come Saturday to help this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit do some yard work.  First thing this morning, I sold nine trees at greatly discounted prices.  Need to keep to the process of detaching.

It is not easy to live in the temporal world and be consciously aware of and thinking of Jesus ascending, or of Jesus in any of the details of his life on earth. Or to even consider what Jesus is doing right now, while we are about our daily, temporal activities--do I know Jesus that well?  Am I with him, in him, as he ascends, for I do consider that Jesus is in some ways perpetually in a mode of ascension, and those of us who love him, know him to any degree, and who desire to be with him, are in some aspect in ascension with the Lord.

We can ascend, in some ways, by being guided in solitude.  We can ascend and yet relate when needed, when truly needed--not a controlled need or a neediness need.  Our Lord was certainly assertive--not aggressive but also not one to allow others to manipulate.

He ascended.  That act and fact--temporal and mystical both--give a solid glimpse into how our lives can be in Christ.  Know, love, ascend with and in Christ.

I suppose we won't necessarily know if and when we are ascending in and with Jesus.  But, we do know that there are certain conditions which do assist us in being guided by Christ, and assumed into Christ, of sorts.  Some periods of external and interior peace and quiet certainly assist in the process.

Catholic Hermit, Setting Boundaries

After another pain siege and being on the mattress on the floor for a couple or three days, am finally up and kind of moving about.  Got up on porch roof to caulk and paint the trim its first coat of Simply White.  Love to choose paint with names that go along with the whole realm of God's goodness and spiritual reminders.  It was a tough call, as Dove White also had appeal.

With a grinding headache and low back that is not quite up to a courageous level of pain endurance, could not drive the distance and then sit through Mass.  Will see how the pain level is in the morning.  Standing on the porch roof is actually far less pain-inducing than sitting.

But the pain siege and some other incidents have reminded this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit to write about setting boundaries.  Hermits need to set boundaries commensurate with the vocation, and at least in cohesion with one's individualized rule of life and the profession of vows, plus the statements under Consecrated Life of the Church specifically for the Eremitic Vocation.

There had been a woman who came frequently, hollering the hermit's name and wandering around the exterior of the hermitage.  At first the hermit met the woman as she stopped to get some vegetables at the table out by the road.  So the hermit had a brief conversation with the woman and detected the woman seemed rather needy in some ways, but that can be fine.  We all have our needs.  However, the woman began showing up daily.  Even when the gate was shut, she'd stand out there hollering at the top of her lungs for the hermit.

At first the hermit went out and explained to the woman that it was becoming too frequent, and the hermit needed quiet and time to work and to pray--quiet for pain management, in particular, and private time.  So it was suggested she perhaps stop by once every three weeks or so, or even once a month.  (This was after in conversation it was ascertained the woman was not interested in spiritual conversation but what one could term "chit chat."  So, it was settled.

But the next day, the woman returned and remained outside the gate, hollering and hollering.  This pattern continued, and the hermit decided it fully grasped what St. Seraphim the Sarov and St. Godric of Finchale meant by hiding from those who kept coming seeking them out.  Since resting on the mattress, the hermit decided to not go out and chit chat.  Surely she would grasp that once every three weeks or so, meant just that.

No, that was not what the woman grasped.  The day she tried to open the door to come inside and then stayed outside, circling the hermitage, was the day the hermit decided it would need to be more firm and deal with what was becoming a problem with a person who was obviously exhibiting some unusual behavior, outside the norm of etiquette.

The next time the hermit set out the vegetables, toward the end of the day, the woman caught glimpse of the hermit and began hollering for attention.  The hermit had another conversation with the woman and said again, that this was not what was meant by a visit now and then or once a month, and that the hermit really could not chit chat daily.  So, the hermit expressed that the friendship will need to be one of prayer, one for each other, and leave it at that.  The amount of work load here was emphasized with a sweep of the arm and a brief listing of tasks, and daily interruptions unless there was some spiritual purpose or need, could not be entertained.

The hermit also wired shut the gate up high, to maintain the privacy needed not only for prayer and quiet, but for the rest periods throughout the day this hermit needs in management of the severe, physical pain. All this had been explained to the woman, but it was clear she could not accept the boundaries at first.  So they had to be set firmly in place along with, for awhile, the gate impenetrable.

But such situations can be rather rare, it seems.  However, a hermit must be prepared for incidental situations that arise, if they become pesky or inopportune for either party involved.  The hermit had prayed about the woman when the visits became daily, and it discerned that it was not equipped at this time to take on someone needing emotional or psychological assistance daily or even weekly. Sometimes we have to know our limitations in all aspects.

Mostly, though, we have to know what we can handle within our daily lives, juxtaposed with our vocation, and what the major tenets are.  And some of the boundaries we must set really have very little to do with the external interruptions, or those this hermit terms as "human poltergeists"--nice enough people but determined in being time-usurpers and psychological distractions.  Perhaps most of the boundaries have little to do with the external incidentals.  They have to do with our interior distractions.

So it is, that this Catholic hermit is having to set boundaries regarding some internal issues and distractions--those which the hermit and God know about, and a couple of spiritual friends with whom the hermit corresponds now and then.  The hermit has relaxed some boundaries such as interaction via computer with political news.  While good for praying for our country and those running for office and in office, the time that can be consumed and the distraction it can become which takes thoughts away from other intentions, sneaks up on the soul.  So the Catholic hermit is working on setting some boundaries in this category.

When interior boundaries are broached--those that are subtle yet known between the hermit and God--vices begin to signal that something is wrong.  Anger simmers as the world is frustrating.  Frustrations volley the "ball" back to anger.  Before long, the soul has lost the set, then the match, and the game ends in a feeling of defeat.  How does God feel with a soul such as this?  The temporal world, such as of news or other aspects, will only bring the temporal with it.  The temporal is so far out of bounds (and should be outside our boundaries as hermits, only to be broached carefully in prayerful consideration much as a spectator viewing without emotional attachment), that it will always elicit frustration.

Yet another boundary being set more firmly is deep within, and that is in some spiritual weaknesses that are starting to swell and erupt like a bug bite that itches and gets scratched until it is raw and seeping.  These have to do with some virtues that have been bitten by the vice-fleas.  A major type of vice flea doing the biting currently is that of acedia, or spiritual sloth and ennui.  So the hermit is wiring the fence shut, so to speak on that vice and is making greater effort to combat the excuses that creep in, encouraging the hermit to short-change the spiritual reading or the time spent listening to and sensing His Real Presence within the body, mind, heart and soul.

Anyway, hermits do need to set some boundaries, and these boundaries will vary depending upon the ebb and flow of hermit daily life--the external and internal aspects of the temporal and the spiritual details, moment by moment, hour by hour.  Otherwise, soon enough, the hermit is no longer on a narrow path but skipping through a wide-open field, coming up with grand-sounding excuses as to why this friendship, or why that, or rationalizing that something is spiritually connected or necessary when it is not at all in reality.

Time belongs to God, and a hermit (or anyone who is following Christ and desiring union with Him) ought learn to set boundaries as to how His time is utilized, day and night, for His glory and for the spiritual progress of the hermit, as well.  His glory being satisfied will also, then, satisfy the needs of others.

God bless His Real Presence in us!