Followup Questions: On Hermits and Eucharistic Spirituality

[[Dear Sister, your answer to my question divorces Eucharistic spirituality from actual participation at Holy Mass. It also makes solitude more important than Mass, which the Church teaches is the highest form of intimacy with God. We are never closer to God than we are at Holy Mass. If union with God is so important to the hermit then they should be at Mass every day. Eucharistic spirituality is about allowing Mass to be at the center of one's life and I don't think a hermit can do this if he misses it just because it is inconvenient to his solitude.]]

Thanks for following up. I feel at a bit of a loss in responding here because it seems to me that you didn't really read what I wrote about the place of solitude in the life of the hermit. Let me reiterate, hopefully more clearly, then: solitude is not merely an environment which makes prayer more possible, or which merely frees from other apostolates, etc; it is both the means and, when rightly understood, the goal of eremitical life. While Mass is surely critically important in the life of the solitary Catholic hermit, it is meant to assist her in developing a truly Eucharistic spirituality in and for eremitical solitude, where solitude is understood not simply as being alone (and certainly not as isolation!), but as being alone with/in God for others. Only if the hermit is faithful to the praxis and goal of solitude can she develop an eremitical spirituality of Eucharist which is open to others who MUST also miss Mass --- sometimes for very extended periods indeed. It is not that daily Mass is inconvenient to one's solitude --- as though solitude was simply something a hermit prefers to celebrating with the community, like sleeping in might be; it is the fact that solitude is the primary way in which the hermit grows in union with God, and the silence of solitude grows only in extended periods of solitary existence.

Thus, Eucharist is ordinarily (but not always!) present to the diocesan hermit in her hermitage precisely so she can 1) continue in solitary prayer, 2) understand and allow her prayer and her solitude itself to be communal or ecclesial, and 3) allow her life to be transformed in this solitude into bread broken and wine poured out for others --- and her hermitage to become a tabernacle of Christ's living presence within her diocese and parish. Notes from Stillsong Hermitage: On the Reservation of Eucharist by Hermits She will, of course, attend Mass regularly (though oftentimes not daily nor necessarily even weekly), and her life in the hermitage will be an expression of Eucharistic spirituality, but it will look differently at some points than it will for most faithful Catholics. In all of this it is really critical to understand that solitude is a genuine and privileged way to union with God for SOME. It requires we truly believe that God calls SOME to this (solitary) way of achieving human wholeness and sanctity (intimacy with/participation in God).

Having said that I need to disagree with some of what you have asserted. First, the Church does not teach that Mass is "the highest form of intimacy with God." As I noted on the Catholic Hermits list, while it is true that objectively Christ is present, body, blood, soul, and divinity, this may not and certainly does not automatically translate into subjective intimacy with God. Would that intimacy with God merely involved participation at Mass! But it does not any more than being present at a family gathering at Christmas and partaking of their meal automatically translates into subjective intimacy with family members. It is one thing to identify Eucharist as the source and summit of spiritual life, and another to call it the highest form of intimacy. For many, this actually occurs in quiet prayer, or in their time with lectio where the Word is grappled with and allowed to address them in profound ways. So, while I agree that ideally Eucharist should be a time of great intimacy with God in Christ, your own statement goes beyond what the Church teaches here.


More importantly, I don't think I have divorced Eucharistic spirituality from actual participation at Mass. What I have tried to do is look at Eucharistic spirituality with or from a broader perspective so that while I continue to see Mass as central to such a spirituality this spirituality is not associated merely with going to Mass, with Eucharistic adoration, or even with the actual presence of reserved Eucharist, but instead is a much more demanding and extensive reality which involves the transformation of all of one's world into an essentially sacramental reality. Thus my emphasis on the notion that all meals, for instance, be seen as holy --- and even as extensions of Mass --- or that one's very living space be seen as a tabernacle of Christ's presence, or that every bit of ordinary life be approached as at least potentially revealing the presence of God in the unexpected place, and so forth. (This should be true in every Christian home even though the Eucharist is not reserved there, I would argue.) It is Eucharistic spirituality which recognizes all of this and finds that one's own weakness and brokenness can become the vehicle or medium for God's own revelation of himself in the power of love. When lives are stamped with the impress of the cross and God brings new life out of that so that one lives a new joy, gratitude, and peace the world cannot give, THAT is Eucharistic spirituality; it is the realization of everything the Mass is meant to achieve, everything the risen Christ makes possible in our world.

I am not sure what else I can say. I do believe that it is ideal to be able to combine Mass and solitude. Some solitary hermits can do so either because they are priests or because they have priests on the property of their laura (some diocesan hermits have formed these), and because Mass in these cases usually involves a good deal more silence, and separation from guests, etc, than is present during Masses in parishes. (This is absolutely not a criticism of parish Masses which build community in significant -- but less silent or contemplative -- ways.) There are undoubtedly times when, for me as a diocesan hermit, the demands and challenges of solitude suffer or are significantly blunted or attenuated from attending daily Mass, but equally there are times when solitude itself demands I celebrate Mass with my faith community. At these latter times attendance at Mass sharpens the demands and challenges of solitude. I try to be sensitive to what is necessary and willed by God at any given time, but whatever I choose, it is NEVER a matter of mere convenience or inconvenience! Instead, what I decide is inevitably at the service of the broader sense of Eucharistic spirituality I have outlined here and in the earlier post.

Please do feel free to followup if you feel I have misheard, misunderstood, or simply failed to be clear. I appreciate specific questions which seek clarification, for instance, but whatever you feel will actually foster further fruitful discussion would be welcome.