Monthly Archives: January 2012
This hermit’s review of Brian J. Gail’s Trilogy, vol. 1 — Fatherless
Thanks again to TMB for sending the Trilogy in to the hermitage. Let me just direct this review to Brian… My disclaimer, Brian, is that I’m not very well read with novels. I’ve only read Fatherless once. I haven’t yet read the … Continue reading
Redefining the pro-life movement by… get this… listening to post-abortive women. Do it, right here, right now. That means you, my priest and bishop friends and all “elites” of the pro-life movement…
This great woman, this mulier fortis, this post-abortive woman, this one-time mulier adultera with the culture of death, this fragile woman, filled with fortitude, overwhelmed with the joy of humble thanksgiving for Mary’s Son, Jesus, is set, right here, right … Continue reading
Filed under Pro-Life
Why this is one happy hermit at HSH: lots of angels, human and otherwise!
. . . . . . . The thing is, the angels, spiritual guardians sent from the throne of the Most High, and the angels, human friends part of my life by providence of the Most High, know first hand … Continue reading
Filed under angels
A gander at some of the Mass intentions in these days at HSH
Here are just a few entries that you’ll see over on the Holy Mass page: Friday, 20 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning, requested by F.J. & M.E. F. Saturday, 21 … Continue reading
Filed under Mass
UPDATE: Midnight massacre at Holy Souls Hermitage: The rooster, killed by a pack of dogs, gave his life for the hens
Just now the hermitage was surrounded by wildly bellowing hound dogs, foaming at the mouth, jumping up against the plastic walls (seven feet up!), against the plastic sheet which is my door (though I had that supported with a wooden … Continue reading
Filed under Chickens
The joys of swimming upstream so different from floating downstream: a Holy Souls Hermitage special
Floating downstream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You end up in sedentary pools on the sides of the stream, clogged with other fish as effectively dead as yourself. Mind you, it’s not that masses of people float downstream … Continue reading
Filed under Spiritual Life
You can follow Steven’s progress on his new blog
Here. We wish Steven and his youth apostolate well! I’m sure the World Bank Group joins in our good wishes… Interesting that they’re so interested in Uganda, particularly in Mbarara…
Filed under Benefactors
Papal Blessing for the Holy Souls Hermit and Hermitage
Thanks go to Mother L., who sent in this Papal Blessing for yours truly at Holy Souls Hermitage. Profound thanks for that! Thanks also go to G.P.E. & S.M.E. for their donation, always against my tantrum like protestations. May the … Continue reading
Filed under Benefactors
Advanced lightning attraction: hopefully NOT
The roof was leaking, though not through the roof. It was by way of water running underneath the bottoms of the rafters from the bit of moisture collected at the very upper ends. So, up went some flashing over each … Continue reading
Filed under progress
WordPress and Widgets…
Wow… Look at a different “theme” and the widgets disappear. Lots of work to put them back. They get relegated to the unused widget box on an admin page…
Filed under .
Conversion of Saint Paul and HSH
On this day, five years ago, this is how I closed off the comments of thanksgiving prefacing the doctoral thesis on Genesis 3,15. I call the conversion of Saint Paul (today’s feast), the reception of the enmity as described in … Continue reading
Dangers on the road to Confession
Time for Confession, according to my New Year’s resolution not to ever go more than two weeks without this great sacrament of our Lord’s goodness and kindness. The Holy Souls Mountain waterfall was behaving itself, even after the days of … Continue reading
Filed under Confession, road
O.K. One more window tacked up!
You looking from the floor to the roof, due South, on the Western corner. This is just tacked up with a 2×4 on the outside to keep it from falling down the mountain until I make a proper structure for … Continue reading
Vitamin D for the chickens at Holy Souls Hermitage
O.K. Some have suggested more sunshine for the ladies. So, there we are. All I did was fold the plastic sheeting back a bit. I think they’ve been getting the rays all the time, but this makes it obvious! They’ve … Continue reading
Filed under Chickens
Of books and shelves and mould at HSH
In moving some things around I opened up some boxes and, behold, a year’s worth of mould! So, I put up a couple of shelves with the wood at hand and put a few up to dry out. Yikes! Brown … Continue reading
Filed under progress
Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain!
Thanks to C.W. for sending this in! Sometimes it’s pouring and there is nothing on the radar for some hundreds of miles. This must be a micro-climate where only donkeys and hobbits live… Looks like this donkey is wearing a … Continue reading
Some window progress at HSH
These windows, ultra inexpensive from Habitat for Humanity (and they don’t really work so well!) were much heavier than I thought, or perhaps I’m getting older. They’re not really installed yet, just sitting there, in place, with 2x4s to keep them from … Continue reading
Filed under Benefactors, Chickens
Thanks to benefactors: signal repeater and… some… novels [!]
T.M.B. wrote in asking if I had read Brian J. Gail’s Trilogy. As I say, I am about the most badly read hermit ever to have lived. Favorite reading material has, in the past, been The Far Side by a … Continue reading
Filed under Benefactors, books
Avenue des Champs-Élysées for a photo-op, then back to the hermitage
I’m in the third picture down. I’ll have to do some writing about such beasts sooner than later, I think!
Filed under Donkey
UPDATE: Jesus goes to confession
Oh, it might seem that we decide to go to confession, and I guess we do, but if we do that sincerely, with true penitence, looking to our Lord in humble thanksgiving (or at least afraid of the loss of … Continue reading
Filed under Confession
BUMPED to the top for your reviews: The Highest Level of Worship has arrived at Holy Souls Hermitage: Awesome!
Remember Steven, our heart patient, youth leader, would-be chicken keeper and author? Check out this rather comprehensive post for all that you need to know. This post is where our readers who have ordered this book (see link above) might post some … Continue reading
Filed under Benefactors
Thanks to benefactors!
Thanks go to Bishop Peter Joseph Jugis, Ordinary of the Diocese of Charlotte, who has ever so graciously given me permission to be a hermit in his diocese. He sends his prayers and blessings. When he says he is prayer and sending … Continue reading
Filed under Benefactors
A note to benefactors: Today’s the day!
I’ve been remiss with putting up some thanksgivings for some of your contributions, and I’ve been remiss in heading down the mountain to go to the bank to put some monetary contributions into the checking account. I apologize if this … Continue reading
Filed under Benefactors
UPDATE: Autism and intelligence. I knew it, have written about it years ago. Vindicated!
I guess I’m pretty sensitive to this. I think I might have been a bit autistic myself when I was a little kid. Over the years, having the joy of meeting autistic children in the families of my parishioners, I’ve … Continue reading
Filed under autism
Tabernacle veils: a DIY project at HSH
From an email: I saw on the blog the other day that you stated you were going to make a veil for the Tabernacle. At our college chapel we have the same Tabernacle, but no veils. If you are able … Continue reading
Filed under progress
The Venerable Father Price and today’s family relative, seminarian Philip Gerard Johnson
Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Father Thomas F. Price From the Diocese of Raleigh website: The Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge has announced the diocesan phase of the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Father Thomas Frederick Price will … Continue reading
Filed under saints, seminarians, Vocations
And speaking of maggots and Jesus: I was a total idiot as a seminarian
In Psalm 22, all about Jesus on the cross, we read: “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22,2). A few verses later, we read, also in the first person singular: “I am a maggot [ תוֹלַ֣עַת … Continue reading
Filed under Confession, Guardian angels, seminarians, Spiritual Life, Vocations
I am a maggot and no man: Jesus as Ninja Maggot
Seeing the worms of the wormy wood I’ve been throwing in the fire on these chilly days and nights set me to thinking… Psalm 22, which is all about Christ being on the Cross, from beginning to end, has this … Continue reading
Filed under Spiritual Life
Poor Clares and, of course, T-Shirts!
Click the picture to get your T-Shirt, which supports the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at Saint Joseph’s Adoration Monastery in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina. Unlike the Mystic Monk Coffee for the FSSP, Fr Z, et al., I … Continue reading
Filed under Benefactors, Poor Clares
Following God’s Holy Will: Saint Anthony of the Desert, Abbot
Today’s the Feast of Saint Anthony of the Desert, hailed as the Father of Monasticism. He’s called a hermit, an abbot, a spiritual director of all and sundry who has some spiritual sense about them. In the picture above, he’s … Continue reading
Filed under saints
UPDATE: Today is “collect more wood before the snow piles up” day…
Hopefully no injuries with the chain saw… or the log splitter… or with the fixed up hernia… or… UPDATE: Some results (with no injury): It’s supposed to snow later on today, but, so far, this is all that is evident … Continue reading
Filed under frost and snow, Weather
Hoar frosted hands — Very cool! (so to speak)
I couldn’t resist picking some hoar frost… …that was growing along a rift of Holy Soul’s Mountain… It’s enough to make your hands cold!
Filed under frost and snow
Stained Glass Angels at Holy Souls Hermitage Altar
I put up the two stained glass angels today. They were originally in the monastery of the Poor Clares up in Portsmouth, Ohio. When they left, the angels were still there. Providential, no? God bless you, my good nuns! A Hail … Continue reading
Filed under progress
09 Rosary Rant – Mysteries of Light (for priests and bishops) – 1 – The Baptism of Jesus
My dear brother priests and bishops, are not the Mysteries of Light especially appropriate for use by ourselves? Blessed John Paul II, while thinking about his own priesthood over the years, put these together, it seems to me, specifically with us, his … Continue reading
Filed under Rosary Rants
The priest-holes of persecution and martyrdom
Vincenzo at SanctePater keeps churning out incredibly wonderful posts. THIS ONE filled me with humble thanksgiving for the majestic goodness and kindness of Mary’s Son as manifested by selfless laity for priests. The love that many of the laity have for … Continue reading
Filed under martyrdom, Persecution
08 Rosary Rant – Special sixth mystery – The Immaculate Conception
No, Blessed Pope John Paul II did not promulgate a special sixth mystery in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. No, this doesn’t belong to any of the sets of five mysteries in … Continue reading
Filed under Confession, Rosary Rants
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. I pray for benefactors daily, offering Holy Mass for their intentions about once a month. You'll have to force me to take your donations, though. Scroll down for an explanation.
