WE ARE HERMITS, NOT A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

At times others will question if we have new members yet; or, they will pray for more people to come. And, certainly, we are opened to discerning with other hermits of similar spirituality, a call to our MOME Hermitage property. In fact we have two hermits discerning with us right now. But that being shared, we are not a Religious Community.

DIFFERENT FORMS OF CONSECRATED LIFE
Many Catholics are not aware of the various forms of consecrated life within the Church. They see big religious communities as the only way. When, in fact, the Father of Monasticism, St. Anthony of the Desert (251-356), was a hermit. In the early centuries of the Church, many who felt called to give their lives to God in a special way became hermits. Some hermits remained in small groups, lauras, which MOME Hermits are living; others went off alone. Eventually Cenobitic (Monastic/Religious) Communities developed.

The difference between Religious Communities (Cenobitic) and Hermits is that Religious Communities will have a greater communal structure. For instance, they will often all eat together, pray together, recreate together. Whereas, hermits will often pray and eat on their own, not following a daily communal structure, but still having a personal horarium and structure to their day, which can allow for greater silence, solitude and prayer. 

CANONICAL HERMITS "RARE BREED"
Canonical Hermits are a "rare breed." Most hermits have belonged to larger religious communities before being called to the more eremitical life. And, this is a good thing, because it allows one to be formed in the religious life, and tested and tried in the communal life to determine if one is fit, and will have the discipline, for a life of greater solitude, silence and prayer. The majority of people called to the consecrated life are called to Religious Communities rather than Canon 603 Hermit life.

Some today can hear the word hermit and think of a recluse in the woods who doesn’t like people, or has had a hard time in life and wants to escape reality and responsibility; when in fact the opposite is true. An authentic calling to the eremitical life is for one to have a burning love for God as Spouse, and for all of humanity as spiritual children, and within this to have a desire to be a “living sacrifice.” As Abba Joseph, an early desert father, explains it, a hermit is not only called to fan the flames of a life of ever greater love, prayer and sacrifice for God and all of humanity, but to actually “become fire.”

St. Mary Magdalene, according to tradition, became a hermit during the last 30 years of her life, living in a cave in St. Baume, France. St. John the Baptist as well was a hermit. And the Blessed Virgin Mary is considered to have lived the eremitcal life in particular after the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, which is why we named the Cloistered part of our property Ephesus.

OUR LIFE AND MISSION
As MOME Canon 603 Hermits, our life is one set apart for much prayer, solitude and penance. At the center of which is Jesus present in the Most Holy Eucharist. Also central to our spirituality and way of life is a living wholeheartedly our consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Our personal rules state:
“It is only to the degree that we seek to live our Baptismal Vows of communion of life with our Triune God with and through Mary, that we can live it wholeheartedly.” 

As well, our rules state:
“Our primary hermitage is the Heart of Mary, in which we seek to dwell all the days of our lives, wherein we encounter the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to the full.”

Our primary ministry is prayer, from which flows writing and producing videos: to invite others into the great riches of the Catholic faith, and to encourage a response to Pope St. John Paul the Great in his words at the dawn of this New Millennium to “Put out into the deep.” 

LIFE OF PENANCE AND PRAYER

The Church in the West is much less familiar with the profound graces that flow from living a more ascetical or penitential way of life; but this we are called to do in order to transcend the natural and foster our spiritual life of union with God. The Eastern Church has continued on the tradition of the early Christians in the way of penance and austerity. 

As St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “The contemplatives and ascetics of all ages and religions have sought God in the silence and solitude of the desert, forest, and mountains. Jesus himself spent forty days in the desert and the mountains, communing for long hours with the Father in the silence of the night.”

We in the west have been encouraged again and again from Heaven to do penance, to fast, to let go of attachments to this world, and of course to pray; by Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of America and other approved apparitions.

Fostering a disciplined and penitential life is essential for all Christians, but especially for hermits. In our writings and videos as well, we look forward to encouraging among the faithful a greater awareness of Church teaching regarding prayer, penance, solitude, silence and communion with God; especially as has been past down by the early Desert Fathers and Mothers, as well as many Saints through the Centuries.

Following is Canon 603 which Canonical Hermits profess to live :

§1. Besides institutes of Consecrated Life, the Church recognizes the eremitic or anchoritic life by which the Christian faithful devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.

§2. A hermit is recognized in the law as one dedicated to God in a Consecrated Life if he or she publicly professes the three evangelical counsels, confirmed by a vow or other sacred bond, in the hands of the diocesan bishop and observes his or her own plan of life under his direction.

“We are not running away from the world as many might think, but running to something greater,” Sr. Mary Clare shared, “and His Name is Jesus!”