Another Look at Virtual Lauras

[[Hi Sister, I was wondering if you have the sense that a laura (lavra?) is a better way of being a hermit than being a solitary hermit. My diocese is not open to professing solitary hermits, but they may be open to hermits living in a laura. I'm not sure how that works since the diocese has no hermits at all; how can we wait until there are several solitary hermits if there is no openness to professing them one by one? I wondered, though, if being part of a laura is a better way of living as a hermit? Do you have experience with this? Thank you!]]

 Good questions! I love the implied chicken or egg analogy with solitary hermits and lauras. You are correct in wondering how this is possible if there is no openness to professing solitary hermits in the first place. Lauras grow out of the need for professed solitary hermits to have some mutual support with others making the same journey. Unfortunately, most dioceses have no genuine hermit vocations at all, and those who do have c 603 hermits have only one or two. If there are to be lauras, they cannot usually be what my delegate calls, "local lauras".  Instead, they will need to serve solitary hermits for mutual support and love, even while geographically distant from one another. I am part of such a "virtual" laura, a group of four c 603 hermits from different geographical regions in the US and England. It is on the basis of this experience that I can try to respond to your questions.

The first thing to see is that the answer to your question is not either/or but both/and. Each of the hermits in this laura is a solitary hermit perpetually professed under c 603. We each live alone and are otherwise about as different from one another as one can imagine. We have different educations, different experiences of religious life, different theologies and faith languages, different favorite authors, different limited ministries and relationships with parishes, different horaria, ways of praying, etc. At the same time, the relationships we have formed and are forming are incredibly profound, intimate, and sustaining. We generally come together regularly (monthly) via ZOOM to discuss a book on eremitical life (or related texts), and sometimes individually for other purposes. While we use the text as a focus, the discussions tend to be about eremitical life and each of our experiences in coming to, living, and growing in that. Canon 603 and what it means for each of us and our place in the Church and world is important for each of us, and we each share a commitment rooted in our gratitude to God for the existence of this canon. 

What is most important for us, besides the chance to learn from one another, is the chance to share our journeys with one another. The fact that we each have experienced the larger Church's lack of understanding of our vocation is an important piece of this, and while this is sharpest in our relationships with parishioners, it also happens with pastors, some bishops, and other religious as well!  (That said, I do find other religious tend to understand us better than most)! Still, we don't tend to commiserate with one another on this except to establish we each share the experience; instead, we mainly share the inner journey and joy of eremitical life and how it is that what we live every day is critical for the life of every Christian and the Church herself. Thus, when we read something like Cornelius Wencel's Eremitic Life, we explore it from within the eremitical life itself and our personal experience of that. Mostly, we know what Wencel is talking about, and whether we agree, disagree, or are simply sometimes surprised by what he writes, Wencel serves as a fellow traveler and a kind of elder who is part of the formative dialogue of our lives. For that matter, we serve in the same way for and with one another, and the time we spend together gives us some of what we need in living our vocations faithfully. We are both solitary hermits and those who "live community" in different ways. The (virtual) laura is one of the most critical of these.

Today, while I would not say living in a laura is the better way of being a solitary hermit, I understand the importance of having some experience of what a laura represents while one continues to live as a solitary hermit. Personally, I would not want to miss such an experience, and my eremitical life would be poorer without it. Of course, my delegates understand me and my life (sometimes better than I do!!), and others respect me and this vocation. But being able to share with other c 603 hermits who know the challenges, commitments, loneliness, hungers, graces, joys, etc., of this life is a blessing. That is especially true because the inner journey, the exploration of existential solitude within an eremitical context, defines this vocation even more than external solitude does. No one can make the inner journey to the depths of ourselves for us, but the sense that we are not alone in this critical life exploration, and that some of the folks who pray, laugh, and learn with us have made (or are making) the same journey themselves, and need our support too, is an unalloyed blessing. 

As I have written in the past, all of this reminds me of the following quotation: [[What we alone can do, we cannot do alone.**]] Of course, in the eremitic vocation, the hermit and God are the primary referents in such a quotation, but throughout the history of eremitical life, Christian solitary hermits have recognized the need for community, especially with others making the same eremitical journey they are. Unfortunately, this essential need has often tended to morph into established or juridical communities whose hermits cease being hermits and become cenobites. (A variation on this is c 603 "hermits" who really have a cenobitical call and want to found communities. These individuals do not have eremitical vocations but seek to use c 603 as a stopgap means to establishing communal life.) At the same time, solitary eremitical life can also tend to isolationism and individualism. When the pendulum swings to either of these extremes, eremitism ceases to be what it is meant to be and, to some extent, is lost to the Church. When that happens, the Church is less the community of faith God calls it to be.

The Fathers who wrote c 603 did their best to establish and codify the nature of a healthy solitary eremitical life in the life of the Church. While not mentioned in the canon, lauras are allowed (according to the Dicastery on Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, DICLSAL) and can certainly enrich and help protect the vocations of solitary eremitism. Bishops who might sense this are correct. Still, as you pointed out, the ability to establish local lauras when one has only a single solitary canonical hermit (or none at all!!!) is non-existent. More importantly, lauras are composed of solitary hermits who come together with other professed and consecrated hermits for support in living solitary eremitical life. In other words, there must be solitary hermits living this vocation before there can be a need for a c 603 laura, and lest a juridical community is established instead. 

I sincerely believe that the solution to how we create lauras when the vocation to solitary eremitism is so rare today is to establish intentional (and optional!!) virtual lauras connected by computer and ZOOM (or a similar service).  This solution protects and even strengthens the solitary eremitical life not only by encouraging the existential journey to meet God and Self in one's depths, but by preventing both individualism and isolationism, as well as providing an authentic experience of community that eschews those non-hermits who would like to use c 603 as a disingenuous way to establish a religious community!

** Martin Laird, An Ocean of Light