Eremitical Vocations and Their Place in the Life of the World

 [[Sister Laurel, I wondered if you ever feel called to greater degrees of ministry? You have a good education that could help the church and parishes and you must have been preparing for ministry, so do you ever feel like you should be doing more than you are? When I think of hermits the life doesn't make sense to me, not in a world that is in such awful shape as ours is. We need all the ministers we can get! I'm not so sure we need hermits!! (I don't mean to offend you, but I hope you hear what I am saying!!) I guess what I am also asking is if you are completely comfortable with your choice to be a hermit. Don't you sometimes want to do other things to help the world instead of separating yourself off from it?]]

Thanks for your honest questions!! I think you have captured the doubts of most people when they hear the word "hermit."  Most folks, if they have any positive idea of what a hermit is, will refer to us as prayer warriors. I have to say, while I agree that a hermit is first of all a pray-er and will pray for the well being of the world and everyone we know, and while we will "battle demons" (usually those of our own hearts), the phrase "prayer warrior"is one I personally really dislike and that for three reasons: 1) the term is too pugnacious for me, too bellicose, too adversarial, 2) it turns the hermit life into one that is first of all about doing rather than being, and 3) it identifies prayer as my doing, not what God does within me (as though I storm heaven to get God to respond when the situation is quite the opposite).** But most people do not even have this sense of who a hermit is. They tend to echo your questions about the meaningfulness and place of eremitical life in the overall scheme of things and come up with unconvincing answers.

And these are important questions!! I recently told the story of how I came to this vocation. I said that upon reading c 603, I had the sense that it could make sense of (that is, make meaningful) my entire life: richnesses and poverty, talents and limitations. In doing this it could cause my entire life to hang together (cohere) in Christ. At other times I have written about how a hermit must give up some of those discrete gifts she has been given to instead herself become the gift God wishes her to be for the church and world. Both of these are highly countercultural and even counterintuitive insights that are central to eremitical life. In living as a hermit I struggled for some time to "balance" ministry with my inner life and life in the hermitage. Eventually, I learned it was not precisely about balancing these,  but letting active ministry, to whatever extent there would be any, flow from the silence of solitude and call for it as well. I still do some limited active ministry including teaching Scripture and some faith formation, spiritual direction, mentoring, consulting on c 603, and growing this blog. 

But what you and others don't see and what is really primary to and defines my life is the inner work and prayer that help make me into the person God calls me to be. This is my primary ministry because what a hermit's life is all about is witnessing to what is possible when one allows God to love one as God wills to love us. Allowing God to love me as profoundly and unconditionally as God does, is "work" because so much militates (or did militate) against that. Hence it requires persevering prayer and penance -- though what counts as "penance" might surprise you! There is an amazing paradox involved here. When we think about what it means to love another person, we realize it means finding ways to allow them to be those they are meant and called to be. To reiterate, to help others to be themselves as truly as possible is what it means to love them and the same is true of loving God. To love God with our whole self is to allow God, who is Love-in-act and who has willed not to remain alone, to be God for us. We allow God to love us as wholly and fully as possible --- this is our vocation. To be persons who let God be God is a good summary of what c 603 hermits are commissioned, first of all, to be and then, to act from.

While that is a wonderful thing to focus our lives on, it is also not something that comes easily to us.  And for some, it can be more difficult than for others, of course. But what a hermit witnesses to, and in fact, what she gives her life over to is the completion or fullness of life that is ours with and in God. As I have written before, she reminds us all that [[we are made whole and holy by God. We are incomplete without God and our lives will not be truly human unless we are in a vital relationship with God --- and when we are, well, WATCH OUT, for then life and meaning will explode within us and everyone will know it! Part of the witness we give is to the possibility of every person living joyful and fruitful lives despite all of the various forms of poverty we also know well. My sense is that we give this witness, especially to those persons who, for whatever reason find themselves on the margins --- of society, of family, of meaningful community. We say this to the chronically ill and disabled, to those who have never been loved as they are meant to be, to the littlest, the least, and the lost.]]

All of this is the reason hermits, at least in the main, give up apostolic ministry. They commit to allowing God to do for them what is promised to everyone, including or maybe especially those who have only God to depend on. What we say to others, is much the same except we try to remind them of how critically important God is to each of us, to what it means to be truly human. Hermits say to each of us that prayer, which is God's work within us, is critical to being human; it is what Love does within us if we are merely able to open ourselves to that. For most hermits I know, there is still some limited active ministry. It flows from their lives of the silence of solitude and leads back to it. As I noted above, for me that includes a bit of teaching, and spiritual direction. Occasionally, I also work with candidates for c 603 profession and consecration for dioceses that consult in this, and I am working on a guidebook to assist dioceses in the process of discernment and formation of c 603 hermits. That is about the limit of what I can do while maintaining my prayer life --- a prayer life that is necessary as much for God's sake and for myself as it is for others.

I don't separate myself from the world exactly. I live within it in the silence of solitude precisely so I can love the world into wholeness. It would be a crucial mistake to think I am not engaged with the world and especially that I am not engaged on its behalf. I agree that this cannot be seen or even easily understood; it is what the catechism refers to as the hiddenness of the eremitical life, but it is real nonetheless. The difficulty of pointing to something I do directly for others is, I think, one of the reasons people insist on identifying intercessory prayer as the heart of the vocation. That too is a very significant part of this vocation, I agree, but more foundational or basic is living the whole of one's life so that God may be God and complete and perfect one as a human being because we are his very own, that God might affirm our lives as meaningful despite limitations and poverty of every sort, or, in other words, that God might be God with and in and through us. Will this spill over and change the face of the world? I can only trust that it will!***

In thinking about this hiddenness, I think it is important to remember c 603 reads stricter separation or withdrawal from the world; it does not read absolute isolation or strictest separation (reclusion) --- though some few may be called to that. World in this canon means, first of all, that which is contrary or resistant to Christ and only secondarily the larger world of God's good creation. The hermit's life involves withdrawal (anachoresis) from both but in differing ways and degrees. I feel called to a life of withdrawal from the world so that I am more capable of loving that same world as Christ loves. I can understand why the hermit life does not make sense to you; I struggled to understand it myself and especially to understand why it was not a selfish way of life. What I have come to know profoundly is that it is an intensely generous life when lived well (and thus, for the right reasons). I hope this is a fair summary of my perspective and the way it differs from your own. Please get back to me if it raises more questions.

**  I hold this despite what St Peter Damian says about this in Letter 28:46. Hermits in a colony are soldiers and their cells are their place of bivouac. I like Peter Damian in some things and I understand this image. It is cogent and has merit but I still dislike the phrase prayer warrior!

***  (I say this because two weeks ago my director shared a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, [[“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”]] We were talking about trusting that the eremitical life (or, in Sister Marietta's case, the apostolic religious life), for all its littleness and limitations in what we can do in the face of such great need, will become a flood that transforms the world. For me, this also recalls the motto of my eremitic life and consecration: "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor 12:9)

Defining Canonical Freedom

[[Sister Laurel, what is canonical freedom?]]

Thanks for the question. You will find a few answers here, including discussions of canonical freedom, so check the labels (canonical freedom, etc.) to the right as well. Simply put, canonical freedom means one is free to undertake the rights and obligations of a public (canonical) commitment. This might be freedom to marry, freedom to make a religious profession or to be consecrated, or freedom to receive or be admitted to certain other sacraments like Orders.

In terms of religious profession and consecration, canonical freedom implies not merely the ability to meet physical, material, and mental standards of the vocation, but more fundamentally, it means the presence of a faith history of having received all the sacraments of initiation and Confirmation, and also the absence of bonds of sacramental marriage or (if one is looking to marry instead) bonds of religious consecration and/or ordination which must be dispensed. If one has been married sacramentally then either the spouse must be deceased, or, if the couple divorced, the Church must have granted a decree of nullity (which says there was never a sacramental bond created in the first place) before one is considered canonically free to undertake another life bond. All of these events are noted in one's Church of Baptism with one's baptismal record and are also recorded in the place where they occurred. A diocese, seminary, or religious congregation will require this record before proceeding with plans to allow one's entrance into any process of discernment or formation and will keep their own personal file for the person applying.

What the Church teaches is that when one makes a whole-hearted commitment of the entirety of one's self and life in marriage, religious life, consecrated virginity, or priesthood, one is no longer free to dispose of oneself in the same way in another state of life. The commitment one makes originally (and subsequently if free to do so) announces that God has called one to become a whole and holy human being through this specific path. It underscores not merely the importance of life commitments but also the significance of the discernment any vocation requires.

Catholic theology regards freedom as the power to be the persons we are called to be. Canonical freedom indicates freedom in law to respond to God's unique call to become whole and holy in, with, and through Him in a particular state of life. If one is not canonically free, one cannot even begin to discern or pursue a given vocational path.  It has taken some centuries for the Church to honor Sacramental marriage appropriately by not allowing married persons to run off to a monastery or hermit cave, for instance, or simply to live as brother and sister while eschewing sexual or marital love, but that is the emphasis today. Today the Church esteems married life and marital love more adequately so canonical freedom cannot so easily be achieved by dispensations instead of the necessary decree of nullity. I sincerely hope this is helpful!

Fruit of "the Accuser": On the Damage done by Anonymous Accusations

[[Dear Sister, I was thinking about the issue of anonymity and accountability and the way not using identifiable names contributes to confusion for readers. Let's say I know you are one of only two or three diocesan hermits in California and I read about a canonical hermit lady in California who is sociopathic, narcissistic, and personality disordered, for example. I would not associate you with the diagnosis and that could lead me to think perhaps the person making the accusation was talking about one of the other one or two hermits. That would hardly be fair to them, nor to me as a reader! 

What if I was considering asking one of you to work with me, either because I desired to become a c 603 hermit, or because I wanted spiritual direction? Or what if I wanted to manage my own disability and thought you had some answers I needed. It could keep me from asking you to work with me because of the uncertainties raised --- and that just might be a crucial misstep in terms of my own vocation! Do you hear what I am trying to explain? When "the Catholic Hermit," "Joyful Hermit," or "the Complete Hermit" or whoever it is is trash-talking some canonical hermit,  and refuses to say who they are by name, particularly when what is being said is inconsistent with what readers know of the person themselves it is uncharitable to them as well as to the hermits being tarred with the same brush. I don't think you have spoken about this aspect of the problem yet, have you?]]

Such a great analysis! My sincerest thanks for raising this perspective!! No, I have not done this myself before, and yes, I absolutely hear and agree with you. I have tried to approach related issues through the discussion of the nature of eremitical hiddenness and the fact that c 603 does not necessarily call for anonymity. I then broadened the answers to some questions I received to a discussion of not just the public and ecclesial nature of the c 603 vocation, but how accountability for those things can be inimical to the practice of anonymity. I probably took some persons' questions in surprising directions, but I still never managed to raise this dimension of the whole problem.

Yet, I certainly felt it! There have been several times when I have been reading something about a c 603 lady hermit writing a blog for x many years and thought, "That sounds like me (right number of years, right state, right sex!" and as I read on, the stuff there was so patently unrecognizable and inapplicable to me, that I dismissed the first thought as impossible. Anonymous accusations can be neither entertained nor responded to adequately, not by the one being referred to (whoever that is!), nor by anyone else. Eventually, people begin to doubt anyone who might be being accused, any group member (in this case, c 603 hermits), and the whole category of hermits comes under a cloud. It may well be that that is part of what the accuser really wants, that they are less concerned with discrete bad acts of a single hermit as they are out to get c 603 itself. The problem is none of this can be known because the accuser has insisted on remaining anonymous (therefore can't even be contacted for clarification), and has extended anonymity (of sorts) to others. In recent weeks one accuser began to post pieces that identified several c 603 hermits. Only a couple were praised for living their hermit lives authentically. This helped me to see that perhaps it is c 603 itself that is the target, but along with almost every c 603 hermit living consecrated eremitical life in the US as well. What had been happening by innuendo has now happened in a more open way. And yet not openly enough!!

Marymount Hermitage, Mesa, ID

Hermits have been easily identifiable by the information provided on Joyful Hermit Speaks. Several folks came to my blog that way and 2 of these asked about the truth. Several others wondered if this section of this or that video might be referring to Sister M Beverly at Marymount Hermitage, Mesa, ID (Diocese of Boise) or to the hermits in Fort Wayne (Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend) and asked if I had any knowledge of them or concern about them myself? (I have written about Marymount Hermitage in the past -- positively -- and have been told by a diocesan hermit I know well and trust implicitly that she personally knew one of these Fort Wayne hermits (Sister Jane Brackenbush), had worked with her in another capacity; this person affirmed that she does have a genuine eremitical vocation and that this was known years ago, but nothing more than that. So yes, writing negatively about someone anonymously (both the writer and the subject of their writing) does an injustice to readers, and to many others besides the person who was the subject of the piece. It causes doubt and confusion, creates hesitancy, and in my book, is sometimes simply dishonest. All of this reminds me of the reasons Satan is identified as "the accuser." Anonymity in all of this serves the demonic.

In your analysis and question, you addressed this from the position of a reader considering contacting one of the people who might or might not be involved in a report where the accused goes unnamed. Your question captured the vast harm that can be done by such practice, and far more effectively than I have done until now! Thanks very much for your question! It is important and one we may need to spend more time with. For instance, should canonical hermits who are mentioned on this blog be named? What about candidates who are seeking canonical standing? Should we at least name their dioceses or is all of this an invasion of privacy? How do we deal with the anonymous accusations being put up by someone on a blog or in their videos? 

A note on the accusations leveled against me: At this point I have to say my diocese has never mentioned the matter of Joyful's calls to them, neither to me nor to my Director. If Joyful ever called the Diocese of Oakland (and I believe she did because it seems she also called the Archdioceses of San Francisco and Detroit thinking I was responsible to my former bishops who had gone to those places as Archbishops) they told Joyful I am a c 603 hermit (meaning I was in good standing) and it sounds like they challenged her to take legal action if she thought she had a case. So, as far as I am concerned, the matter has been closed for five years. If Joyful continues to post on this, well, the matter is still closed insofar as both the Diocese of Oakland and I are concerned.)  Meanwhile, thanks for the challenge you have implicitly set!! I hope others will contribute their thoughts on the matter!

Once Again on c 603 and the Reasons it was Created

[[Hi Sister, why do you say that c 603 was not created to deal with abuses of eremitical life? It seems reasonable to me to create a law to deal with abuses and if there were hermits in the church I bet you there were abuses!]]

Hi there, and thanks for the question. I last referred to this idea in Should Hermit Vocations be Respected? What I said there is: [[. . . the Church chose to make the solitary eremitical vocation a canonical one. She did so because she believed it to be a gift of God to the Church and showed that she esteemed this vocation precisely as a gift of God, not because hermits were giving her problems (in fact, solitary hermits had almost totally ceased to exist in the Western Church; all the Church had to do was to ignore any that remained to ensure that death spiral was completed). Even if this was untrue, one does not give someone canonical standing simply to correct abuses. Besides, without officially recognizing (and thus, esteeming) hermit life in law, what abuses would there be?? A standard or norm must be established in law before there can be abuses.]] 

As you can see, I mainly argued canonical standing primarily had to do with the Church's esteem for the vocation. Remi de Roo had become Bishop Protector of about a dozen hermits who had left their monasteries after long years of solemn profession because their monasteries did not allow for hermit life in proper (i.e., their own congregational) law. There was no canon (universal) law on eremitical life. In the Middle Ages and some later the Western Church had hermits and anchorites and these were mainly regulated by diocesan laws administered under the local Ordinary, however, by the 16th - twentieth centuries, solitary hermits were dying or had mainly died out. (They never died out in the Eastern Church, possibly because hermits were always linked to a monastic community.) This primary reason is rooted in simple historical fact.

The notion that c 603 was created to deal with abuses only makes sense if, 1) there was a universal norm (canon) that defined the normative eremitical life, and 2) the Church was being plagued in some way by numerous canonical hermits or people calling themselves hermits and living in disedifying or destructive ways --- for instance, by preaching heresy or somehow seducing people away from the faith or their ordinary obligations. However, this was not the case. In later centuries, there were almost no or no canonical hermits while heresy was dealt with under existing canons and people who were otherwise problematical were dealt with through normal civic and ecclesiastical channels, not least the Sacrament of Penance.

It is important to ask oneself some basic questions: Without such a norm or canon, who says what is an abuse? Who says what is essential? Who defines what is healthy or witnesses to the values the Church sees as critical for such a way of life? And of course, if there is no official hermit vocation, why would the Church care if some relatively rare "weirdos" lived such an eccentric life so long as their begging, toll management, forestry, wandering, and other activities did not detract from the life of the Church? Yes, some bishops established norms in their own dioceses for local anchorites and hermits, but there was never a canon in universal law before c 603. There was no norm, no defined lifestyle, no set of defining elements, and no paradigm people needed to embrace if they were to be considered an authentic hermit. And there certainly was none that established someone in the consecrated state of life as a hermit.

Paul's insight on the fact that before the law there was no sin holds here too. Before there is a normative canon defining hermit life, there can be no abuses of hermit life. There are just a huge variety of ways of living as an individual, only some of which the Church might consider eremitical if she felt there was a reason to do so. Moreover, one does not consecrate someone who is not living their life well in order to correct the way they are living. That is simply nonsense. It's a little like taking heretics and making them Papal theologians in order to correct their theology. Not a very well thought-out  solution!  The canonist who is reported to have said c 603 originated to deal with abuses seems to have been under the impression that the 1917 Code of Canon Law provided for hermits. Had that been true his explanation might have made sense, but since there was no mention of hermits in the 1917 Code, it does not do so. Can canonical standing provide a way to deal with hermits not living their commitments (once there are such things)? Yes, of course and c 603 does that, but that was not primarily why it was promulgated, nor does it include any mention of sanctions itself.

Anniversary of Eremitic Consecration

 Today is the 17th anniversary of my perpetual eremitical profession and consecration and I am grateful to God for all he has done in and with my life. A dozen years ago I wrote here, [[It was hard to believe that the joy of that day might be eclipsed by greater joy or the life it marked could grow even broader and deeper (though I hoped!!). But that is the truth of things. I thank God for most this amazing day and for all those who today are such an integral part of its deepest meaning. . .]]

In spiritual direction, one image we use to explain a particular and common experience is that of the spiral. When someone thinks they are simply repeating things and are not growing, we may point to the idea of coming around to what seems to be the same point again, and yet, doing so on a deeper level. One traces a spiral's movement in one's growth. Today is like that for me. I celebrated my birthday yesterday with friends from the parish and will celebrate today with my Director. So much is the same as it was last year, or a dozen years ago, and seventeen years ago, and at the same time, everything is different as well. Thus, seventeen years ago at the reception following my consecration, my (then) pastor quoted e e cummings (we both love his work!). Today, for so many reasons it seems even more appropriate:

I thank you God for most this amazing
day, for the leaping greenly spirit of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any --- lifted from the no

of all nothing --- human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Some of all of this is echoed in the slide show from seventeen years ago. As I sat here today and prayed and watched the slide show, I cried and cried! The eyes of my eyes continue to open, the ears of my ears continue to be awakened. That is the promise of the Kingdom! 

My thanks to Michael and Tony for doing both the slide show and the videos of the profession. Amazing gifts I appreciate all the more every year that passes!

Profession and Consecration videos

Heart of the Profession and Consecration is videos 2 and 3.

On Chosing Transparency

[[Dear Sister, it's me again! if someone wanted to live as a more physically hidden hermit than you do, maybe even as an anonymous hermit, would they be able to do that as a diocesan hermit? Would it be wrong to "out" them? I heard someone who is seeking canonical approval say they thought maybe they could do this to raise the falling standards of eremitic life. They said that would include being anonymous because that is a much more humble and hidden way of living the life. I wondered if that would be okay, partly because of what you have written about this vocation being a public one. Do people become hermits to show others how to do it? That just seems like a crazy idea to me --- not that someone shouldn't do their best, but become a hermit to show others how to live this vocation? Nope, that seems crazy to me.]]

Thanks for your questions. Canon 603 hermits write their own Rules of Life and in doing so they are the ones who define how they will live the elements of c 603. If a diocesan hermit wants to live a very strict hiddenness, if she believes this is what God is calling her to, she would make that clear in the Rule she submits for approval. The diocese would need to read and "vet" this Rule to see if it is truly liveable and consistent. If the life it describes seems unbalanced, for example, the formation team might ask the hermit to change that in some way; they will certainly pay attention to whether or not the person is capable of living a healthy eremitical life that is both in touch with, and capable of truly speaking to, the contemporary world. What you describe in the second part of your question is a known phenomenon with some folks entering religious life, but it doesn't really work there as a reason to enter, nor would it work with c 603.

Anyone who has been in religious life is apt to know someone who entered the community with the sense that they are going to change things. Usually, these are young adults "feeling their wheaties" (so to speak) after having been to college and/or graduate school and being stuffed full of new ideas on what community life should be and not be, how liturgy is to be celebrated, styles of leadership that are preferred, and any number of other things theological or spiritual. On the other hand, some may enter with the thought that they will single-handedly drag the community back to the "more traditional" way of life, their eyes fixed too exclusively on centuries past. 

Ordinarily, the candidate and then the novice (this happens especially during novitiate!!) comes to find out how little she has understood from the outside, how much she has to learn from those who have lived and sometimes struggled with the tension between contemporary life and tradition while listening deeply to the voice of God in the present, and how truly transparent a life of prayer requires one to be. Some of these folks make significant adjustments and do very well. Others find the learning curve too steep and leave after a relatively short time in formation because they lack the humility, flexibility, or docility the vocation requires. Should someone really try becoming a diocesan hermit to show others how to live as a "real hermit," I personally doubt any diocese would accept them, not least because the person would not be able to enter whole-heartedly into a substantive discernment/formation process. If anonymity is part of what they are trying to show others constitutes the "real hermit" way, the motive could be far removed from true humility!! Dioceses know how to look for motives and what drives the person to petition as they have.

You see, with c 603 life, the situation is somewhat different for at least three reasons: 1) the canon is not written in absolutes but, at least in certain ways, in relative terms (for instance, stricter separation from the world is not absolute separation from the world, nor does it refer first of all to the material world that is God's good creation); further, therefore, the terms of the canon don't usually have a single or univocal meaning, instead they embody not only differences but varying depths and degrees of meaning; 2) the vocation is a solitary one, not meant for a community of hermits; elements of the canon will be conditioned by the person's own history (and vice versa!), and 3) The Holy Spirit works with each hermit to inspire them in the way God wills. Since the hermit reveals the heart of the Church to the Church and the world, each hermit may do this in a different way to be effective. What is lifegiving and a means to genuine freedom for one hermit may not work well for another hermit. N.B., these points also provide the reasons the Church asks each diocesan hermit to write her own Rule of Life. At the same time they are implied in the church's position on c 603 vocations not being allowed to create a religious community of c 603 hermits while allowing them to come together in a laura that respects each hermit's own Rule of Life and individual eremitical path. 

The question regarding anonymity is one I have written about just lately so please check recent posts for more than I provide here. Yes, a diocesan hermit can remain hidden and very strictly so, however, if she should try to maintain a public presence of sorts (like I do with this blog), she will be required to provide a name and the diocese that professed and is responsible (or to whom she is accountable) for her hermit life. She is accountable not just to her diocesan leadership, but to the entire People of God for what she writes and says as a diocesan hermit -- so long as she claims publicly to be this. The choice is either to remain entirely hidden and anonymous or to claim one's identity fully and openly because this is a public vocation and folks touched by this life have a right to know who this supposed "Catholic Hermit" is. I'm not sure what you are imagining when you speak of "outing" someone, but I can imagine situations where someone is aware of the identity of a person who claims to be a Catholic Hermit and who might be obliged to provide at least the name of the hermit's Diocese so long as she is insisting on remaining anonymous. Of course, one would speak directly to the hermit before doing that!

As I have already noted then, this has to do with accountability for the vocation.  If one wishes to participate online, for instance, and does so while identifying herself as a consecrated Catholic Hermit, then she cannot remain anonymous. If one identifies oneself as a diocesan hermit, for instance, or desires to legitimately call oneself a Catholic Hermit, one is also obliged to identify oneself sufficiently to be accountable for the vocation and to the people to whom one is ministering because she ministers in the name of the Church. Anonymity and the public claiming of a consecrated ecclesial vocation cannot be exercised simultaneously. To the degree one makes such claims, one must be open about one's canonical identity.

 Speaking to parish at Mass during pandemic

There is a risk in this, of course, but those of us who maintain a public presence as diocesan hermits have weighed the costs and found them worthwhile in being true to our vocations,  to the Church who consecrated us, and the God who calls us to this life. For instance, five years ago a person writing under the Catholic Hermit designation (Joyful Hermit's profile and blog list) called my diocese and accused me of crimes. Her call was handed around to several people who neither knew me nor knew of me and then, she apparently received a return call informing her that I was indeed a diocesan hermit in good standing and if she really felt she had a case against me, she should take me to court. (The diocese is not responsible for me in those terms,*** but I also believe they knew Joyful had no true grounds for legal action.)  

I first read about this situation (and more as you will see!) in one of Joyful's blog articles. Here is one place that occurred (I am not sure now if it was the first place I read this in Joyful's blog but it is a main one.) I apologize for the ugliness of the speculation in this citation. A link is provided in case there is a concern I have twisted what Joyful actually said, or quoted her incompletely or out of context.

But I have not met anyone as persistently evil. hateful, and miscreant as this one who by trickery got me to email her over 16 years ago, and who since has been a nasty, derisive, and detracting, public voice ever since. We have so much not in common, sadly, but that could shift if not for the devils' influence, and a sickness of pride, presumption, and envy that has known no ceasing for over 16 years. No amount of prayers or various techniques offered to psychologically or spiritually get an alliance with her, for there is evil and hate in that person, a particular animus against me that has settled in the person. Her main beef seems my writing as a Catholic hermit, of which I am, of course. But she has a need to be superior, seems to resent competition of another Catholic hermit writing, or so say others who have observed this unChristian situation over the years.

But as had been my lived experience, Catholics tend not to stand up against such type of evil as they fear the devil to turn on them as well. Even her Vicar General who her Bishop's office (said they had never heard of her as a canonical hermit in their diocese!) did not want to intervene, not even find out who she is and guide her to not dox nor harass me using internet, given they are penal codes in her state. They suggested I take civil legal action against her.... So much for diocese hermits being directed and supervised by their bishops (or as she has added, by a "designee" and not needing to be a priest....

If not for the Catholic and hermit reality, I still think this person who represents so many Catholics, especially women, would continue the ugliness regardless, as long as I keep writing, for she uses what I write as her foil often enough, as her fodder to come up with a platform to "preach" and try to be "someone with status," thus her inventing precedents and giving herself impetus and note to what ought to be a hidden life of a hermit. So she puts me down publicly in order to try to build up what seems a spiritual emptiness, or a lack of inner security or healthy love of how God created her, or whatever issues going on--perhaps envy that I am heterosexual and have had a family, that I am educated with higher degrees, or that I'm a persecuted, suffering mystic and victim soul.  (Seeking Kind Catholics) 

Joyful (who has never met me personally, nor contacted me directly about her 16+ years' worth of concerns with me) is still telling that story about my diocese disavowing me, not only on her more recent blog (cf above link) but in her recent videos on Joyful Hermit Speaks, though without making clear the diocese's clarification that they do know me. (For example, Having Trouble, Moving On (cf, 20:51ff, but the whole video gives context.) Originally, it seems to me she wanted to call my credibility into question; most recently she has used the story to call into question the wisdom of c 603 and the fidelity of responsible bishops. I find (and, for a number of years, have found) the situation irritating, occasionally infuriating, and almost always deeply perplexing because of the groundless speculations that are thrown up as truth. At the same time, I have chosen to be present online in a transparent way and that means that, unfortunately, my diocese may occasionally get a phone call from someone like Joyful Hermit. That is the choice I made in identifying myself online as a Diocesan Hermit of and for the Diocese of Oakland, and as I look back at the past 17 years and the good that has come from them and as I move toward the anniversary of my consecration on 02. September, I would say that even in light of these kinds of personal attacks, my decision was a good one, and I am grateful to God for the way God has led me!

*** As noted before, on the day of her consecration (the day of her perpetual profession,) a diocesan hermit signs a waiver of liability so that should she leave the consecrated state she cannot sue the diocese for past wages, etc. As I have said before, I suppose that this waiver could also cover things like bail and fines, etc should a hermit get into legal trouble, but it is not primarily about that.

Looking Back and Ahead with Vocation Questions: What God Has Done and is Doing With My Life

This week I am looking back to a kind of summing up of who I am and why, and I am looking forward to the combined anniversaries of my birthday and my hermit consecration on Sept 1st and 2nd respectively. As a central piece of this, I spent time this last weekend answering questions about eremitical life, not from those who read and contribute their queries to this blog, but from Our Sunday Visitor's "Fall Vocations Guide". I was asked to do the section on the (solitary) canonical eremitical vocation. The editor who contacted me asked some really good questions, not only why and how I came to this vocation, but what I wanted people to know about it, what advice I might give to someone interested in the calling, what my days look like, and am I lonely?

The timing of this request was what my director and I call "sacrednicity", something I have shared here before. Not only was I given the chance to consider the whole of my life and the way God brought me to this vocation and supported my perseverance in it, but in saying directly what I wanted people to know about this calling I got in touch with why I am passionate about it, why, when someone misrepresents it or simply trash talks it without real understanding, it bothers me so much. Much more importantly though, I got freshly in touch with my sense of why God called me to this vocation and why I have chosen to write about c 603 even while some online characters treated this as an unhealthy obsession and advised me to write about "more spiritual things"!! 

The truth is, this supposed obsession, has been something of a vocation within a vocation; God called me to it, I think there is no doubt about that. It is part of the way my solitary eremitism benefits the Church, and part of the way I fulfill the commission extended to me at my consecration, namely, to carry on the ministry God has entrusted to me as a solitary hermit. Answering the questions this editor put to me got me in touch with all of this and I am grateful to God for that. I will continue to be grateful for this even if they don't use half of what I have written!! 

And, because it is highly unlikely they will be able to use even half of what I wrote, I am posting the questions and answers here, just as I might for any other questions I receive from readers. I sincerely hope you all will find the answers helpful or at least interesting in some way. I doubt regular readers will be surprised, but neither do I think I have written responses to these precise questions before.

1) What is a solitary canonical hermit? 

A hermit is, by definition, a desert dweller, one who lives a life of the silence of solitude and persevering prayer and penance in stricter withdrawal from the world (that is, that which is resistant to Christ) so that she might encounter and entrust herself entirely to the Love that is God. A solitary canonical hermit is one who has been entrusted with this vocation by the Church for the sake of others and their own encounter with God and the Gospel of God in Christ. The Church has discerned this vocation with her, professed and consecrated her, in the conviction that this call is not only the way she will mature and thrive as a human being, but also effectively proclaim the Gospel to others as she is now commissioned to do in the Church's name.

The solitary canonical (or diocesan) hermit makes public vows of the Evangelical Counsels, writes her own (liveable) Rule of Life rooted in her lived experience and understanding of c 603, and lives this life under the supervision of her bishop and/or the delegate she selects to help accompany her in this journey.

2) What led me to become a solitary canonical hermit?

First, I am a convert to Catholicism and was baptized the Summer after high school graduation. I began working with the Sisters of Social Service at the same time and felt called to religious life. I entered the Franciscans where, though I had expected to teach, I became a phlebotomist in a clinical lab. Unfortunately, despite this background and later undergraduate and graduate education in systematic theology, I was required to leave religious life and was unable to teach as I had been prepared to do because I developed an adult-onset seizure disorder that proved both medically and surgically intractable. This was complicated by a diagnosis of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. In early 1984, not too long after beginning to work with my current spiritual director I read c 603 in the newly Revised Code of Canon Law and had the deep sense that perhaps this could provide a context that would make sense of my entire life, both gifts and limitations.  As Paul writes to the Colossians, I had the sense that in Christ via this way of life and canon 603, everything, including chronic illness and disability which are themselves desert experiences --- could cohere or hold together in a meaningful way! 

But of course, that sense was not yet a well-discerned vocation! I began living as a hermit, studying about it, and eventually even discovered it was driving my writing (e.g., an article for Review for Religious on "Chronic Illness and Disability as Vocation” ---  and potentially an Eremitical Vocation) I petitioned my diocese to be professed under c 603, but, after several years meeting with the Vicar for Religious, it turned out that the current bishop, like many bishops in the country and world, had decided not to profess anyone under c 603 for the foreseeable future. It was too new, too little understood, and often seen as not a genuine vocation anyway. And yet, it was the means to a profoundly coherent and meaningful life for me!

And so, I decided to continue living as a non-canonical or lay hermit. It was the way of life in which my vows were reshaped with a new vitality and poignancy, my experience of celibacy matured into a nuptial relationship with Christ, my contemplative prayer life deepened, and, despite still being non-canonical, I began to perceive c 603 as incredibly beautiful and valuable in the way it combined essential elements and the hermit's experience and freedom to shape the life according to the way God worked in her life. This combination of non-negotiable elements and inspired flexibility allowed the canon to define an eremitical life that avoids the pitfalls of individualism and made it a supremely countercultural vocation that can speak profoundly to our contemporary world. Given my background in theology as well as my own disability and insight into that as a desert vocation, I came to realize I had something to offer the Church in terms of solitary eremitical life lived under this canon. Thus, before the bishop retired in 2003, I renewed my petition to be admitted to profession. Four years later and after Bishop Allen Vigneron had replaced Bp John Cummins, on September 2, 2007 I was admitted to perpetual profession and consecration as a diocesan hermit. From the day I knocked on the chancery door, so to speak, until the day I was consecrated took 23 years. I was 35 or 36 when I began this journey and 58 when I was consecrated. And yet, the adventure was just beginning. 

The last 17 years have been marked by continuing growth, intense inner work, a spiritual direction practice, life in a parish community as a pastoral assistant who led Communion services in the absence of a priest and still teaches Scripture, a small but gradually more influential blog dedicated to exploring c 603 life, the deepening of all of the insights that led me to this vocation in the first place, and the development of a process of discernment and formation designed for candidates and their diocesan formation teams to assist them to understand, appreciate, and implement c 603 wisely and effectively. At every point my life with God has deepened, my sense that this is the way he has called me to become fully human (our fundamental vocation!) and to proclaim the Gospel has been reaffirmed. There was no one point when I knew this was my vocation; instead, there have been many of them.

3) What do I want people most to know about this vocation?

I suppose I want people to know that this is a genuine, public and ecclesial, vocation and is motivated by love, not by escapism, hatred for God's good creation, or isolation and alienation. I would like them to know that stereotypes, misanthropes, and nut-cases need not apply to any diocese for admission to this vocation (though some persons with some forms of mental illness might do well in it).  I want people to understand (and I especially want bishops to understand this!) that solitary eremitical life is a gift of God to the Church and world; it is both deeply conservative and radically charismatic, and is not to be used as a stopgap means to profess some problem child without such a vocation. I especially want these same people to know that this vocation says to the marginalized, to the chronically ill, the disabled, and otherwise isolated, that eremitical solitude represents the redemption of isolation and alienation. Eremitical solitude is about being alone with God for God's sake, for the sake of one's own wholeness, and for the sake of others --- in a way that gives hope and promises a full and meaningful life --- so long as one is truly called to this!!

4) What does your day look like?

Each day is mainly divided into three parts with a period of quiet (contemplative) prayer in the morning and evening, and often one in the middle of the night as well. Those periods tend to be accompanied by some lectio and some writing.

Mornings, from rising at 4:00 or 5:00 to about 11:00 am also involves a period of vigil, journaling, morning prayer and either the daily Scriptures and Communion, or daily Mass. Occasionally (@ every other week) I will meet with a client in the late morning. Thursdays I teach Scripture.

Afternoons (from @ 1:00 pm and after lunch) are given over to different activities including household chores or shopping, clients, appointments outside the hermitage, study or writing, and sometimes additional sleep. This is the most variable and flexible part of my day when I catch up on what is most needed.

Evenings (after dinner) include a brief walk or some in-home exercise, evening prayer, study, class prep, or writing (including blogging), an occasional client or quiet prayer, and night prayer.

Nights: Bed at @10:15 or 11:00. Often, I am up in the middle of the night because of pain. I may spend time doing some chores and will do a shorter period of quiet prayer before returning to bed.

5) How often do I interact with people? Am I lonely?

I see people every Sunday for Mass, and I teach Scripture every Thursday morning via ZOOM so that too involves interaction. I meet for spiritual direction most Fridays, a very profound form of interaction, and I tend to meet with several of my own clients (also via ZOOM) once every couple of weeks or once a month. I meet with one client weekly and often get together with a small group of parish daily Mass participants for coffee on Friday mornings. I also get together with fellow diocesan hermits for book discussions or other conversations and consultations about once a month or so. Generally, that is about it.

Am I lonely? I have heard folks say or write hermits are never lonely, and there is a sense in which that is true since God is always present and so are those to whom one is linked in God by bonds of love. But loneliness is also something we experience because we are called to share our lives and in this sense, yes, I am sometimes lonely. I may read something I would love someone to hear, or experience something in prayer I long to share. I may desire a closer relationship with God or need God's comfort or assistance, or I might want the same from a friend. I think that too is called loneliness. I used to say I don't feel a malignant kind of loneliness where every tendril of what one feels seeps into and distorts everything else with its emptiness, darkness, and fear. In the main, except during occasions of deep inner work, I never feel that kind of loneliness, but the loneliness that says I am made for the fullness of love, for both giving and receiving love, yes, that kind of loneliness I feel often.

6) Was figuring out finances and health insurance difficult?  

Dioceses do not materially support diocesan hermits in any way, and it is important for people to realize that. For most hermits, these are truly fraught issues, but they have not been in my situation. Because I am disabled, I qualify for both financial assistance and (Medicaid) health insurance. I also have qualified for Section 8 housing assistance. Some things remain problematic. What to do about final expenses? Because I receive assistance, I cannot save up sufficiently to take care of something like that. (I receive about $1200 a month, and as soon as I save more than $2000 (no matter if I save it out of the money I qualify for or not), it must be paid back dollar per dollar to the government (or simply spent down below the $2000 limit) since, I was told, this ability to save suggests I don't really need the money I have not spent!) Similarly, I tend not to be able to pay for an annual retreat or programs that would enrich my spiritual life, and I find that difficult. Even so, no, I have not had the same financial difficulties most c 603 hermits have. 

7) How would I describe the central purpose or mission of the canonical hermit in the Church and in the world?

Some of this has been captured in the section on what I want others to know about this vocation, I think. Still, it seems to me that the mission of the c 603 hermit is to remind us all that we are completed and made whole and holy by God. We are incomplete without God and our lives will not be truly human unless we are in a vital relationship with God --- and when we are, well, WATCH OUT, for then life and meaning will explode within us and everyone will know it!

Part of this message is the witness we give to the possibility of every person living joyful and fruitful lives despite all of the various forms of poverty we also know well. Hermits do not go out much to proclaim the Gospel as do apostolic Religious; instead, we are called into the hermitage to become the very message we witness to and proclaim. Some like to say the hermit lives in the heart of the Church; I have begun to say the hermit reveals the Church's heart to both the Church and the world.

8) What advice do you have for those considering this vocation?

First, I would remind them that the church considers this a second half of life vocation. If one is a young adult, I would encourage them to consider entering an eremitical community where they can get the education and religious and personal formation necessary for this life. Secondly, I would remind them not to expect a diocese to make one into a hermit. Only God with our cooperation, the accompaniment of a good spiritual director, and perhaps some mentoring from another hermit can do that.  If this does not discourage you but you find yourself intrigued and even excited by the image of c 603 life I have drawn here, then find a good spiritual director and begin doing all you can to learn about and experiment with life with God in the silence of solitude! Pray, read, study, consult, and do it all again and again (cf the accompanying picture!)!  If you are chronically ill or disabled, remember that not all dioceses will accept you for consecration or even a mutual discernment process; many still need to learn that illness itself is a desert experience that can sometimes predispose one to an eremitic vocation. If this is you, I encourage you to try and keep trying so long as you thrive in an eremitical setting. In time you may educate your diocese on this unique desert call. Many c 603 hermits today live with chronic illness and disability. As a result, they witness with a special vividness to the power, peace, and good news of God’s love lived in the silence of solitude.

Dealing With Chronic Illness as a Hermit

Because a couple of people have already asked about this because of my last post, I am reprising it now. 

[[Dear Sister, you have written you have chronic illness with chronic pain. I was wondering if that gets in the way of living of living eremitical life. For example, if you have a bad spell or relapse or something what happens to your Rule? Have you ever had to deal with long-term hospitalization or surgical rehabilitation? Did that change the way you prayed?. . . Do you ever feel like a failure as a hermit or contemplative?. . . Do you ever worry that God will not be able to put up with your weaknesses or failures (or falling short)? . . . I wonder if you would ever consider seeking dispensation of your vows for any of these reasons.]]

Interesting questions. I think I have answered something like this before but I looked for it and couldn't find it. You might want to check through the list of posts (under months and years) or the labels to the right and see if you can do better. Still, let me answer this briefly. Neither illness nor the chronic pain get in the way of my eremitical life per se. Both have led me over time to consider chronic illness as a potential vocation with eremitical life as a specific instance of this. (Remember that eremitical life is a desert life with a desert spirituality and chronic illness is, by definition, a desert experience.) However, there are certainly times when there are flares of illness and when pain is more difficult to control than other times. When this is the case my horarium changes, I spend more time in bed, I am unable to do some of the limited ministry I usually undertake, I tend not to study or sing as much, and my reading choices change. What does not change is my approach to the day as one sanctified by God through prayer at intervals throughout the day, some lectio divina, and some inner work via journaling or other writing.

While morally and canonically binding, my Rule is written more in terms of gospel and less in those of law. What I mean by this is that it lays out the ways I live the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the source and ground of life, love, and meaning for me, and it does this less than it spells out things I must or must not do. It defines what makes my life healthy and whole as a contemplative and eremitical life. But in times where I am not well or where chronic illness flares up especially, I will not be able to live this without modifications. Yes, at these times the ways in which I pray will likely differ in one way and another. For instance, rather than praying the whole of any hour of the Office I am more apt to pray a single psalm with antiphons, the Lord's Prayer and a canticle, but slowly while letting myself rest in God's hands. If I miss an hour I miss an hour. When I am awake or up again I pick up what seems most important to me --- the part that draws me most, for instance or the piece missed where I am most truly at home. Sometimes I will substitute a hymn on CD or a Taize chant for structured prayer/Office and just give myself over to the music. If I miss lots of prayer periods (and unfortunately this is sometimes unavoidable), I trust that "God gives to his beloved in sleep" (Psalm 127:2) and pick up wherever I can with whatever I most need once I am awake (whether prayer, food, water, shower, sunshine, contact with my director, etc). I think during times of flareups or extra difficulties it is critically important to keep in mind the difference between "praying all the prayers" and "praying always."

My Rule is helpful in letting me move back into various rhythms of the day as I can, but even more it is helpful in reminding me of the vision I seek to live whether well or ill, namely, "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness." I know that God is with me in every circumstance including sin and death! God accompanies me whether I am conscious of that or  capable of cooperating with him or not. So long as that is the case every moment of my life, from chronic pain, to intractable seizures and post ictal sleep, to the emotional pain and joy of inner work, to the favorite or latest Chaim Potok or Anne Perry book, can become a prayer and a source of growth in holiness. Again, prayer is the work of God within us. As for God giving up on me or some other absurd notion that somehow or other I could exhaust his patience, love, mercy, or will to accompany me well, that's the same as suggesting that my weakness might be too much for God to be the God Christ revealed! Whenever I am even tempted to give up on God in this way (not something that has happened often!), I remind myself of the following from Paul, [[ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.]] (Rom 5:8) In other words, when we are at our worst God loves us and gives his very life for us.

I don't feel (and have never felt) like a failure as a hermit or contemplative but I (like anyone else I imagine) always fall short in the sense that I can always grow in my vocation/authentic humanity and prayer. Again, my Rule (and the God and Gospel that inspires it) envisions and helps empower my growth in this vocation and in communion with God and love of myself and others. Sometimes I will fail at a given task (for instance, a reflection I am supposed to give, inability to meet with a client and need to postpone sessions, etc), and sometimes I will resist what is happening in prayer or the personal formation work I am doing, but while I find these failures frustrating, this is not the same as failing as either a contemplative or a hermit. When physical pain is a problem I treat it in the ways I can (medicine, TENS, exercise, meditation) and I do what I need to do while meds are kicking in (online scrabble, coloring or painting, walking around, . . ., reading an engrossing novel, etc***) --- things which are engrossing and distract from the pain while ensuring I give the meds a complete chance to work as they usually do. I ordinarily cannot sit in quiet prayer at these times because I really cannot be physically still in the way that requires. Even so, whatever I do to get through these periods, I pray and entrust myself to God's care as I wait. 

There are periods when illness dominates (and yes, I have had periods of hospitalization that extended for weeks or even several months at a time including a period of (7) experimental neurosurgical interventions --- this latter [took place] about 8 years before I became a hermit). On the whole, the essential elements of my Rule remain in some form or configuration. Were I to be unable to live major dimensions of my Rule for a significant period I would need to redact these to account for necessary changes while ensuring it remains an eremitical Rule with the same vision of such a life. (Since my Rule is drawn from my own experience it could change on the basis of my own experience --- though my vision of the nature and importance of eremitical life according to canon 603 is very unlikely to change radically; I just can't see that happening, especially because of illness/pain.)

Dispensation of vows would be unlikely to come up as an issue or option, and certainly is not something I can see myself requesting! (More likely the question of a change of vocation would come up at the beginning of a hermit's professed life, especially if there is a radical change in circumstances occurring before they have developed the heart and prayer life of a hermit.) Once these are formed, however, and the hermit has been admitted to perpetual profession and consecration, dispensation is much less likely to be something that will be considered because of illness. It is possible, however, that significant illness can reveal an eremitical life that is inadequately formed and rooted in the first place. Suffering is a wonderful test of the foundation of our lives and spirituality! At this point in my life, however, I am a hermit; it is a matter of my deepest inner truth as well as outer expression and even canonical standing; this means that I have and will always live illness and pain as challenging but integral parts of eremitical life. I think all the hermits I know, but especially those with chronic illnesses, feel essentially the same way about this.

*** (Note: this past year (2023-24 I have been experimenting with a Kailo (TM) patch a parishioner gave me. It has been very effective for some neuropathic pain and I have been able to reduce some meds by at least 50%! This means I can do quiet prayer more easily while up from pain.)

Sister Laurel, Whom Does it Hurt? (Reprise)

I am reprising this because it is a post people have looked at a number of times during the course of this week. Since there is apparent interest, I am moving it to the " top of the queue," so to speak. 

[[Dear Sister Laurel, why does it bother you so much if someone who is Catholic wants to live like a hermit and is not consecrated by the Church wants to call themselves a Catholic Hermit? I'm sure some people don't know that the term is a technical one or that canon law applies to the use of the term Catholic in this sort of thing. And so what? Why not let people just do as they wish? Who does it hurt anyway? I think you are hung up on this and need to let it go --- after all, really what does it matter in the grand scheme of things except for those who, like you, seem to be hung up on minutiae? (I'm betting you won't post this question but thanks for answering it if you do!)]]

Thanks for your questions. Almost everything I write about on this blog, whether it has to do with the commitments made by the hermit, the canon(s) governing her life, approaches to writing a Rule of Life, the rights, obligations, and expectations associated with her vocation, the nature and significance of ecclesial vocations like this one, the nature of authentic humanity and the witness value of the hermit's life, the hope she is called to mediate to those who live lives marginalized by chronic illness and disability, the discernment and formation associated with the vocation, or the importance of elders and mentors in her life (and other topics) --- all of this speaks either explicitly or implicitly to the meaning and importance of the much more than technical term Catholic Hermit. That said, some posts will deal with your questions as central to understanding this specific eremitical vocation. These will most often be found under the labels:  ecclesial vocation(s),  silence of solitude as charism,  and rights and obligations of canon 603 vocations (and variations thereof). Since I cannot reprise everything written in the past 14 years of blogging on these topics, I would suggest you read or reread some of those posts.

Let me point out that it may well be that in our country and even in our world today the truth doesn't much matter and individualism is the way of life most value. Similarly, it may well be that liberty has edged out genuine freedom in such a world and generosity been supplanted by a "me first", "win at any cost" philosophy and corresponding set of values. Similarly, our world seems to have forgotten that what some decry as "socialism" today was identified in the New Testament's Acts of the Apostles as the only true shape of  community in the new Family (or Kingdom) of God in Christ.  (cf Acts 2:44-45) Christianity has never truly been the most popular or pervasive way of living in our world --- even when most folks went by the name "Christian"; still, Christianity is built on truth and this truth leads to a responsible freedom marked by generosity and humble (lovingly truthful) service to others. Countercultural as that may be the place which stands right at the point of sharpest conflict with the values of the contemporary world is the life of the canonical (consecrated) hermit.

The hermit's life is both most easily misunderstood and most easily distorted in living. The freedom of the hermit can slide into a selfish libertinism, its individuality can devolve into a "me first" individualism, and its lack of an active apostolic ministry can be mistaken quite easily for selfishness and a refusal to serve others. Those who neither understand the nature of the life, nor the Church's role in ensuring that these distortions do not occur will ask the kinds of questions you pose in your query. They are not the folks I generally write about -- though their ignorance of this calling can be problematical.  Others who are equally ignorant of the distinctions which stand between world and Kingdom of God will valorize their own selfish individualism with the name "hermit" and some of these will, even when initial ignorance has been corrected, insist on calling themselves "Catholic Hermits" despite never having been called by the Church to live this life in her name, and despite being unprepared and sometimes unwilling to accept the rights and obligations incumbent upon someone petitioning the Church for admission to public profession and consecration. It is these I call counterfeit or even fraudulent for they have taken ignorance and raised it to the level of lie.

Whom Does it Hurt?

Whom does it hurt? First of all it hurts the vocation itself. There is no more stark example of the truth of the way God relates to human beings than when a hermit stands face to face with God in the solitude of her cell and praises God for her life, her call to holiness, the challenge to love ever more deeply, and consents to be a witness to a God who desires to be everything for us because (he) values us beyond all imagining. It is even more striking because she says this is true no matter how poor, how broken or wounded, how sinful or shamed, and how seemingly unproductive her life is in a world marked by consumerism and an exaggerated focus on productivity --- a world which very much values the opposite of all of these and considers the hermit to be "nothing" and "a waste of skin". In Christ, the hermit stands before God consenting to be the imago dei she was made to be, entirely transparent to God's truth, beauty, and love and says with her life that this is the common call of every person. Quite a precious witness!

For someone to call themselves a Catholic Hermit when the Church herself has not discerned or admitted her to a public eremitical commitment is to strip away the humble commitment to the truth which is meant to be part of the vocation's foundation and to insert self-definition and self-centeredness in its place. Those who look to this person as an example of the Church's vision of eremitical life may find  that rather than a "Catholic Hermit" they are faced instead with the validation of  many of the same distortions and stereotypes plaguing eremitical life throughout the centuries. 

What they will not find is a person who humbly accepts her poverty before God insofar as this means accepting the vocation to which one is truly called. Lay eremitical life is profoundly meaningful and important in the life of the church; it should be honestly embraced in that way. A secondary result can be that the Church herself (in individual dioceses) will refuse to consider professing diocesan hermits at all; the vocation is a rare one with, relatively speaking, very few authentic examples; fraudulent "hermits" who represent distortions, stereotypes, and caricatures (as well as sometimes being nutcases and liars) unfortunately can serve to cast doubt on the entire vocation leading to dioceses refusing to give those seeking profession any real hearing at all.

Secondly, it hurts those who most need the witness of this specific vocation, namely those who for whatever reason find themselves unable to compete with the world on its own terms: the chronically ill, disabled, and otherwise marginalized who may believe the world's hype that wealth is measured in terms of goods and social status, able-bodiedness, youth, productivity, and so forth.  Hermits say to these people that they are valued beyond all reckoning by a God who knows them inside out. Hermits say to these people that real wealth is measured in terms of love and that one of the most precious symbols of Christianity is that of treasure contained in clay pots, while real strength is perfected and most fully revealed in weakness. To attempt to witness to the truth of the Gospel by living a lie and building it into the foundation of one's eremitical life destroys the capacity of the hermit to witness effectively to these truths. To proclaim the fundamental truth that in Christianity real treasure is contained in clay pots is made impossible if one refuses to be the pot one has been made by the potter to be (a lay hermit, for instance) but claims instead to be something else (e.g., a consecrated Catholic Hermit).

Thirdly, it hurts the one doing the lying or misrepresentation, especially if she actually comes to believe her own lies. In this way her capacity for truth, humility, generosity, and gratitude are all equally injured --- and thus too, her own authenticity as a human being. We cannot image God as we are called if we cannot accept ourselves or the vocation to which he calls us. And finally, it hurts the Church herself who is responsible for all that goes on "in her name" and for commissioning those who live eremitical life in this way.

As part of this injury to the Church, it may hurt anyone who is influenced by the fraudulent "Catholic Hermit" in her lies and misrepresentations. Sometimes this happens because the person follows the directions the counterfeit gives to "become a Catholic Hermit" and then, after spending time following this advice and building hopes on a false dream or pathway to realize their dream, is confronted by one's parish or diocese with the truth of the matter. Terrible damage can be done in this way just as it is done to those who are scandalized by the disedifying example of "hermits" who embody all the worst stereotypes associated with eremitical life, whether canonical or non-canonical. Unfortunately, the individual fraudulent "Catholic Hermit" is ordinarily not held nearly as responsible as the Church is in such cases so the damage or injury can be far-reaching and relatively ungovernable.

Summary:

I am bothered by all of this because I see the value in eremitical life, most particularly as it stands as a witness against the distorted notions of humanity and community so prevalent in today's world. I am bothered by this because I am committed to live this vocation well for the sake of others,  but especially for the sake of God and God's Church who is the steward of this vocation. I care so much because I have come to know how important this vocation is --- especially as a countercultural witness to the nature of authentic human existence and all the things the world puts up as values today. Finally, I care because God has called me to care, and to embody this caring in my own living, witnessing, teaching, mentoring, direction, and prayer. I care because the truth matters and because God and God's Church care even as they commissioned me to do so as well. 

You may consider this a personal "hang up" of mine. That's not a problem and you are free to your opinion, but if you wish me to "let it go," I would note that I am responding to your questions here, and your questions prompt me to think about and even research it further --- not the best way to get me to let go of something! You also used the term minutia, and I would ask you to consider what portions of my response deal with minutia; I don't see anything in all of this that is not significant in many ways for many, many, people and the witness of the Church as a whole. My answer to the question, [[Whom does it hurt?]] would have to be anyone such dishonesty or fraud touches, even if they are not aware of it at the time. The Church is to minister truly and to assist others to live the truth of their deepest selves in Christ. That is made much more difficult when fraud and dishonesty are enacted or purported to be enacted in the name of that same Church. In a world hungry for truth, no one, I would argue, is untouched by this.