MANUAL WORK AS A MEANS OF SURVIVAL

All the hermits I have ever known have lived entirely off the work they have done with their own hands: all kinds of art, beekeeping, cattle raising, farming, and more recently, information technology. When I say “entirely” I mean that hermits have never had any other kind of income. They survive solely on what they make “day-to-day”.

Some accept charity for extra costs they may need to cover, such as repairs to their hermitages, or to have dental work done. These are specific cases that I know of, but there are others who have never asked for money from anyone. They don't want it.

My own experience has sometimes been quite hard. I have found myself in countless difficult situations because of my determination not to burden others, to pay my own bills, to pay my Social Security contributions and the other taxes all citizens have to pay. It has certainly been hard. But the LORD has not left me to my own fate. I have drawn my strength from his presence.

I would like to mention the kindness I have been shown by the people who have lived near me since I have been a hermit. It can be really moving to see the eagerness with which they offer and give you the best of what they have. They are very modest in doing this and they do not say much, but they do it out of a sense of deep FAITH.

DWELLINGS

We hermits should not really own the homes we live in and the majority of us do not, although some do. The place I currently live in has been lent to me. It is an annex of an old monastery for contemplative nuns which is now empty (of people, though not of spirit). Nuns have lived here for 400 years.

As I live there, I look after and maintain it.

This is a complementary part of my life and a service that I as a hermit can offer the Church without adversely affecting what is essential to my purely contemplative vocation – silence, solitude, prayer and work.

Before I became a diocesan hermit I was a mendicant friar and I professed solemn (perpetual) vows in a well-loved religious order that has eremitic origins. It was there that I was trained and learned the spirit of prayer, of solitude and of the love of silence that have served me so well over the 25 years that I have lived as a hermit.

I have always thought that the Lord Our God (who does not give much thought to jurisdictional matters or papers or certificates) has had my spiritual path mapped out for me. Hermits were the origins and the spirituality of the order I was called to in my youth, and somehow, by the pure mercy of God, I am still on this path and I try to serve the Church each day as a diocesan hermit. Thank you Lord for showing so much kindness and mercy towards me.

If any of you feel a calling to, or are attracted by the SPIRIT to this way of life, or to any other form of religious life, you should know that the eremitic life at least is not an easy one. But if your calling is deep and insistent, then do not hold back. The LORD will help you. He will never leave you and you will never regret saying YES.

I would like to finish by citing a present day theologian who wrote this praise for hermits.

OFTEN UNKNOWN, SOMETIMES THOUGHT OF AS THE SEMI-FOLKLORIC REMNANTS OF A CULTURE BELONGING TO LEGEND. FORGOTTEN, YET PRESENT, LIKE THE SEA IS PRESENT, AND LIGHT, AND BIRDSONG, AND ALMOND TREES, EVER FEWER IN NUMBER BUT CONTINUING TO FLOWER, TIRELESSLY, AS THEY HAVE DONE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME. A WAY OF LIFE THAT BEARS WITNESS TO THE FACT THAT LOVE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH.

ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

*How do you solve the problem of where to live – the “hermit's dwelling”?

This is perhaps an important question which is difficult to answer. We can live in hermitages, sanctuaries, disused convents or monasteries or other kinds of buildings. But we have to be GIVEN PERMISSION to live there. There is a lot of distrust in the world. Our dwellings are usually owned by religious orders, town councils or other bodies which are usually reluctant to provide our accommodation: they would rather have empty buildings kept closed up, abandoned and exposed to vandalism. Hermits (always duly recognised) have to wait until the “right” place comes along.

* How do you manage financially?

This is also important. Above all we must always trust in the Lord.

All the hermits I know started out with nothing, but I do not know anyone who has died of hunger (sorry, that's a joke). I am sure that the Lord will always help anyone who wants to live simply in his service. However, it helps if the person has some manual skills, such as craftsmanship for example.

*Who can be a diocesan hermit and how do you go about it?

I personally think that hermits who have belonged to a religious order find things easier – they have had essential training for this way of life. It is also possible that a male hermit (who is duly recognised by his bishop) may accept another person into his hermitage as a trainee or aspirant, with permission from the bishop.

The vocation always has to be accepted by the bishop.

It would be very rash for a person to go to a hermitage (of his own will), alone, intending to be a hermit, with no previous religious or spiritual preparation. This is absolutely not recommended.

* How do you profess vows?

Although I came from a religious order in which I had already professed solemn vows, my discernment period lasted for seven years. I spent the first four of these years as an aspirant and at the end of this time I professed simple – or temporary – vows, which I renewed each year for the following three years. After that (and having been assessed by a psychologist) I went on to the perpetual profession.

I spent all of this time in a hermitage at the top of the Way of the Cross in Potríes, Valencia, Spain, a village which I have extremely fond memories of because of the wonderful people there.

During this period you live alone, under the direction and watch of the bishop's delegate.

* Why have you not joined a monastery?

Good question! Life would be easier in a monastery; usually you have everything you need there, you do not want for anything and the company of the other monks would be wonderful. But the Lord has called me to walk along this path and “it takes all sorts to make a world”.

*Is your hermitage cloistered?

I am currently living in and looking after a cloistered monastery which, although there are no longer any nuns here, remains cloistered. But the part I live in is not. Anyone coming to visit me is invited in. Monks and hermits have traditionally been very welcoming, hospitable people. However, I do try to create an atmosphere of silence and solitude as far as possible.

* My brother, I will not keep you any longer. It has been a pleasure.