I've struggled tremendously with physical pain for some time, increased amount of suffering to the point of not sure I will endure. Only God knows how we will persevere and when we will no longer need to physically struggle with suffering. Only God knows how to guide us, yet so many seem devoid of truth and trust.
I admit it is not easy. Not easy to suffer physical pain or any other form of pain--but trusting in God and accepting His guidance and direction and especially His truth--we will proceed bit by bit and step by step and moment by moment.
Thus I am rather amazed (and needing humor in our lives, it could be amusing if not so sad) when people seem to not know within such aspects of vocational callings by God, by His Real Presence, by the Holy Trinity. Such is the case with those who think they are called by God to be hermits, or those who think they'd like to be hermits, or those who are called by God as hermits knowing that the hermit vocation is but a vehicle in this temporal life and not an end in itself, not even a means to an end. The hermit life and vocation is but a way of life to which God calls some in order to be His in more quiet, solitude, dependency, and hiddenness by God's will and for God's purposes.
His will and purposes also include what will be best in our temporal lives. I have often marveled that long before being called into the Catholic Church and with no notion of hermit life or any vocation as such, God sent my late grandmother to tell me, to show me, that I was going to live a hermit life without using the word "hermit" but demonstrating within the vision and speaking of the type of life I would live in the temporal world, yet of the spiritual life. I was shown in part the means by which I would gradually learn to grow in this way of life and when, at the right timing, a greater transition to known hermit life would begin.
Truth is so crucial in our temporal and spiritual lifes. And progression is key in our temporal and spiritual lives. Spiritual progression is primary, of course, and the temporal is increasingly the less. However, I am stunned that people who say they are called by God to be hermits, and who call themselves hermits and those who are in recent times even approved by a diocese bishop to be hermits, seem to have no inner nor spiritual sense of how to write a rule of life or what might be the content of a rule of life. When the reality is that a rule of life per any type of temporalized guidelines of what is to be in it or that one must have something labeled a "rule of life"--not at all required for those God calls as hermits and to hermit vocation or life to be lived while progressing in the spiritual life yet while in body and living in this temporal world.
The point is, if one is truly called by God to this life of silence, solitude, hiddenness, prayer and deep closeness to His Real Presence yet while functioning as a human being yet foremost spiritual in this temporal world, God Himself through various, holy means and holy personages, particularly the Holy Spirit--utilizing spiritual and temporal modalities--will guide and teach the hermit (in Christianity usually Catholic) all that is necessary. And that may include an inner nudge or outer suggestion to ponder the way forward for the person's body, mind, heart, and soul in this vocation lived while on earth--much as a garment is worn to protect body and make comfortable the progress throughout life, or a pathway is blazed by which the body, mind, heart, and soul makes holy progress in love of God above all else and love of others as God loves, toward union with His Real Presence, the Holy Trinity.
I never had any need to ask any human nor to read any advisement of what ought or must be included in what has been termed over temporal time, in temporal language and thought, a "rule of life." However, I fell into thinking temporally--but after the fact of God's having given me a few words upon which to base my temporal and spiritual progression through my life when the life as hermit was made manifest in a certain phase, and became more focused, when my youngest was heading off to college. Just three words were spoken to me by a priest who was inspired of these words by the Holy Spirit, and then six others came to me from the Holy Spirit--nine words that were and are to guide me in my temporal and spiritual progress, of which the temporal-spiirtual modality in this temporal existence as a spiritual being, is as a hermit.
Then I had others suggest after the fact, this notion, temporal as it is and not terrible, of course, but can be good as the point is to provide focus by the Holy Spirit, of which God wills and desires for all peoples in all earthly vocations. Call it a Rule of Life, a Life Plan, a Set of Goals, a Purpose for Life--the point is all humans would do well to pray for guidance from God as to what He wills of us in our lives temporally and spiritually, what purpose He desires for us and for which He created us, and by what means God might show, give, direct and guide us in living out His will spiritually, while in the temporal.
The purity and beauty and truth in what God gave me from way back, even before I ever knew of hermit vocations or rules of life or the seemingless endless rules and laws and protocols in Catholicism, seemed more inclined to the nine words I was given by the Holy Spirit (three being simply mentioned by a holy priest the day after my consecration as a Catholic Hermit and having given my vows to God and Holy Church to live this vocation the rest of my temporal life, yet in spiritual obedience to His Real Presence and His Church in whatever way the Holy Trinity--His Real Presence--might desire and ask of me.
But then came the temporal Catholic inculcations, perhaps more like intrusions or protocols, made up by humans, and with increasing additions in the past 15 years as to this-and-that of how to do this, what to wear, what initials behind a name chosen not of birth, and also how to write a rule of life, and who are real hermits and who are frauds, mostly generated when one does the research, coming from mainly from the writings of one person. And I am sorry that at one point I also wrote about writing a rule of life, and at one point someone asked me to write my rule of life and send it--when it is God who gave me the rule of life in 9 words, and He did not label it as a rule of life but more as what to ponder and help to guide and form and encourage this solitary, hidden, anonymous but to God, way of life richly spiritual and silent, growing in communion with His Real Presence and learning to love as He loves--yet by His protection from temporal intrusions that God knew way before I possibly could fathom, would try to hinder my union with Him, my soul's progression, and my ability to purely love others as God loves.
Trust in God! His Real Presence will suggest to anyone--hermit or married or single or whatever He has chosen as the pathway through the temporal life within which lies our soul's spiritual growth and progress to God--any words or images or Scriptures or whatever will be the form by which we can always return our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls to be replenished and renewed in the purpose and journey of our spirit, yet while in this temporal life.
Be still and know that God will inform us of whatever we need. He is ours to have, to hold, to keep. Better to not look to humans for guidance when we can have His Real Presence in Holy Perfection of His omniscience, omnipotence, and omni-presence!
The Lord has been cleansing me of much of the temporal supposed "helps" that instead were human kind's snares and shackles, created by humans with good intentions, and I'd for awhile hopped on the assembly line of dishing out this and that advice or tried on the protocols and shackles as such, ut only found myself as if thick viscous gel forming between my soul and the Holy Trinity's purity and beauty, truth and goodness.
Please, if you think you are being called to hermit or solitary life in Christianity or otherwise, be assured that God will provide all you need, and in His Real Presence you will find full assurance that you are indeed called to whatever vocation it is. And if you are finding yourself more focused on the vocational trappings and rules and regulations and protocols which are merely machinations of humans, well-intentioned, I'm sure even if frosted with temporal need-for-external-control and hubris--then ask God in the stillness of your mind, heart, and soul, what is His truth, what is His will for you, and if hermit vocation is His choice and means of temporal passage for you.
God will answer you. He will give you all you need to be assured and to go forth in whatever vocation. God will give you your purpose and whatever manner of helps you may need to formulate a map that is His, for now and every step forward. Ask God, not people, not me, no others. Trust in His Real Presence to provide all in your temporal-spiritual vocations.
Of all vocations from all times past up to recently, hermit path of temporal existence and spiritual progression was the purest, simplest, most solitary and hidden, privately prayerful and humblest of all vocations. I learned for myself, that God wills me to keep to the way of the ancient purity. Consider the nine words the Holy Spirit gave me, to remain freed from snares that complicate or effectually ignore God's Knowledge, Wisdom and Strength, and to not focus on the vocation itself, but on His Real Presence and His Law of Love, His Living Word!
A good question for any of us when contemplating or already in any of several life vocations: Is the temporal--or is God guiding you? I'm serious on this point. We may so want to have some person tell us what to do or if we are really called to this or that vocation or not, or how to do this or that which in the truth of matters, have been made up by humans anyway--but ask God, and then wait for His answer in whatever ways He chooses. If the answer or way consists of anything other than truth, beauty, goodness, simplicity, hiddenness, silence, solitude, humility and His Way and Word, step clear and seek His Real Presence yet again. He will answer in all that is holy and supernal, not of humankind.
I lost a chunk of temporal life being confused by humans, including Church humans who though sincere, were steeped in more of humankind than of His Real Presence or who did not grasp such as the hermit vocation but were busy making it into that which it never was nor actually ever will be--one of prestige or note, of visibility, of numerous human interactions under the guise of being socially healthy, and will be void of many protocols, rules, rituals, and laws also created by humankind. For role models, try John the Baptist in the desert before God had him fulfill his purpose as precursor of Christ, having come out from the desert to Baptize and make way for the Lord, introduce Christ the Messiah come to earth. Or consider Paul of the Desert or Mary of Egypt. Yes, you are right. You will find little of them in those years, for they were hidden from the eyes of mankind, in the silence of solitude, in prayer and penance for their and the souls of the world, and praising of God. They were subsumed in His Living Word.
No, I'm not there yet. I got myself ensnared with some manual labor trying to keep my painful body forced up and going, trying to renovate in order to sell and have income for end of life care--rather than in trusting His Real Presence to take care of all my needs, including helping me live without health help or homeless if it comes to that. I got side-tracked by those who increasingly created temporal aspects to hermit vocation, and by those who focus on those aspects, or who judge who is and who is not, or try to prove some need of temporal approval when God suffices in all things of heaven and of earth.
At least I've had the turn around, the wake up, and am on His way, His guidance and truth and His loving mercy sheltering me in place while I return to the few words the Holy Spirit gave me long ago, and the foretelling of my hermit vocation over 36 years ago--of my awareness, and farther back in my subconscious of which I sublimated.
God knows whatever of our minds, and hearts and souls, by whatever family upbringings and our gradual progression in His Real Presence is leading us. God allows us time and means to explore, but He always answers our calls for help and guidance, answers our questions, and draws us forth and onward in our temporal and spiritual lives. Trust Him, not humans, not those who feel they are substitutes. God will guide, lead, direct; God will answer you. Have faith.
This truth is in all our life vocations and paths: to, through, with and in His Real Presence--even if we are unsure of our vocations int his temporal life. Trust in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Keep asking, and be open to the answers according to His choosing, will and timing. While I became drawn off by temporal and humans for what seems a long period of earth time, trust in God to bring us back to Him and His Way forward.
God bless His Real Presence in us! Love in His Love!
Silence, Solitude, Slowness, Suffering, Selflessness, Simplicity, Stillness, Stability, Serenity
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