Catholic Hermit: Hermits Must Be Able to Love

The First Letter of John is exquisite in the theology of love and its application in our lives.  Today's first Scripture reading at Mass from 1 John 4:19-21, 5:1-4.  Simply reading and allowing the Apostles' words to permeate our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls radiates holy love within and without our beings.  Keep in mind that St. John is known for his spiritual and mystical ability to love Christ deeply, and of whom Christ inherently recognized John's profound understanding of and ability to love the Christ, the Son of God.

"Beloved, we love God because He first loved us.
If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar; 
for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen 
cannot love God whom he has not seen.
This is the commandment we have from Him:  
whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, 
and everyone who loves the father loves (also) the one begotten by Him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey His commandments.
For the love of God is this, that we keep His commandments.
And His commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith."  

The recent "epiphany" gift from the Lord to this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit continues with only the grace that we know is the Holy Spirit's!  I'm so grateful!  My capacity to love increasingly as God loves, and thus love others as He loves all of us, allows me to love all souls, as well--living in this temporal world and living on the other side, for all eternity.

The hermit who has had such difficulty coping with my writing for many years now, of the hermit life mostly but also of other facets such as victim souls of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of mystical life, of the Stairway to Heaven, of living our lives omnia pro Deo (all for God), seems to once more be calming down.  I was informed of something the person had written recently, which I did decide to read, perhaps a point of my realizing I have deep love and compassion for this fellow consecrated Catholic hermit (publicly professed compared to my private profession).

What I found in my read-through, was a person so sincere and yet aggrieved and concerned to a point of anguish, It seemed, a genuine worry to the person who believes or has decided there are consecrated Catholic hermits out there who are not authentic, who in a more recent designation this person has created, are "counterfeit hermits."  I feel deeply for the person's heartfelt concern and sense of somehow being compelled as the one who must try to save the Church's hermit vocation from imposters, or "pretenders" as has been another term coined by the person, of hermits that this person worries will destroy or tear down the hermit vocation for the ages.

All the more the Holy Spirit pours love into my mind, heart, and soul for this fellow Catholic hermit.  Over the past 20 years I have read the lives of many hermits of all types--consecrated Catholic hermits, privately professed, and a few more recently who are publicly professed--and have read the blogs of many contemporary hermits, mostly privately professed and a handful publicly professed. I honestly can state that I have not found any to be counterfeit nor in any way destroying the fabric of the Church's hermit vocation, nor of being fraudulent or emotionally or psychologically disturbed, nor unhealthily isolated, nor without great love for the Lord and for the Church.

What I do find are consecrated Catholic hermits who have uniquely told life and hermit histories.   These consecrated Catholic hermits are in varying stages of spiritual progression and eremitic vocational growth, and who represent the Church in all Her glorious diversity of humanity, yet very much living within the eremitic life, in the consecrated life of the Catholic Church.  And yes, there are some hermits who are Catholics but who have not professed the three evangelical counsels publicly or privately, but they do not claim to be otherwise.

However, their lives are of great value and are appreciated, for they are living as eremites and are in the Church--but have not taken the step of discerning further with a spiritual director, or at least not yet with that director, to profess the counsels and to develop a rule of life, and to establish vows that may be either offered along with private profession of the counsels, or publicly in the hands of a diocese bishop.

What I do find in the various hermits who have written blogs from time to time, or of which there might be an article about their lives, is that none are fraudulent, counterfeit, unhealthy (other than some with ailments such as cancer or pain or heart problems or old age decline).  None are espousing that which is against the Church's teachings, nothing heretical; some may be working out in their spiritual progression, greater understanding of theology and scripture, of course.  This is wonderful!

Hermits must be able to love!  This includes to love one another, and to love the variety of humanity, the diversity of personalities, gifts, talents, and those who chose to seek canonical approval of a bishop, and those who are called to the traditional, privately professed path.  We must not place ourselves in the role of being judges of one another, other than to pick and choose what of other hermits' lives inspires us, or can be applied in our lives, or over the years might be ways in which we will need to adapt our daily, lived lives as the Church's eremites.  Any hermit's situation can change within a moment of life's unexpected turns.

At that point, we all might humbly find ourselves "eating our words" or realizing what we think or thought is right or wrong in a hermit's vocational progression, could become what we realize we ourselves must do or think or be.  But the main reality is that not any one of us is asked by the Church--not the Holy See, not the Cardinals, not Bishops or priests, not our spiritual directors, to take the mantle of a role of hermit policing.  God does not ask this of any of us, either.

Rather, the Lord asks us to love one another.  And while we all can make mistakes or try various ways and styles of living out our hermit vocations, truly, the Holy Spirit will shape and guide, correct and bring us to the path and desired will of God in each and all details.  What if the new spiritual director would insist I become a diocesan hermit?  (I doubt he will, but we simply never know the twists and turns our hermit vocations may take, any more than St. Benedict ever thought he'd be called out of hermit life to form a religious order, or St. Bruno thought he'd be called by a pope to come help at the Vatican for a year, or St. Colette thought she'd be called out of her anchorage to help a Franciscan priest reform the order!)

Would a bishop or his designee have my writing or style or way of living out the hermit vocation, change much if at all?  I doubt it.  would then my hermit colleague of whom I've come to love and have compassion and understanding, suddenly find that the disagreements and upset, the opinions expressed then be wrong, for I'd have one bishop's "approval"?  Of course, my hermit colleague in those circumstances would have to retract and backtrack, change the opinions expressed about me, for I'd be then what this person obviously compelled to uphold as the Church's hermit vocation and within the consecrated life as "approved", "legal", "authentic".

Or would then my fellow hermit think there would be something wrong and fraudulent about the bishop who would canonically approve me?  Would that bishop be fraudulent, or counterfeit, or a pretender?  So we see that hermits must be able to love, for love is of God.  Love endures all things.  Love does not envy, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  We know the rest of 1 Corinthians 13--St. Paul's glorious words on what is love!

I continue prayers for the hermit colleague whom I love dearly and sincerely, and I'm rejoicing in that there seems to be a calming down again, and I pray that this calm continues.  Yet I also pray very much for a healing, and a letting go of what must be most stressful and painful in worrying that  other consecrated Catholic hermits are or will destroy the integrity and very vocation of eremitic life.  That is a dark and despairing concern, of which there is simply no history nor contemporary evidence of such hermits.

And if there were, or could be in future, the Lord will deal with it just as He dealt with misguided, over-zealous types, or persons who made pacts with the devil--of which one religious sister of a few centuries ago comes to mind who did the latter.  She was before long, exorcised or such--realized by her superior to have given over to the devil, and of course was saved and redeemed.

Again, in God and to self and to any who happen to read my thoughts and sharing of this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit, my love has grown great for whom I've spiritually embraced as hermit friend and colleague.  And in God's instilling of faith, hope, and charity, I know that this particular hermit's fears and concerns to that hermit, are upsetting and distressing.  My loving prayers will continue not only for healing calm from anxiety, but to being open to being freed of the burden of fear that the Church's centuries-long hermit vocation will come to ruination by either real or perceived hermit frauds and counterfeits.  

We must trust in the Lord to discern His hermits, to keep them on or return them to increasingly narrowing paths, and bring all to union in Him.  He is God; He is Love; He guides us and provides the paths we each are on according to His will.  We are nothings to His All.  He manages perfectly all of children--His creatures as well as all His creation.  Perfect love casts out all fear.

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