On Baseline Values: Fundamentals and Diversity in Eremitical Life

[[Dear Sister, you recently wrote, "What is absolutely critical is that in some way the hermit writing the Rule combines the requirements of Canon 603 with her own life story, not because she cannot let go of her life before the hermitage, but because in every way, the Rule she is proposing to live indicates the continuation and fulfillment of a long journey towards redemption by God's love. It spells out a coherent way of living out the victory of that redemption as it has unfolded to bring her here and still continues to unfold in this new commitment." I was struck by a couple of things. First, your vision of solitary eremitical life as a continuation of a redemptive journey that began long before one reached the hermitage (or the hermitage stage), and secondly, that your Rule could not be used by anyone else; you were not writing for a group. 

In approaching the canon in this way, I really like the flexibility and personal integrity this allows for, but I was wondering how great is the danger of hermits who really aren't living the silence of solitude at all? If your Rule looks very different than that of another hermit, then who judges what hermit life really looks like? What happens if one person discerns a call to limited ministry as you have, and another says no to that? Won't people be confused by this? It seems a particular problem if no one spells out the baseline values for silence, solitude, prayer, penance, etc., so who does that? I don't mean hermits need to meet the kinds of rigorist qualities some have written about in the last several years --- you know, absolute silence, total hiddenness, and all of that -- but what does it mean to live a life of the silence of solitude (and the other elements of C 603) no matter who you are? Do you see what I mean? I also have some questions on time frames, temporary vs perpetual professions, and things like that, but I'll hold those for now. . .]]

Thanks for writing again. Your questions are very well-taken and I appreciate them. I will need to come back to parts of these in further posts. With Canon 603, as I have noted many times, we find a uniquely written canon that combines elements that are non-negotiable (that is, they must be defining terms of the hermit's life or s/he is not a Canon 603 hermit) and great flexibility, because these elements or terms are less legal terms with entirely fixed meanings, than they are gates or doorways to Mystery, specifically, the Mystery of Love-in-Communion. In other words, Canon 603 itself represents a vision of eremitic life that allows for room to grow, explore, make mistakes, make corrections, discern, submit to ongoing formation, consult, and so forth. The terms identified as non-negotiable are themselves mysteries more than terms with single, limited or common meanings --- especially when these meanings are set from the outside by those who know nothing of the life. Yes, there are foundational, "beginning," or common senses to these terms, and these foundational senses set a high bar for the hermit, but what is also true is that once one has truly entered the world of eremitism, once solitude has opened herself to the hermit and the hermit has accepted the invitation, these beginning senses open to even greater richness marked by paradox and surprise.  

One of the surprises is that each foundational term must be defined in terms of relationality (including that between oneself and 1) one's true or deep self, 2) one's God, 3) others, and 4) the whole of creation). Each term describes a living reality, dynamic in the way it opens us to it and itself to us. I have always loved Star Trek's various series and the opening of each series refers to the last frontier, identifying this with space, outer space. But hermits know the truth is different than this. The last frontier is inner space and from there, the inner life of God (him)self. What Canon 603 spells out, it seems to me, are the basic requirements for a person to make such a journey as a hermit: stricter separation from the world, assiduous prayer and penance, the silence of solitude, commitment to the evangelical counsels, an approved Rule of Life, lived in a desert context with supervision! (One piece of this single picture which will witness to all of the other elements is the hermit's stability and perseverance in cell -- more about this later). 

Remembering the importance of relationality, especially as one begins the inward journey in earnest and is tempted to mistake isolation for solitude or individualism for individuality; we need to stress that the reason one makes the journey is for the salvation of others. Alternately stated, the hermit makes the journey she makes in the way she does so that God might truly be the God he wishes to be, God-With-Us, (not simply God-With-her). Because the hermit's journey, that is, the way she uniquely poses the question of existence with her own life involves a particular desert quality, the way God is Emmanuel will correspond and be revealed in her life in a different way than occurs in the life of a ministerial religious, for instance. This difference must be evident. And yet, this life is lived for the sake of God and God's entire creation; relationality stands at the center of the hermit's life just as it does for any Christian.

As you well note, all of this requires certain baseline values for the terms of the canon. There must be external silence and physical solitude and there must be "enough" of these in the right configurations to provide a context for and support such an incredible inner journey. At this level of these terms, there must be silence and solitude sufficient to define the hermit's world in visible or identifiable ways and allow other elements to do the same, but which, at the same time, are not confused with the end or purpose of the life itself. Silence and solitude need not be absolute, for the measure of the hermit is not the degree of external silence or (physical) solitude she embraces, important as these are, but the journey they help facilitate into (and of) her deep self and the very Life of God. The same is true of the other elements; they must be sufficiently definitive of the life the hermit is living to allow for the specific journey the hermit is proposing to make with her life. At the same time, these defining elements are not to be absolutized but rather are meant to serve the goal of allowing God to be God-With-Us and Us to be completed in God for the sake of others. 

You asked if the diversity of vocations will be confusing to folks. I think that is doubtful so long as the dioceses who have hermits show real care in their discernment and each vocation shows clear signs of being defined by the constitutive elements of the canon. (No more professing "hermits" who live contemplative lives on the weekends alone while working highly social jobs during the week, or those for whom the term "hermit" is merely a metaphor describing personal eccentricity and a failure to "fit in"!!) Perhaps more importantly, I don't believe folks will be confused so long as the vocations they are exposed to are healthy, vital vocations centered in Christ and clear embodiments of Canon 603. I don't think any hermit I know believes they live eremitical life the only way it can be lived. There has always been diversity in such vocations. We each recognize that while we must and do live the defining elements of the vocation as faithfully and paradigmatically as God calls us to do, variations in the appearance of the vocation are possible depending upon how God works in a particular life. 

So who decides about all of this? The hermit does this with the assistance of her delegate and spiritual director. The bishop and diocesan staff who help discern such vocations also discern whether the vocation in front of them rises to the level of an ecclesial eremitical vocation or not --- is this person really living a life defined by the silence of solitude, assiduous prayer and penance, stricter separation from the world, and so forth and are they called to live this in the name of the Church? What needs to be strengthened if this is so, for instance? In what ways does the person still need to grow into the vocation in order to make an initial or even a definitive profession and what will assist in that? How have things changed for this hermit in the past several years in her continuing faithful response to God's eremitical call? Finally, if the diocese is being assisted by a mentor who is already c 603, then s/he will be helping in this same discernment. 

After perpetual profession the hermit is assisted by her delegate, spiritual director, bishop (this will be true less frequently in most cases), and others with the expertise needed. She will speak with other hermits, and of course, first, last, and in between, she will pray regarding the way she perceives God calling her. Folks will need to be able to trust that there is a framework in place for all of this precisely because she is living an ecclesial vocation; if there are concerns, these will need to be brought to the hermit and (usually through her) to those involved in assisting her to live her vocation with integrity. Sometimes clearing up such concerns is merely a matter of educating folks about what a hermit is and what eremitical life looks like apart from entrenched stereotypes and imposed rigidities by those truly unfamiliar with the life. And sometimes, the diocese itself will learn from such conversations and find ways to take more care in their discernment of such important vocations! Hopefully, however, the hermit's place in the faith community will be strengthened and she will be supported to grow in her vocation as she, in the silence of solitude, witnesses to the sufficiency of God alone to complete us as human beings!!

I hope this is helpful! Definitely get back to me with your questions on time frames, etc.

On Being a Hermit Before One Petitions for C 603 Standing

[[Hi Sister Laurel, in the process you are describing about c 603 discernment it sounds sort of like you are saying a person already needs to have discerned a call to contemplative and then eremitical life before she or he approaches her/his diocese with a petition to be professed under c 603. Is that right?? Is that why c 603 has no provision for periods of formation and all that goes with those? Your use of the term "shoehorning" in your last post was helpful, a pretty vivid way of describing a process which could never really fit into arbitrary time frames and canonical schemata.  Also, it was important that you noted that the majority of the process would never involve the diocese at all. I could see clearly that the really important formation must go on apart from the diocese -- in solitude between the person, God, and perhaps a good spiritual director. Should dioceses be thinking that c 603 is to be used to raise to canonical standing a vocation that has been long in development and is already largely "formed"? Is that what you have been talking about when you say the candidate "must be a hermit in some essential sense" already?]]

Thanks for your questions and comments. I think you've got it, yes!! The history of c 603 grew out of a situation in which a number of solemnly professed monks had discerned vocations to solitude over long years of monastic life, ongoing formation, commitment, and service. To retell the story briefly, in order to follow an eremitical vocation they had to leave their vows and monasteries and be secularized. They then had to find a way to live an eremitical life as best as they could apart from their monasteries in more ordinary surroundings. Roman Catholicism had a history of such persons coming under the protection of the diocesan bishop and eventually this occurred with a dozen or so of these men coming together in a laura under the aegis of Bishop Remi de Roo who, at Vatican Council II, brought up the need to recognize the genuine eremitical vocation as a "call to perfection." Only after another 20 years did the Revised Code of Canon Law include the solitary hermit call in law in canon 603. 

The canon itself presumes and implies a personal history of spiritual and personal formation as a hermit prior to contacting one's diocese re c 603 even though it does not spell this out. For instance, "stricter separation from the world" is not simply about closing the hermitage door on the things outside these premises, but rather about separating oneself more strictly from the things which are contrary to or reject Christ while one cleaves to Christ more strictly and wholeheartedly with all one has and is. Assiduous prayer and penance are not about more prayer and penance than usual in Religious life, or at least it is not only about this; it is primarily about being a truly human person whose heart, mind, body and spirit, are given over to their source, ground, nourishment, and enrichment in God alone in the silence of solitude. 

This takes time; finding the way God calls one to this takes serious weighing, trying, and discerning the various paths to God any life offers as one grows first as a person of prayer, then as a contemplative, and then as a solitary hermit. It is possible to read the central elements of c. 603 in a more superficial way. The silence of solitude, for instance, can be read merely as describing a context for eremitical life, but for the actual hermit, the silence of solitude is also the charism of her vocation, and, in fact, a goal -- the way to describe a fully human life lived alone in communion with God, a life of shalom and wholeness in the silence of solitude.

In other words, c 603 was never meant for beginners in the spiritual life, nor were dioceses meant to form such persons in the eremitical life. (I'll say more about this below.) Canon 603 was meant to be used for hermits (not those who were still hermit wannabe's) who had lived into their vocations over a span of time and brought themselves to their diocese because they recognized that this service (eremitical life lived in and on behalf of the Church) was an essential part of their call to life in solitude. It was meant, this means, to be relatively rarely used when strong candidates with experience as contemplatives and deeper yearnings for solitude presented themselves with a petition to be professed. The canon defines eremitical life as the Catholic Church regards it and adds certain conditions to those who feel called to live this life as an ecclesial vocation in the name of the Church. 

In some ways this is a tension-filled and paradoxical situation. The Church defines the signs and ways to genuine freedom in Christ found in hermit lives throughout her history and otherwise: stricter separation from the world, a life of assiduous prayer and penance, the silence of solitude, ordered according to a Rule the hermit writes herself, framed in terms of the Evangelical Counsels, and then provides a canonical framework to live such freedom in the name and on behalf of the Church. In this way, the Church entrusts an ecclesial vocation to someone committed to the freedom of a prophetic life of grace. Thus, the person should also have the wisdom to deal with a vocation which is at once ecclesial and also deeply prophetic. None of this indicates or implies a vocation which is to be embraced by beginners or those without sufficient experience and (even) expertise (e.g., the ability to write a liveable Rule, for instance, or an articulable sense of the way the silence of solitude functions as more than the context for one's life -- a sense which is rooted in the hermit's lived experience).

Dioceses do not and apparently were never meant to form hermits. This is so not only because hermits are formed in solitude (you restated my position very well), but also because dioceses tend to need time frames into which the formation program can fit without lots of flexibility or freedom --- for the hermit and for the Holy Spirit! And eremitical vocations require time, freedom, and greater flexibility sometimes than canonical norms can ensure. Also, while dioceses have within them people who could effectively accompany a hermit in her formation and discernment, the diocesan offices of Vicar for Religious, etc., ordinarily don't have the time even if they should have the expertise and willingness (and my sense is this is rare). However, after the hermit is formed in an essential way, and know they are called to eremitical life (which may require the assistance of a Delegate for the Diocese and Hermit candidate), dioceses (beyond the Delegate) are precisely the ones to assist in the discernment of a c. 603 vocation. Thus, your final question is exactly right. Dioceses should think that c 603 is to be used to (admit) to canonical standing a vocation that has been long in development and is already largely "formed". After all, there are other ways to live eremitical life. C 603 is only one way and not everyone is meant to live as a solitary hermit in the name of the Church even when their eremitical vocation seems very certain.

Again, because I believe in this approach to c 603 vocations, I have written about a process which can work for dioceses and for hermits and their Directors (diocesan delegates). It is not a program, but a process drawn organically from the requirements of c 603 itself, and for that reason does not impose arbitrary time frames or stages which are more appropriate for coenobitical religious life. I believe the canon was artfully (wonderfully!) wrought; it stresses the freedom of the hermit within a given set of essential (not optional!) characteristics. The addition of additional and strict time frames, etc., which are not drawn from the canon itself will actually "offend" against the sufficiency and beauty of the canon and the life it defines. Ironically, only a process drawn directly from the canon itself can do justice to the canon and the vocation it governs. 

The single point in the canon which allows this, the single requirement marking the combination of lived experience, one's personal and mature embrace of the essential canonical elements, institutional supervision and accompaniment, and one's growth in and commitment to an authentic (responsible and ecclesial) eremitical freedom is the requirement that the hermit write her own (liveable) Rule of Life. The process, therefore, grows directly and organically out of the hermit's varying and various attempts to fulfill this requirement. 

Addendum: A postscript on the absence of time frames from c 603:

One final word re your question on why c 603 does not provide time frames as a kind of P.S. Given the care with which the canon has been crafted, my sense is the authors wanted dioceses to use the contents of the canon itself to gauge the quality and readiness for consecration of the vocation in front of them. I believe they knew that once time frames were set up in one diocese others would follow and the time frames themselves would become the markers used for gauging readiness, etc. In the various offerings of canonists writing on c 603, what stands out is the use of time frames without any real discussion of the depths of the vocation itself or the essential characteristics of the c 603 vocation. Thus, as dioceses pick up these books, they fasten on the time frames (for these are more easily understandable and accessible) and not on true discernment of an eremitical vocation. The approach of hermits to the matter is quite different --- give the individual time to grow into a contemplative and then, if they feel called to this, into a hermit, and perhaps too, to one with a c 603 vocation (again, there are other avenues for living eremitical life, after all). In such a process, the hermit will need to find someone who can accompany her through all of this, and she will turn to the diocese with whom she will discern the vocation mutually when she reaches this point of readiness.

On Accompanying a Cloistered Nun Discerning a Call to Eremitical Life

[[Hi Sister Laurel, I'm not a nun, I'm not considering becoming a nun or living as a hermit of any sort. But I read your blog fairly often because I think living as a hermit is an intriguing thing to do. I missed some of the vocabulary in this morning's post [a week ago now] on transferring to c 603 life (like exclaustration and indult of departure), but one thing struck me like a bolt of lightning. The idea of leaving a vocation one has been "solemnly professed" in for many years, in order to embrace eremitical life without even knowing what form of that will really be best for one or is God's will --- and without even knowing if a bishop will allow the use of canon 603 in his diocese --- finally sunk in for me. You said recently that it was important to understand how much the monks who left their monasteries and were "secularized" so they could live as hermits had sacrificed. I am beginning to really see what you meant.

Anyhow, this triggered some questions for me. Like when you wrote that the nun would need to figure out which form of eremitical life she was called to after leaving her monastery and everything I wondered how someone does such a thing? I mean does she go around the country trying to live in different eremitical settings? And how does one even know which one is right for them? Who helps with something like this?  Did you have to deal with questions like this when you "accompanied" someone? (And what does that mean anyway??) How would you know if someone should be a canon 603 hermit or should join a laura or a "smaller monastery" or something? I need to think about all this more but that's the one question I could put into words right away.]]

Thanks for your comments, the time you have spent pondering, and for the huge "one question" you put into words. I'll try to answer some of it here.  Here is where the idea of exclaustration can help some. The word literally means  "the state of being outside the cloister." Nuns who wish to discern another form of consecrated life, for instance, can, after some mutual discernment with their congregations, request to be admitted to exclaustration. With this status (specific standing in law) they can continue to discern new/differing forms of life free from most of the obligations of life in their monastery but without leaving their vows. It is a supervised period of exploration, experimentation, and discernment.

So, for instance, if she is considering becoming a c 603 hermit should the bishop agree she is so called, she can set up a small hermitage (e.g., rent an apartment or other residence) in the diocese in which she proposes to petition to be admitted to profession and take up life as a solitary hermit. Her community is responsible for her living expenses at this time, but during this same time she will also make sure that when this period of exclaustration is ended she is capable of supporting herself. Exclaustration is meant to allow for appropriate discernment, for testing how one does in differing contexts. It provides a structured space of relative security and freedom to discern, and to prepare for a new vocation and the assumption of new rights and obligations. It is an important piece of the Church's esteem for ecclesial vocations and the importance of mutual discernment in making such weighty decisions regarding how God is calling us.

With that in mind I can try to answer your questions about accompanying someone in this kind of process, supporting them in (for instance) their discerning the form of eremitical life that is right (if any of them are!), etc. First, in my experience, the Sister considering eremitical life will do research before she ever gets near requesting exclaustration. Such a step by itself is so huge that it does not happen without significant mutual discernment. She will ask her superiors and congregation for whatever accommodations seem important and reasonable both to live the vocation she is committed to and for solid discernment (for instance, freedom for greater silence and solitude at times during the week, dispensation from certain charges or work assignments, freedom from certain forms of  mandatory devotion in order to embrace other forms of prayer, etc).

Only over time will she come to know more clearly whether she feels she is being called to eremitical life at all. If these accommodations tend to whet the Sister's appetite for contemplative prayer, contemplative life, and greater silence of solitude and, if, in terms of personal growth and integrity, it nurtures her life with God and her authentic humanity, one may be seeing the grounds for allowing, 1) periods of extended time in the silence of solitude, 2) an extended directed retreat, or even 3) exclaustration. Depending on what seems right at this time, the Sister could, and perhaps should, speak with her bishop re his willingness to consider using c 603 to profess/consecrate her if her discernment continues moving in the same direction over the next years (toward, including, and even during exclaustration, for instance).

Assuming the bishop is open to using c 603 if an authentic vocation is discerned (such usage is not automatic), and if the Sister has discerned that it is time to request exclaustration, she will take the steps necessary to begin living eremitical life outside of the monastery. Accompanying someone in something like this is really a matter of supporting them, trying to give them ways to explore the different dimensions of this vocation and share what that person has discovered herself about these over time. One accompanies such a Sister as a friend and Sister who has more experience in eremitical life (and maybe a good deal less in religious life generally!) and who hopes that experience can be of benefit to her.  When the one on exclaustration has such a vocation, accompanying her will mean watching as she truly grows into a solitary hermit who is comfortable in a different, and more original, stream of monastic tradition --- and as she matures to a point where she is truly prepared to accept her own place in it. Generally speaking then, accompanying someone like this means listening, watching, and encouraging, while drawing on one's own experience and understanding of solitary consecrated eremitical life, especially its inner heart.

As you have already noted, the Sister herself is the one taking the risk and doing the real and deep work in all of this. She is the one taking on an entirely new way of Religious life and living the vows --- sometimes after decades of solemn profession in a very different tradition. She is the one facing herself honestly, continually assessing her weaknesses and strengths, attending to her own deepest yearnings, needs, and potentialities, and living in God's presence in a new way. She is the one who has consented to a process of real conversion, the one who knows and humbly shares what God is doing in her life and whether, as a result, she loves more fully in this form of life, as well as whether she is more profoundly happy, more authentically free, and even more whole and holy.

She is the one learning to live with God alone for the sake of others and who is transparent to how faithfully she does so with whatever difficulties and what ease and joy this entails or implies. She is the one who will begin establishing relationships with others in her parish even as she also explores the deep meaning of c 603 and negotiates the tensions in (or paradox of) an ecclesial vocation to the silence of solitude. She, especially because of her canonical situation and identity as a Religious, is likely to also work with the Bishop himself as well as with appropriate chancery personnel during a period that will take several years of careful supervision. In sum, all of this is part of a demanding process of discernment and personal growth; accompanying someone in this means walking with this person because one wants the best for her and for the solitary eremitical vocation itself.

During this time it may, for example, appear that this Sister would be happier in a laura, or even that the yearning for solitude was not related to a call to eremitical life at all but to something else. If the call to c 603 is genuine it might also become apparent that while she has this new "base of operations" and the support of a number of experienced people, she might want to explore life in a laura, for instance. My own opinion is that it is easier to do this after moving to solitary eremitical life as defined in c 603 than it is while one is still living in a monastery. This is so, I think, because once one becomes capable of living as a solitary hermit and becomes confident that eremitical solitude itself has indeed, "opened its door" to her, such a Sister can also consider eventually establishing (or perhaps moving to) a laura with other c 603 hermits at some point in the future. If, the laura doesn't last, or never gets off the ground (or if the Sister cannot find one she feels called to move to), solitary eremitical life remains as an option she has been prepared for, assured of being called to in being admitted to profession, and one she knows how to live without the support of a laura. Moving to a laura directly from a monastery, and before one has truly discerned a call to solitary eremitical life, might merely indicate a need for changes in one's monastic context, not a genuine call to eremitical life.
       

Still, if the Sister discerns she should explore living in a laura, yes, she will spend some time in one, work with others to evaluate the experience, and decide what to do in light of this. It is the same with other options during exclaustration. The point in all of this is that accompanying a Sister in this way means participating in a dynamic, demanding, and (I personally find) incredibly gratifying process of accompaniment in order to assist, support, and celebrate her journey with and in God. Occasionally, the process eventuates in a perpetual profession and consecration as a person embraces a call to live solitary eremitical life in the name of the Church.

When this is so, accompaniment is apt to continue (it usually lasts longer when the one being accompanied has an eremitical vocation than when she finds she is not called to eremitical and/or c 603 life) but now in a new key. It is still a matter of listening, sharing, encouraging, supporting, and celebrating the way God has worked, and continues working, below, in, and through all the moments of doubt, risk, uncertainty, and hopefulness --- but also right on through the joy-filled time of new certainties and commitments, and into the demands and relationships of mature canonical eremitical existence which both Sisters love, and strive to embody, with their whole selves. At this point one is probably not the new hermit's spiritual director; as accompanist one is simply a bit more experienced in living the vocation and so, is available to share as the new c 603 hermit negotiates next steps and the various possibilities and dimensions of this vocation. In time this relationship can grow into a profound friendship rooted in the silence of solitude and the grace of God, but also in the joy, humor, and other experience shared in Christ through the years.

I hope this is helpful. I will get to the rest of your question(s) in another day or so. Thanks again. This was a pleasure to write!