Discernment and Formation go Hand in Hand

[[Sister Laurel, you wrote: "Given the nature of these vocations (rare, difficult to distinguish from individualism without significant discernment and formation) and the Church's esteem for them. . .." Did you mean that formation is also a period of discernment? How does formation change what others distinguish?]]

Hi there! Yes, I do mean that discernment occurs during formation. While we usually refer to these two things separately (x and y) the fact is that significant discernment occurs during formation (and vice versa). If a person negotiates the kinds of formation required by hermits (e.g., to silence, solitude, a regular life of prayer and penance, work/ministry and the relationships essential for well-being even in a solitary hermit) or to religious life, they are being supervised during the process. How well candidates negotiate the challenges and opportunities of formation will yield information which can be used for discernment.

Formation is a focused and usually structured program in which an individual is initiated into the vocation they wish to be professed in. In religious life generally there are three main (and somewhat overlapping) periods of formation: initial formation (candidacy and novitiate) which can take from three to three and a half years, juniorate (temporary profession to perpetual profession) which can take up to six or seven years, and ongoing formation which applies not only to juniorate but to all formation that occurs once perpetual vows have been made. In solitary canonical eremitical life there is neither candidacy nor novitiate (this is true no matter the diocese in which one resides); a person is worked with/followed by the diocese for several years (3-5 is typical and minimal) and if their director, the Vicar for Religious/Consecrated Life and others recommend it, a bishop may agree and admit the hermit to canonical profession under canon 603. This can be solemn (perpetual) profession in certain cases, but temporary profession (3-5 years) is a prudent step prior to this in most cases. This will allow more discernment as well.

Because in cenobitical religious life the supervision is pretty constant, and because it is well-understood and involves not just education and training but socialization in the ethos and charism of the community, canon law is specific on the degree of formation required, and the time frames it takes. The situation is different with hermits. Supervision of a direct kind is sparing and each vocation is discerned individually and without reference to others. All the Director/delegate (who does not live in the same house) can do, is to meet regularly with the hermit, listen to what she tells her, ask good questions and gauge the degree of personal growth and fidelity in keeping whatever Rule the hermit has written at any given point.

There are a number of areas Directors/delegates routinely pay attention to: 1) personal wellness. This involves emotional and psychological health in silence and solitude, 2) knowledge of the vocation. This involves not only education in the eremitical life itself, it's history, characteristics, and graces, but its importance in the life of the Church, its charism --- something the hermit must come to recognize herself I think, 3) prayer and lectio. This includes the way the hermit lives a contemplative life of prayer and lectio divina, the choices she makes in these, her ability to respond obediently in varying circumstances along with her flexibility and fidelity to God in all things, 4) growth in the vows. This includes the way the hermit handles her finances, the choices she makes for simplicity, the relationships she cultivates (because in an ecclesial vocation there must be meaningful relationships which actually contribute to the hermit's solitude) and the healthiness of her capacity for love. It can include the way she responds to authority, the degree of trust she is capable of, along with her capacity for independence from legitimate superiors (even as she entrusts herself to their experience, wisdom, and authority), and the love and commitment she demonstrates to the life of her parish faith community even in the silence of solitude.

Above all the Director/delegate will pay attention to the hermit's genuine happiness and wellness in this vocation, the degree to which she is marked and measured by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the ways the hermit grows as a human being in light of the vocation itself, and the ways in which God brings life out of every circumstance the hermit may experience. She will gauge the authenticity of the piety shown and be cognizant of superficialities or exaggerated reliance on "mystical" (or pseudo-mystical) experiences or notions of God (and/or Satan!) which infantilize and rob the hermit of mature accountability and the capacity for true discernment.

In other words, a Director/delegate will look at the developing quality of the hermit's heart and discern whether Christ has invited this candidate into solitude to grow in maturity, unity and, eventually, union with Him. What I have found in persons I have accompanied in this way is a definite pattern of growth in insight into the life, a tendency to make the vocation one's own (the development of a kind of proprietariness with regard to the vocation) over time as well as to add one's own gifts/specific insights in an organic way to the eremitical tradition of c 603 vocations themselves, and a constantly renewed sense of amazement and awe because of their deepening sense that the vocation is a grace; I have also found in myself and those I have accompanied, growth in personal freedom and authentic independence under ecclesiastical authority. This makes of such accompaniment more a matter of celebration and sharing than of difficult meetings to discuss permissions, inadequacies, etc. I believe my own Director(s) would say the same.

One of the ways I think dioceses and solitary hermits moving towards profession can structure meetings re discernment and formational stages and needs is through the writing of the Rule. This process takes several drafts and correlative attempts at living what one has written; even (sometimes especially!) in persons who have lived religious life before this, the changes from the original version to the one the hermit will eventually submit to her diocese for canonical and bishop's approval are substantial. (I am quite sure I have at least one reader here rolling her eyes and laughing while saying, "Oh, Sister, are you ever right about that one !!) It takes time to make the eremitical tradition one's own, to inculcate the values and sensibilities of the vocation so that one represents eremitical life authentically in a way which is not only consonant with history but relevant and edifying to the contemporary Church and world. In other words, it takes time and a real commitment to growth (as well as a Divine call!) to become the kind of person envisioned in canon 603, one who, inspired by God in Christ, the Desert Abbas and Ammas and hermits throughout the centuries, represents the Church's canonical appropriation and embodiment of the solitary eremitical tradition in the 20-21st C. If one comes to eremitical life from a religious or monastic community one must learn to let go of a lot of very good stuff  (including some of how one lived religious poverty and obedience) while embracing these same values in a way which is appropriate to the solitary canonical hermit.

The hermit's deficiencies, strengths, growth, and other changes are reflected in the Rules she writes over a several year period; additionally the Rules themselves give the hermit and her superiors/guides something to explore and discuss at meetings as well as a way to set goals or decide about necessary resources which might be needed for continuing personal and vocational growth. They are a key to both discernment and formation for everyone involved in the processes. In any case discernment and formation go on at the same time. That, I think, is the nature of a divine vocation; more, it is the nature of a well-lived life.