The Beating Heart of Canonical Vocations: A Matter of Graced Rights and Obligations

 [[Dear Sister, thanks for your response. Am I right in concluding that when one leaves the consecrated state one leaves the rights and obligations of this state even though one is still consecrated by God? If there are no rights and obligations is there a consecration?]]

 I first added this to the last question you asked because it fits so well; however other  related comments have come my way so I am moving it to a new post and appending those comments. Yes, you are exactly correct. When one leaves the consecrated state even though they were once consecrated by God (something that cannot be undone), they also leave the rights, obligations, and also the expectations behind. A state of life is characterized and structured by the rights and obligations associated with it. The inner spirit of this state of life is illumined by the person's sensitivity to the legitimate expectations others rightly hold in her regard. When she is responsive to all of these elements, she lives a witness which is fruitful and contributes to the tradition her life is now a living part of.

It is important to be clear that one either is or is not in the consecrated state of life. Equivocal statements like, "I am part of the consecrated life of the Church" can be (and unfortunately, have, even recently, been) used to confuse and slide past the actual truth. When one has had extended to them, and when one has accepted the rights and obligations associated with the consecrated state of life, they exist in that state; when those rights and obligations have not been extended to nor accepted by the person, or, when one has relinquished these rights and obligations, one is no longer considered a "consecrated person" because they have left (or never been part of) this state of life. This is not meant to deny that (some of) these people were consecrated by God, but it is meant to underscore the nature of a state of life, and the importance of the rights and obligations associated with the consecrated state of life.

Meanwhile, your last question is very perceptive and follows logically! Consecration in the Roman Catholic Church is ALWAYS associated with public rights and obligations/expectations. To claim to be consecrated without being able to identify public rights and obligations (along with correlative expectations) is to claim a fiction. Just as profession is a broader and richer act than the making of vows alone, so too is the consecration of a person in the Church a broader act than we might think. To set someone apart as a "sacred (or consecrated) person" in the Church is not only to convey God's solemn blessing, but also to explicitly structure their lives in terms of public rights and obligations spelled out in Canon Law,  Rule, and/or Constitutions/Statutes.

[[Dear Sister, I do wish you had spelled out the rights and obligations of a diocesan hermit several years ago! This was the first time I truly understood the difference between a public and private commitment. It also helped me to understand what you meant a while back when you wrote about someone "having their cake and eating it too." It just never occurred to me that I actually have a right to hold expectations in your regard because your commitment is public, while not having the right to expectations on the basis of a private commitment. Also,  I think I understand better what you mean when you speak about a "state of life" or, "living a vocation in the name of the Church". 

Because I didn't understand what the rights and obligations were that were associated with your vocation, I thought having expectations in regard to your hermit life meant that I was overstepping my own rightful bounds and that calling yourself a Catholic Hermit was pretentious, particularly when you wrote that those without public profession could not do so. But  committing to live and living a vocation "in the name of the Church" implies much more than just being  a Catholic and living privately as a hermit! I think I really see that now. I just wanted to thank you for making this clearer for me!! Thank you! 

As I write this, I do have one question: do you think that hermits with private vows understand all of this? One who has written about this a lot seems to think the difference between canonical and non-canonical vocations is just a matter of formal approval. I don't think she gets there is a substantive difference made up of rights, obligations and related expectations. Do most lay hermits get this substantive difference?]]

I am glad you wrote. Thank you! In the years since I first began this blog I have become dependent on folks asking questions and that means that I don't always write about the things I need to. Sometimes I assume that if folks have a question they will ask. But that is not always true, not least because they may not have enough knowledge to raise the important questions and sometimes because they don't know how important the questions they have actually are. The rights and obligations associated with this canonical eremitical life may be among such important questions. For that reason I too am sorry I did not spell this out earlier! It really is up to me to see what is important and explain that --- though I love getting questions and am helped by them a lot!

I really don't know what most lay or non-canonical hermits do or don't understand. You are correct though in your observations that some do not understand my life or the lives of other c 603 hermits in terms of rights and obligations/expectations. At least they have usually not indicated such an understanding nor do they seem to have had it spelled out for them by those who have made such commitments. What does seem to be true is that many lay hermits (and some canonical ones as well!) do have a gut level resistance to others holding legitimate (valid) expectations of them. This is one of the things that gives their lives a distinctly individualistic shape --- and as you probably know, I believe an individualistic hermit life is inauthentic and antithetical to eremitical life within the Church. When some write about remaining anonymous, when they claim the title Catholic Hermit while also claiming they can remain entirely hidden, or when they can post all manner of disedifying things leading others to believe in the eccentricity and selfishness of this vocation, they demonstrate they do not have a clue about the way rights and obligations are extended to someone committing to live this vocation in the name of the Church.

The same is true with regard to those who treat canonical standing as though it is a matter of superficial formalism or legalism. The rights and obligations assumed by a hermit and extended to her by the Church are meant to govern and nurture a specific vocation which 1) proclaims the Gospel of God in Christ, and which 2) is meant for the inspiration and edification of others. The graces associated with a canonical eremitical vocation are the graces God gives which allow these two foundational elements to be lived with integrity and vividness. Canon 603 does this for the solitary eremitical vocation just as other canons do for semi-eremitical life (eremitical life lived in a specifically communal context with other hermits).

All of this points to one reason many bishops tend only to profess and consecrate hermits who have been formed and professed in religious life, namely, such persons understand what we mean by the consecrated state of life; they know what it means to live according to rights and obligations extended to them by the Church herself. They know what it means to have others hold legitimate (valid) expectations about the way they live their life, and they are prepared to accept the obligations as well as the rights that are part and parcel of a state of life. It is hard to get all of this merely from reading about it; one needs to have lived it. In fact, it is one of the most central qualities of religious formation ---readying a person to live a public vocation shaped by public rights and obligations and animated by the graces which make one responsive to these --- even if the life is lived in a cloister or hidden in the way eremitical lives are hidden. An individualistic life whose supposed "freedom" is shaped by selfishness and superficiality may look like eremitical life from a distance or at first glance, but the beating heart of an ecclesial vocation is vastly different than this. It is moved and shaped instead by the Love-in-Act we call God --- and thus too, is it empowered to accept and fulfill the public rights, obligations, and expectations associated with ecclesial vocations to the consecrated state.

I'll leave this here for now. Thanks again!

Eremitical Solitude as a Form of Community: On the Place of the "Elder" in Eremitical Life

[[Dear Sister, isn't it true that the traditional form of eremitical life is of living completely alone. How is what you live in agreement with traditional hermit life? You have Sisters who maybe don't live with you, but who you depend on. How can you claim to be living the truth that God alone is enough for you/us?]]

Thanks for your questions. I would disagree with you that the traditional form of eremitical life is to live entirely alone --- though I agree that large periods of time are and must be spent that way in any eremitical life.  In this I mean that physical solitude must be lived in a way sufficient to define the life and allow it to be characterized as one of real solitude. Your real disagreement seems to be with the fact that I have Sisters who serve me and my vocation in their work as my spiritual director and/or as delegates for myself and my diocese. In fact, I believe this is one variation on the traditional eremitical life or desert tradition involving elders; this was made famous (and perhaps normative) in the lives of the Desert Abbas and Ammas, as well as on Mount Athos, for instance, and in the Eastern Church more generally. The same is true of Carthusian eremitical life which depends on access to elders who assist with formation, both initial and ongoing. Meanwhile, Franciscanism uses a  uniquely communal model of eremitism and the hermitage which depends upon another friar or sister who serves as "mother" to those (two or three) living in solitude. They later reverse the roles so everyone may live in solitude and serve one another as "mother" in the process. Wherever eremitical life has been authentic and edifying, hermits (or ascetics) have depended on and often lived with Elders. In time the situation is perpetuated as the disciple (one who is open to being taught) becomes recognized as an elder her/himself and disciples (those open to learning/being taught the way of Christ in the desert) come to them in turn.

The relationship between elder and disciple has always been a complex and sacred one. It begins simply, perhaps. One approaches someone whom one wishes will help one become a hermit (or a Sister, monk, etc). In some instances this relationship may be strengthened or intensified with what I have referred to as the ministry of authority. In such instances there is a bond of authority and obedience as one learns to listen and respond deeply to God both in terms of the elder's own experience and wisdom, and in terms of one's own life in solitude. It seems to me, however, that where this particular relationship with an elder (a director, delegate, legitimate superior) is strongest and best is where is begins to blossom in a relationship of deep and mutual friendship rooted in love of Christ. I don't think one ever outgrows the relationship with an elder as elder because there is a holiness, an intimacy, and corresponding respect (sometimes taking the form of deference) to such a relationship that colors everything else, but I do believe that one can grow in ways that allow one to feel and be more an equal or peer with that elder. When that happens it is an awesome thing and, like all real friendships, a gift of God.

It is this last point I want to emphasize. Such relationships are forged in necessity (i.e.,  because of the need for direction and the ministry of authority), which itself is a gift of God, and they flower in  grace which is sometimes the grace of true friendship. Such rare friendships are both a gift of God and mediate the very presence and life of God. In my own life, the relationships I have spoken of here tend to be possible only because and to the extent I am faithful to a life of Christ in the silence of solitude. Similarly, those serving me and my vocation in the ways I have described are only able to do so by virtue of their own lives of faithfulness to the love and presence of God in Christ. Speaking for myself and my own experience here, I have to say that it is my vocation to the silence of solitude that causes me to seek the assistance of genuine elders, and the assistance of these elders sends me back into the silence of solitude in ever deepening ways. This goes far beyond the canonical requirement of supervision --- though I suspect canon 603's requirement here foresaw this deeper reality and the need for it in any genuine hermit's life. Still, one cannot legislate friendship; one can only pray that such a relationship grows out of what can and, in fact, must be legislated for the sake of the ministry of authority and the vocation itself.

In any case, I don't find any conflict with the eremitical notion that "God Alone is Enough" because for each of us (my delegates and myself), whether singly, in community (both Sister M and Sister S live in and on behalf of a community of Sisters and their charism and mission) or when we come together to talk, work, and share, that is always the ultimate truth we bear witness to with and for one another. No matter the topic, nor the activity, this is a pervasive and evident truth which grounds our lives. None of us is completed by anyone but God because none of us is completed except by the Love which IS God. This foundational truth grounds our lives and commitments -- whether lived in community or eremitical solitude. It is the truth we live for one another, and the reason my Directors can serve me or their own Sisters as they do.

One of the ways this is clearest is the way these Sisters are affected by the increasing diminishment of their congregations or provinces. I cannot even imagine the pain involved in watching one's Sisters die in increasing numbers as the median age of the community rises. I cannot imagine the courage and love it takes to entrust this process entirely to God, to see that God will bring good from it, to work with God in ways which assure good will come of it and in ways which assure the charism of a community continues on once one --- and even the community itself --- are gone. And yet, I see this courage and love, this faithfulness to the truth that God Alone is Enough in the lives and witness of these two "elders" in my own life.  And now, with shelter in place and this pandemic, we each live this truth in new and demanding ways and as we do in other times. we do so for the sake of our Sisters/Brothers in religion and our sisters and brothers in Christ. I mention all of this to underscore the nature, breadth, and depth, of the wisdom these women bring to my life.

I live as a hermit. My co-delegates assist me in that. I cannot travel to find desert Fathers and Mothers who can speak a Word to me. I cannot travel the lengths and breadths even of Lafayette or the state of California, for instance, to find another monk or nun who can serve me in this way as one might have done (or still do) on Mt Athos. Neither can I get an appointment with my bishop as easily as that -- though yes, of course, if I need one, he is accessible to me. Even so, he is a supervisor and not, in my own life, a spiritual Father (or Mother!) in the sense I am using the terms here;  instead, my delegates serve him and the diocese for this specific purpose. The bottom line is that through the history of eremitical life hermits have been dependent on elders. Even more fundamentally, we are each members of the body of Christ, and none of us can live as though we are unimportant or can exist in isolation from one another. Being members of Christ's Body in this way always witnesses to the fact that only God is sufficient for us because we could not come together as we do unless drawn by the grace of God.

Hermits will always walk the line where community and solitude are inseparably linked. Cenobites  find they cannot live community without significant measures of solitude, hermits find that they cannot live eremitical solitude, much less reach the silence of solitude which is the goal and charism of their lives, without significant assistance of elders who also witness in their own way to the fact that God alone is enough for us. I think of the Trappistines who understand that their own lives are not a balance of solitude and community but entirely one of either/both at the same time --- entirely one of solitude in community and entirely one of community in solitude --- though not eremitical solitude. There is a wisdom in this perspective that one only gains in living the life. Similarly, I think of the Camaldolese who speak of "Living alone together" and capture the same fundamental dynamic but expressed differently in terms of a laura of hermit-monks or semi-eremitical community.

We hermits have to find our way in our life with God. We have to witness to the fact that God alone is sufficient, but so long as we exist in Christ, and so long as the eremitical vocation belongs first of all to the Church, we cannot do this simply by cutting ourselves off completely from others any more than the anchorites (urbani) did who lived their solitude under the bishop's supervision in the midst of the local community with windows opening onto the altar and onto the village/town square. As I have written many times here, eremitical solitude is a unique form of community; this is true because it is a unique way of belonging integrally to the Body of Christ, the Church. The role of the elder in the hermit's life is a concrete embodiment of this complex and profound relatedness-in-solitude.