According to canon 603 of Canon Law (The personal vision of a hermit).

To all the dear friends who have stumbled upon this page either willingly or by chance: Do you know what a diocesan hermit is in our own time? Perhaps not, and if you have a vague idea, it may not be very accurate.

I am a humble diocesan hermit.

Firstly I would like you to know that diocesan hermits do not belong to any religious order or congregation. They are consecrated individuals (which does not mean that they are independent) who are recognised by law as living under the direction of a local diocesan bishop.

My desire to write about this subject comes from the lack of general knowledge of diocesan hermits I see around me. Even people from the Church or very well educated and cultured people seem to be unaware or ignorant of what a diocesan hermit is or what this type of consecration consists of.

I am writing to you in a simple and sincere way (I cannot do it any other way) so that what I write is comprehensible and believable to everyone, even to people who know little about the subject.

I would like to present this subject to you in a simple way, as I said, but also from a HUMAN perspective, in other words, with both feet firmly on the ground, even though hermits actually walk, or always try to walk on spiritual paths.

What is certain is that we hermits (at least the ones I know) do not feel SUPERIOR IN ANY WAY, we do not have our heads in the clouds. We walk “with our feet firmly on the ground” conscious that we cannot, nor do we wish to, live separately from or on the fringes of the society it has fallen to us to live in, with all its good and not so good aspects.

We are not, as it may appear, alienated from the world around us. We are aware, very aware, of reality and of the work we do in this society we live in which is SO MATERIALISTIC that it constantly threatens to consume us, to drag us all into extreme consumerism, hedonism, or into a culture of HAVING and POSSESSING or, perhaps even worse, into a COULDN'T CARE LESS ATTITUDE. This makes us forget to nurture our SPIRITUAL BEING which is just as important as our physical being.

Based on this vision of reality, there are people who wish to HELP others in a spiritual way. They dedicate their lives to helping others, their fellow human beings, to making them understand that LIFE and MATERIAL THINGS do not last for ever, they are SHORT-LIVED, and that everything PASSES (as Saint Teresa of Jesus said), but that the SPIRIT does not die and that the best way to be happy in this life is to nurture our spirit.

These are your foundations. All you need now is the most important thing, the one thing that cannot be substituted in this vocation: GOD.

Can you imagine a monk in a monastery or a hermit in the desert who did not have GOD as their guiding light?

It is from this VITAL, ESSENTIAL reality that the person has to approach others. Others who, alongside GOD, guide all active and contemplative religious vocations. Whatever our vocation may be, we must remember that it is a gift from Jesus Christ and it is FOR and FOR THE BENEFIT of others, our fellow men.

We are all brothers and we have a duty to one another, especially those of us MOST IN NEED, because it is the “sick rather than the healthy” who need DOCTORS.

To carry out His work THE LORD has invited hermits to live a difficult life, because the way of the Lord is not easy. These spiritual pathways do not often cross the paths of the world in which we live and in which we move. Saint Teresa told us how difficult it is to live in the WORLD without being from the WORLD…

The hermit's path through the desert is indeed harsh, but what are we not prepared to do to spread the LORD'S MESSAGE?

What are we not prepared to do for our world? What are we not prepared to do for our neighbours, for the poor, for the sick, for our deprived, destitute, lonely brothers? What will we not try to do for them?

What are we not prepared to do so that OUR WHOLE LIFE is one of continuous prayer and praise for GOD?

We hermits do not have material things to give to the poor, we have to give of ourselves.

What are we not prepared to do to try to alleviate the world?

Oh! We hermits would be poor and foolish if the aim of our sacrifice was no other than to satisfy our own “EGO”, our individualism, our pride or the worst pathological narcissism!

Dear Lord, free us from this sin, free me as a hermit and free all monks and members of religious orders and Christians who are faithful to their Church. Free ALL of your followers from the EGOCENTRISM of EXCLUSIVITY and INTOLERANCE which separate us from your WORD, from your MESSAGE OF EQUALITY OF JUSTICE, of SIMPLICITY, HUMILITY and LOVE.

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