Tag Archives: Hermit

2011/09/06 · 10:27

Hey! Another Hermit praying for you. Very cool!

Hey! Another hermit! Very cool! Check out Brother Rex at Little Portion Hermitage. The blurb on top of his blog has this:

Little Portion Hermitage is a place of Christ-centered solitude, sacred silence, and intercessory prayer. Established for the glory of God and inspired by the example of St. Francis of Assisi, the hermitage is faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ found in their fullness among Churches in full communion with the See of Peter. The hermit residing at Little Portion is a person in Consecrated Life according to Canon 603, under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the Diocese of Portland, Maine.

Then, in his about page, he has this:

I am a hermit under the canonical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Portland, Maine, in accordance with Canon #603 of the Code of Canon Law. The moments of my day are consecrated to God’s Glory and the salvation of the world. My prayers and penance are offered in a particular way for the many women and men in recovery from or still struggling to overcome addiction to alcohol, other drugs or other destructive behaviors. As I practice opening myself to love God with all my heart, I pray that you may receive the grace to do the same. Each of us is called to love God above all, and to love each other as we love ourselves. Please send your prayer requests and allow me the privilege of joining you in prayer before the Lord. By allowing me the opportunity to pray for you and with you, you stir into flame the call God has placed in my heart; a call given to me for His glory and the good of all the world. Holding you in my heart, I pray you peace and all good. I was an atheist until I realized that Catholics have more holidays.

Very awesome vocation before God and man. Thanks, Brother Rex!

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2011/08/25 · 17:28

Just a bit of progress in building the hermitage

I’ve been doing much writing lately, and have had unending horrific distractions. But, back to work!

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2011/08/22 · 19:48

In thanksgiving to Saint Joseph and the Holy Souls on this Extraordinary Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, regarding Holy Souls Hermitage

Many phone calls went extraordinary well today. I thank readers for their prayers and sacrifice. Thank you. I am in your debt. I think that five Masses were said for this intention in the past few days by priests around the world. There will be another in thanksgiving tomorrow. Thank you.

There is more to do, and a final result may take some weeks. Patience! But things went very well regarding that for which I asked you to pray.

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2011/08/21 · 21:58

13 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes and Heroines – Saint Francis of Assisi

I recently put up yet another post about the wild wild rain forest of Holy Souls Mountain, promising to put up a post about why Saint Francis appreciated nature so much.

I ran my thoughts about this before various Franciscan types – one a founder of yet another Franciscan community in Australia (that was about ten years ago), and another the now just retired two star admiral, a Conventual Franciscan, who was head of the entire chaplaincy for the Department of Defense for the U.S.A. (that was about eight months ago). I suspect I’m on target with these comments. I think that, at the least, they are rather Catholic, even if I don’t know all that there is to know about Saint Francis himself. Though I was told that these comments went to the heart of who Saint Francis was and is.

First of all, Saint Francis is a saint, ferociously in love with God in all truth, in all charity. He’s not a tree-hugging nature boy, but someone who was nailed to the tree of our redemption with Christ, whose wounds, stigmata, he bore. He’s not an ecclesial rebel, but someone who upheld the Church, as was seen by the Pope of the time. And you can be sure of this: he is praying from heaven for the conversion of that city in California which goes by his name, but in large part is risking going to hell.

Saint Francis loved nature because he learned from nature what simplicity we are to have before the providence of God. The more he saw that nature was simply doing the will of God, the more he saw fallen human nature miserably failing in being so wonderfully childlike before our Heavenly Father. For the pure of heart, this is like a crucifixion, one which transforms one into a child who trusts our Lord. We must ask the Lord for such simplicity of heart, whereby we can take the simplicity of nature as an examination of conscience. We have sinned Lord. And He provides forgiveness. And then we rejoice in true Franciscan style.

I remember that my diaconate class in the seminary was called the “Peace-Prayer Class”, which was meant in a derogatory manner. Those were strange days. I took it as a compliment. That peace prayer, written by Francis, though touched up a while back, has been extremely influential in my life, very profoundly so, especially the bit about understanding others for their good, though at the same time, and perhaps because of that, being misunderstood by others still. This is a crucifixion which provides an examination of conscience about our trust in the Lord. Saint Francis was a saint!

Why Saint Francis is a Holy Souls Hermitage Hero: However much I love the Carmelites, it is because of the incisiveness of Saint Francis, the little poor man, that I have been drawn — in my humble opinion — to be a hermit.

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· 12:49

Dies Domini – The Day of the Lord – Time to crash down the waterfall of Holy Souls Mountain

I walked the creek that runs the permimeter of Holy Souls Mountain today… well… sometimes it was more like falling and tumbling and sloshing about. Rain forest mountain creeks aren’t so easy to navigate. No broken bones though. I came upon the waterfall in the video above. Very cool!

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. I am reminded why Saint Francis appreciated nature so much. I’ll have to write a post about him as one of Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes! It has something to do with nature doing what it’s suppossed to do in obedience to God. That’s a good reminder for us who can sometimes be remiss in listening to the will of our dear Lord.

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2011/08/20 · 15:16

12 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes and Heroines — Pope Sixtus V

“Sixtus” is from “Christ”, that is “Xystus” not “six”! I have very often prayed at his tomb in the Sistine Chapel (named after him) of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. I would go to his tomb just after visiting the tomb on the other side of the chapel, that of Saint Pius V. Sixtus V is not canonized. I know that. There are reasons for that. I know that. Yet, I say a prayer for him and then make bold to ask his intercession about a project that was near and dear to him and brought him to his death, since he made a deadly mistake. Too bad, that. If only… But, the Lord can do all things.

He was right about what he wanted to do, but made a mistake along the way. He understood a central point of Trent on the relationship of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Sacred Magisterium. The only other ones to understand this would be Saint Robert Bellarmine and Pope Paul V (due to what seems to be a revelation!), then the future Leo XIII, who, I think, had influence on the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius in Vatican Council I on this point, then Saint Pius X and, of all people, the very much misunderstood and unnecessarily maligned Father Dolindo Ruotolo. The great Father Ignace de la Potterie, S.J., a good friend (R.I.P.), belongs with this crowd. I would like very much to write much about this, and I hope that that will be part of Holy Souls Hermitage for me. A Hail Mary for this intention, please!

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· 14:33

Another crucifix for HSH: blood everywhere

This crucifix was donated to HSH the other day. Yikes! Yet, it’s great to see glory and honor being given to the Lord, thanking Him for what He has done by representing His death the way it was. Only divine love would go through this for us, taking on what we deserve so as to have the right in justice to have mercy on us. Perhaps this distant shot doesn’t do justice to what the artist had in mind.

He’s alive here, with eyes open. Is He looking to Saint John? to The Woman? I get the idea that He’s looking directly at me, directly at you… He is, you know, even now, at this moment…

Artists aren’t always consistent with their work, sometimes having the eyes open and a side wound from the sword going through the Heart. Not here, though. No side wound. As alive as ever, offering this Holy Sacrifice for you, for me.

I very much appreciate what is surely a mishap. I’ve had some leg problems over the years, just at this spot:

I’m not sure, but I think this is carved wood. Sure looks like it. The cross itself is wood:

I don’t think I would even want to restore this crucifix. I think it’s perfect as it is.

This reminds me: Time to go to confession!

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· 13:45

11 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes and Heroines — Saint Elijah

I took this picture on the North-Eastern slope of Mount Carmel, where Elijah killed off hundreds of false prophets. He has the flaming firey sword of Gen 3,24. The flowers in the background I think are named after the drops of Judas’ blood.

Here’s the panorama Elijah would have seen after killing hundreds of false prophets on the North-Eastern slopes of Mount Carmel while on his way to what is now known as Elijah’s cave (in the center of the now Discalced Carmelite Monastery). You’re looking due West in this picture, with North, of course, being to the right. I took these pictures in the Spring of 2009, when the O.C.D.s invited me to stay for a month on Mount Carmel, for free. Well, they really wanted me to join them. At any rate, it was all very cool!

Elijah would stay in that cave until his servant came back the seventh time from checking to see if there was any rain coming. Elijah had prayed seven times for the rain to come back, since the Israelites had just been converted to the faith once again. I bet his fist was still locked around the handle of his sword, and that the sword and his entire self was drenched in blood. After this, he fled to Mount Sinai to speak with the Lord, complaining that he was the only prophet left and that they were seeking his life. The Lord merely asked him what in the world he was doing way down in Mount Sinai if he was a prophet, and then sent him back with some missions that would endanger his life a thousand-fold. You have to understand that even the greatest prophet is not in control of anything. It is the Lord, before whom we must be as only the smallest of children. We have done nothing until we have died for the Lord or have spent our lives totally in His service. And then we still will have done nothing unless we were simply good receivers of the Lord’s grace during all the tumultuous circumstances we live through in the vale of tears.

The Discalced Carmelites were given permission to call Saint Elijah, “Our Holy Father Elijah”, as their honorary Founder.

The first Carmelites on Mount Carmel, you have to understand, were the cream of the crop of the crusaders in the Holy Land. They were soldiers for Christ, defending the poor Catholics who were being oppressed by the invading, aggressive Muslim empire of that time and place. Having been somewhat successful, they wanted to be soldiers for Christ in a spiritual way. No better way, they thought, than to be hermits! They had Saint Albert of Jerusalem write them a rule and off they went to Mount Carmel.

Perhaps I will be able to add to this post some day, putting up the original rule in Latin, that of Saint Albert, with the changes of Pope Innocent III, if I remember correctly. I had it all memorized about thirty years ago. Time flies! Tempus fugit, memento mori!

At any rate, they would be in their caves in the wadi of Mount Carmel for six months of the year, and then go down and preach ferociously for six months of the year. Very cool!  I have a bit of the destroyed cross of the monastery chapel. The muslim fellow in the 1800s who was living in the monastery after the friars were thrown out by the invading Muslims for the umpteenth time, exploded the entire chapel and monastery and wadi with kegs of gun-powder when he saw the O.C.D.s arriving anew on a ship from Europe. That was the opportunity for the friars to take up residence right at the cave of Elijah. I have tons of pictures of all that. To come, perhaps!

Anyway, back to Saint Elijah. He’s a hero of Holy Souls Hermitage because of his uncompromising faith which converted many. He just didn’t keep the status quo of nothingness, of complaicency, of being happy enough with everyone going to hell, just as long as everyone was at peace with the concensus they had about going there. No, he wanted to change all that, and he did, keeping the faith, and spreading the faith. What a troublemaker! I like these kind of trouble-makers. Not all do. I’m not ashamed of troublemakers like this, but I will say that I am a poor student of troublemaking. Not everyone is instantly converted to the Lord when I make the trouble of bearing witness to the truth in charity, and for that lack of conversion, I express my regret. How much did I not fast enough, not pray enough, not entreat Elijah himself enough or even at all! I’m an idiot, and yet, Elijah, that is, Saint Elijah, gives me hope. His intercession has to be very powerful before our Lord, who had such praise for him. Thanks, Elijah!

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2011/08/19 · 14:25

10 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes and Heroines — Saint John of the Cross — How to be obedient unto death, even when the going gets tough — the seal of confession!

A huge chapter of my life is involved with all that is Discalced Carmelite. Saint John of the Cross is a hero of mine in that he sticks my face in the reality of who I am before Christ our God. I know more just how far I am from being obedient unto death, obedient in all things but sin. After all, I’m not dead yet! Saint John of the Cross knew something of true obedience, so that when he drew Christ crucified in a few seconds on a scrap piece of paper for a nun who had requested this, this is what he came up with, blood and guts, shreds of bleeding flesh hanging on the cross…

Awesome, that. So very unlike the woundless horror painted by Salvador Dali back in the day when everything was oh just so very nicey nicey nice, so nice that it would make you sick to your stomach…

Nice colors, but just a distraction from the reality of the spiritual life. I’m sure it is that kind of image of Christ I would have if I were to be without the grace of our Lord. Not to judge Salvador. I’m sure he meant something nice by this. He just expressed himself very incorrectly…

Advancing in the spiritual life isn’t about niceness, it’s about being faced with who one really is before Christ our God. Since He is drawing us to Himself while He is lifted up on the Cross, during the Sacrifice part of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that means that He is dragging us through hell, for all of hell was broken open upon calvary. While we are being dragged through hell, perhaps kicking and screaming, we realize who we are if we were to be without Christ’s grace, and, in this way, we have a better idea of how much we are to be humbly thankful before him. We can’t be thankful if we don’t know that for which we are to be thankful: being saved amidst hell! Wow!

The only way to agree with Christ drawing us to Himself through hell in this most holy of ways is to be obedient just as He was obedient, right unto death, no matter the cost, obedient out of love, so in love with our dear Heavenly Father, so open to His will for us, that we look to Him eager to do His will, no matter what, no matter the complaints, the accusations, the hell.

The term “obedience” has a Latin form (ob+audire) which speaks to the intensity of the listening being done. This comes from the Greek
γενόμενος ὑπήκοος μέχρι θανάτου, θανάτου δὲ σταυροῦ. That’s from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2,7 — “becoming obedient unto death, but the death of the Cross!”  Yikes! That is such listening to our Heavenly Father that it manifests love unto death for us, taking on what we deserve vicariously so as to have the right in justice to have mercy on us: “Father, forgive them!” He said from the Cross.

That ὑπ-ήκοος is ob-audire, obedience, intensely listening to the point of doing the will of Him to whom one is listening.

Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of obedience, saying that it is the essence of religion. He is right, of course, even if the goofy liberal crowd freeze in panic before such words as obedience. As I’ve always said on this blog, obedience is its own reward. Why? Well, because then we are listening to our dear Heavenly Father with Jesus, united with Him, even if, gloriously, upon the Cross, we are seeing what He sees as He draws us to Himself. It takes being just the littlest child of our Heavenly Father to listen when all hell has broken out in front of you. Yikes! But we look not to the hell (before which we would then be crushed), but rather to our Heavenly Father through, with and in Jesus. And this brings great joy!

Escaping the reality of crucifixion into nicey nicey niceness of a woundless Christ does no favor to oneself or others. It is then that life becomes hell. Otherwise, in the midst of hell with Christ, on the cross, wounds and all, being about the business of pardon and love and being with Jesus, there is a real joy of knowing, of seeing the great majesty of His love for us. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Or should I say, Holy, Holy, Holy!

Obedience involves doing the right thing, keeping the commandments, following the doctrine and morality and prudence of Holy Mother Church, that is, always, even if one is being pushed to do otherwise in whatever situation in which one happens to be right around the world. In short: Obedience in all things but sin. And there is plenty of sin to which one cannot be obedient. One cannot be forced to sin. One can always choose to lay down one’s life, even if one is judged, misunderstood, marginalized, rejected, in short, crucified. One can always be obedient to the Church, to Christ our God.

For instance, as Saint Thomas More said in his short, final speech before getting his head chopped off: “I am the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” In fact, being disobedient to a sinful command is a high form of true obedience. In “disobeying” the King, Saint Thomas More was still being truly obedient to the King and to God at the same time.

A great canon lawyer, Monsignor M.O., whom I had invited to give one lecture to the deacons in my Confession Practicum with them, said this about being obedient to one’s superiors when they ask you to do something sinful, such as, in this case, if a parish priest were to instruct his new assistant priest just to give a general absolution at the beginning of every Mass. The good monsignor said that true obedience demands of us that we have such respect for our superiors, that we assume that they will want to do what the Church wants, that we must have misunderstood their sinful command, so that we will just do what the Church wants, assuming that that is what such superiors truly want. In this case, the assistant priest would not give a general absolution, and would not be disobedient either. Very cool!

In the next class of the Confession Practicum, I instructed the deacons that if they should ever be accused by a penitent, that they were to keep the seal of confession even if this should mean that they would be suspended, and, God forbid, put under interdict or excommunicated, or taken out of the clerical state. I said that it is this for which they were ordained. They are to suffer as Christ did on the Cross. There is no martyrdom more glorious. No matter the vindictiveness of those who hate the doctrine and morality and prudence of the Church, of those who truly hate the love and true pardon of our Lord, one is nevertheless to march forward to heaven in all obedience, unto death, with all the wounds and hell that goes on. No nicey nicey niceness here, just the reality of the glorious majesty of Christ’s love for us being manifested in His martyred priests. Very awesome! The deacons were enthralled by this, and agreed that should this happen to them, they would be faithful unto death, since it is for this reason that they were to be ordained priests. This brought great joy to my soul. The joy of seeing the obedience of others is such a joy!

We thank Jesus for His humble obedience, and ask that we, unworthy as we are, might know some of this in humble thanksgiving. Thank you, Jesus!

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· 04:00

09 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes and heroines – Saint Maximilian Kolbe

The Friars Minor are rightly proud of their martyred saint. For my part, I think he’s great for the reason that his very goodness lets me know how much I have been and am in need of the Divine Mercy of our Lord.

Our Lady appeared to him one day, showing him the white crown of purity and the red crown of martyrdom, asking him which one he would choose. But of course, to choose purity while denying martyrdom would not make much sense, since purity is it itself a witness to the love of our risen Lord Jesus. Choosing martyrdom over purity would be contradictory, since one can hardly rejoice in the grace of martyrdom while being impure. So, he chose both, and received both, a gift of the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception. If all of that were not enough to make him a special hero of Holy Souls Hermitage, there is more.

That particular act of martyrdom, laying down his life for another, then being starved and then injected fatally with carbolic acid, is of special interest to me because of the place in which it happened, that is, in a concentration camp designed for the extermination of the Jews. When I was a youngster, I visited not Auschwitz, but Dachau, where most of the Catholic priests and nuns were exterminated in vast numbers. Such places are horrific for the conscienceless violence which had taken place there, but also glorious for the prayers and kind deeds of the prisoners which were a constant. Hopefully, we ourselves will see how things played out when we get to heaven. This visit so many years ago was quite the education, and led me to understand Catholic-Jewish relations as the years went by, as well as various aspects of the Yad vaShem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. I would later write of such things, and I still may publish them.

Connected deeply with the influences of his martyrdom in my life is the rest of his witness as a Franciscan priest with an interest in publishing about the Catholic Faith under the banner of the Immaculata. Awesome. His determination coupled with organizational skills, following up on everything the providence of God put before him to this end, puts my little efforts to shame. I can only condemn myself as useless before him, asking his blessing as I begin my hermitage endeavor so as also to write much about the Immaculate Conception.

I’ll try to put up his novena to the Immaculate Conception at the end of November, in preparation for December 8.

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2011/08/18 · 04:00

08 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes and Heroines – Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

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Saint Thérèse of Lisieux – for whom hell on earth was a training ground for heaven! This post has some pointers on prayer!

If I remember the story correctly, Saint Thérèse heard about some criminal, a bit of an atheist, who was to be executed the following day. She told Jesus that she would pray for him, but wanted to know the results. The saints are pretty straightforward and bold with such things. Pray she did. She was plunged into the depths of despair, that is, the horror of spirit one would know if one’s eyes were opened enough to see what it means to be apart from God and facing an eternity of hell. Little Thérèse remained looking to the Lord in the midst of this hell, offering this up for the fellow about to die. The newspaper the following day after recounted how this fellow repented and turned to God in his last moments, having hope now of going to heaven.

An essential spiritual principle is that we NEVER carry the cross of another, and this is NOT what Saint Thérèse was doing here. She was just noticing more of what she herself would be like if she herself were to be without the grace of God. She remained in the grace of God, and the union of this prayer in such circumstances offered for this other fellow was an intercession that was very powerful.

I would go so far as to say that no spiritual growth is possible without the Lord providing that such union with Him acts as an intercession for others in ways that only He knows. He is always working on us, in this way and that, for our good, and the good of all. We are one in Him, He the Head, we the members. We help each other out. But there is no transference of rubbish! Let me repeat that: there is no transference of rubbish! The Lord draws us to Himself.

We are trained in with this soul and that, and the Lord continues until we can ever so weakly embrace the whole mystical Body of Christ. The Immaculate Conception did this perfectly. The sword of sorrow piercing her Heart under the Cross proves this. It’s awesome, really, all this, with our Lady, and with Thérèse and with all of us, for we are all being trained in for heaven in this way by our Lord, whose burden is light, if we only continue to look to Him.

By the way, I wouldn’t offer to pray for anyone in the way Saint Thérèse did, offering this to the Lord, without the direct input and guidance of a spiritual director. Saint John the Evangelist even says that he doesn’t say that we have to pray for that kind of thing. It’s a bit dangerous for us to do the offering. The Lord will always provide, don’t worry. He will always provide.

I’d like to make a wildly ferocious and yet loose paraphrase of a few sentences she’s written in her autobiography, about a third of the way through. This girl is braver than all the fires of hell, quite literally. Let me explain…

She’s probably not feeling too well when she wrote these sentences. After all, she died very, very young of tuberculosis, spitting up blood and all that gory stuff. Anyway, she wrote that there were thoughts from hell continuously in her head, making her think that there is no merciful God, that there is no heaven. Pretty bad, that. She didn’t want those thoughts. She’s a good girl. At the same time as she was having those continuous thoughts, at the same time — that’s important to understand her greatness — at the same time she saw, as it were, at a distance, our Lord, Who had a good grip on her soul and was drawing her to Himself… at the same time as all that hell was going on. She wrote that since all the hell was going on at the same time, this recognition of the Lord at the same time did not give her a jump up and down for joy kind of experience, but rather a peace adequate to go on. NOT an overwhelming peace — for all that hell was still going on — but a peace adequate to go on. She kept looking to our Lord Jesus no matter what, no matter what.

Why all that? Actually, we’re blind to all that, we who have not progressed in the spiritual life. We need to get to know all that, either here, or in purgatory. Why? Because we have to know the hell from which our Lord saved us. If we do not know this, we cannot have the joy in heaven of thanking Him, for we won’t know what to thank Him for. So, hell on earth is a training ground for heaven. That’s our Lord working with us with all justice and mercy and charity and truth. What great irony, an irony of love, with which we can be hidden with Christ in God, no matter what, no matter what.

This great Carmelite saint is a patron of Holy Souls Hermitage because of all that she has taught me about prayer and looking to Jesus, to the Holy Suffering Face of His Passion, to His wonderful childlike union with His Heavenly Father. I’m a terribly bad student of hers, but I think she’s patient with me, with all of us. And that’s good!

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2011/08/15 · 13:44

Assumpta Est!

A most Extraordinary Mass today! So many times as a deacon and as a priest, when I would do a “wake service”, I would add the glorious mysteries or at least the 4th glorious mystery of the rosary. I would explain this as a family mystery, with one of the family, the Mother of God, on her way to heaven, with us, then, desiring to go there as well, to be joined with our Mother once again.

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2011/08/14 · 23:28

Assumption of the Immaculate Conception, Soul and Body, Into Heaven

I realize that the painting above, that of Raphael, with Sixtus and Barbara, isn’t exactly precisely emphasizing the Assumption of the BVM into heaven, but I couldn’t resist putting up this picture, since I grew up with this painting hanging in our home in Minnesota. I used to stand in front of it in awe.

WDTPRS has a good overview of this 4th Glorious Mystery of the Rosary from a patristiblogger point of view. However…

I’d like to add some bits to that for the sake of understanding this mystery and for an even better relationship with our Orthodox brethren, who hold that our Blessed Mother did die a physical death.

I used to get upset with the Latin Rite knuckleheads who insisted that the Immaculate Conception had to die like everyone else, denying that she was, in fact, immaculately conceived and was, therefore, denying that she was free of the effects of original sin, including death. However, now I agree with such heretics about Mary dying, though for an entirely different reason.

I would now conjecture that it is precisely because she was conceived without original sin that she would surely have died in solidarity with her Son, making the intention not to remain alive, dying from her sundered heart, pierced right through with sorrow, as we read in the Gospel of Luke.

It was precisely because of her immaculate conception that she had such purity of vision, because of which, seeing truly the goodness of her Son, equally truly saw how evil we are in our sin, seeing this by looking upon her Son hanging upon the Cross in bleeding shreds of flesh, seeing all our evil from the first man to the last, and being able in this way to intercede for us perfectly as mediatrix of all graces, as co-redemptrix, a human who appropriately perfectly matches the gift of grace with the request for us.

In allowing herself to be in such solidarity with her Son, she was also allowing herself to die for us, to lay down her life for us.

However, I wasn’t there! But even if she was taken up in an instant to heaven in the twinkling of an eye, as Saint Paul puts it for those who are alive when Christ comes again, that twinkling demands a change in the body which, although perhaps like a flash of light – to use some image – is nevertheless a kind of death, a change allowing the body to take in the immediate vision of God, face to Face.

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· 20:24

Autistic kids by the thousands at HSH

Take a look at the side-bar widget.
Thousands and thousands and thousands…

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2011/08/13 · 20:54

Bald Eagle sighting down from Holy Souls Mountain

Despite the horrific ignorance of the United States constitution at the present time regarding the right to life, I am an unfailing patriot, a great and true virtue according to Saint Thomas Aquinas.

I was happy to see a bald eagle today, symbol of the U.S.A. It had a huge white tail, a massive white head, with the wingspan not looking so big for the very reason that the body was so huge. He was flying, almost lumbering slowly above the creek, first one direction, then the other. It must have been hungry, which means that the fish hatcheries have just dumped their fish or have a better way to protect them. I suppose he lives up the mountain chain at a much greater height, in some rocky crag. Sorry that I wasn’t quick enough with my broken down camera to get a picture.

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· 18:16

Virtus “child protection program” from hell

Some years ago, when I went through the initial presentation of the Virtus so-called child-protection program, I raised my hand and quietly related some difficulties I had with the presentation and accompanying film, including:

(1) An actual pedophile in the film was highly praised because of the great concern he supposedly had for the welfare of his teenage victim, whose emotional progress he had been following from prison, all of which is gravely mistaken and wrong on just so very many levels. Is this what a priest chaplain, for instance, is supposed to think? Should priests encourage pedophiles to follow the progress of their victims, convinced of the great concern of pedophiles for their victims? I think not.

(2) A number of suspicious behaviors of pedophiles were listed as a way to determine if someone might be a pedophile, but it was said that two behaviors or more regarding the same person were necessary to be concerned that a person might be a pedophile, so that showing porn to youngsters would not, on its own, raise any extremely grave concerns, which is just so wrong on so very many levels. So, should a priest overlook someone showing porn to youngersters? I think not.

(3) The result of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice report about a strong statistical indication of homosexual interest in youngsters was not mentioned at all in regard to the abuse of youngsters, which I think is a travesty. The program material might well have been published in all its parts before this report was published, but it should have been revised immediately to include this information. Or are priests to labor under the lie that there is no homosexual preponderance to sexual abuse of youngsters?

I think I had a further grave issue, but I can’t remember what it was now… Maybe some readers can come up with a few more.

I put this up on the HSH blog, for the reason that part of the hermitage effort is to help out priests in this life. Programs like Virtus do little but make the priest be treated like a criminal just for having been ordained.  The priest is supposed to suck in the rubbish that criminal pedophiles have great concern for their victims as part of child protection training, overlook porn, etc. Nope. I suggest that any (arch)diocese using this program find something else. I also suggest that the backgrounds of those who make such programs be investigated. Why do makers of this program push for respecting the concerned conscience of the pedophile?

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· 17:42

More faunae – Dratted wasp!

The Sawyer’s Extractor has been coming in handy not only for the violin spider bites, but also for a wasp sting, this time on the neck. Lots of venom came out. I was able to attend to it right after being stung. I took a couple of Benedryl. But the neck still got a bit swollen, really not good for me. For anyone who doesn’t have a Sawyer’s Extractor, I recommend getting one.

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· 17:38

Don’t say it doesn’t rain in a rain forest!

Of course, there is sometimes a glorious end to the rain:

The seminarians are still here before heading back to the seminary. There was a raging fire, and something to put to the flames. No apologies here. My regret is that I didn’t make this particular fire. It was pretty awesome. The Castle Danger crowd should come here next year!

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2011/08/12 · 15:11

03 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes — The Infant of Prague

The statue on the gradines next to the tabernacle of HSH was donated by Father K.L. Very regal, majestic, sovereign, trustworthy…. the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Prince of the most profound peace. He holds the world in the one hand while blessing us with the other. It seems to me that all would do well to turn to the young Jesus to ask for His blessing and protection, starting with the young Jesus so young that we have to go back to the time of His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, a time from which Pope Pius XII said that Jesus embraced in His soul the entire Mystical Body of Christ.

The Infant of Prague is traditionally sought out for help in dire circumstances, especially regarding food and shelter.  I like that.

This reminds me of the time I was in the Carmelite Church in Prague, where I had a little tour of the church and…. under the church, the latter being not so nice. I encouraged the one who was there to do something about the ongoing travesty that one finds there.  The soviet thugs ripped apart the graves of the nuns buried there, leaving the corpses exposed. I tried to explain to the fellow that the Iron Curtain had fallen and that he was free to bury the bodies once again… Nothing, at least at the time.

All that violence of the soviet crowd is within living memory. Horrific for those involved. They are frozen in fear to this day. That’s how bad things are.

Does the Infant of Prague not care what is happening under His own two feet? Of course He does. But this is just how trustworthy He is: when we need something of this world, He will provide. When we need to be tortured and die for the faith, He will provide us the grace to endure this with enthusiasm as well.

You have to know that, contrary to the horror I’ve often heard from various pulpits, the little Jesus knew His mission upon this earth to die upon the cross for us. He knows what it’s all about. Perhaps it’s a thing of our age that some think that youngsters aren’t really people, aren’t capable of a relationship with God, and are to be treated at the caprice of others, and that that’s why the Infant of Prague is just another silly devotion for them. Not a silly devotion! Note the cross that crowns the crown He wears with such unction, the cross over the globe, and the cross ’round about His neck. Hmmm…. a theme of the cross, a perfect Hero for Holy Souls Hermitage!

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· 13:59

Seminarians at HSH

A meal from the garden. And the bread is organic.

These two made the boat a couple weeks ago. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that this is not Mount Ararat.

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Jenny the Jeep was humiliated today, as I thought she was the only one able to make the climb. The Chevy 4X4 did well, except for it’s overly wide turning radius.

W is at the wheel. And that’s B and N in the back. C didn’t make it today.

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2011/08/10 · 15:35

01 Holy Souls Hermitage Heroes – John of Nepomuk

Wikipedia has it that… of Nepomuk (or John Nepomucene) (Czech: Jan Nepomucký) (c. 1345 – March 20, 1393) is a national saint of the Czech Republic, who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. On the basis of this account, John of Nepomuk is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional, a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, a protector from floods. ///

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At any rate, I took this picture of a picture provided to me by the great priest, Father K.L., while I was still teaching and on the formation faculty at the Pontifical College Josephinum. Promised is a much larger version to be put up in the chapel of the hermitage. The stained glass is to be found in a church of the Diocese of Columbus. You’ll notice that he’s holding his finger to his lips, signifying the reason for his martyrdom, keeping the seal of confession.

Saint John of Nepomuk is a patron saint of Holy Souls Hermitage for reasons that are well known to Saint John of Nepomuk and the whole heavenly tribunal! We will hear the rest of the story, please God, in heaven.

Saint John of Nepomuk must be one of the patron saints of all priests. We are in need of his constant intercession. Priests are to remember that they act as ordained priests in this sacrament, that they represent the rest of the Mystical Body of Christ even while they act in the Person of Christ in reciting the absolution, so that their penitents are reconciled with the whole of Christ, the Head and the members simultaneously, as it must be.

When we love with God’s own charity, we love the Head of the Mystical Body of Christ and all the members simultaneously. There is no before and after, first God and then neighbor, though there is a hierarchy in this one act of love. Luther’s failure to understand Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans, thinking that we are to love God and then only later fittingly love our neighbor is just so very wrong. Is is a decaptation of the Body of Christ. If we love Jesus, we love the members of His Mystical Body. This is where so much went wrong in the Reformation concerning faith and works, and, ironically, faith was turned into the work of private theology and non-Catholics had to put themselves into fits of doing works so as to try to prove to themselves that they were saved in the first place. Then came the idea that one is either to be saved or not, so sin doesn’t make a difference!

At any rate, the same doctrine of God’s love is followed up by an analogous though reversed structure of sin. When we sin, we sin against the Head of the Body of Christ and against the members. There is no division, no decapitation of Christ in this. We can’t sin only against ourselves or our neighbors and not also against Christ. We sin simultaneously against both. As Christ said to Saul before he became Paul: Why do you persecute ME? … and… as we read in the Gospels, “What you done to the least of these, you have done to ME.”

The same goes for our reconciliation. When we are reconciled. We must be reconciled with the Head and the Members of the Mystical Body of Christ at the same time. The priest, representing the members of the Body of Christ by his ordination, gives the absolution in the very Person of Christ.

This is why the priest has no right to use in any way whatsoever what he has heard in the confessional. It seems to me  that if, God forbid, the priest does use this knowledge in any way, especially, God forbid, for gossip or for mocking someone, whatever was confessed, then, while the sins are forgiven for the penitent, the guilt of the same sins redound upon the confessor, so that he is held responsible for those sins before God, not to mention the sin of sacrilege of the worst kind. This would be to mock Christ upon the Cross. Not good. Really.

Upon my encouragement — more than an hour of conversation — soon to be Cardinal Burke took it upon himself to make sure that even the indirect breaking of the seal of Confession be treated as one of the gravest crimes. It is now listed in the Normae de gravioribus delictis. Some believe that it is unjust to put this up with crimes such as pedophilia, but there we are.

By the way, when Ireland and Australia, et al., made comments about priests being forced to reveal confessions, some commentators said that it is unjust to force priests to do this. That’s just rubbish. No priest is forced to break the seal of confession. His choice is die first. And for this we have the example of Saint John of Nepomuk, who was drowned upon his refusal to break the seal of confession. Thank you, Saint John, and thank you for being a gracious patron of Holy Souls Hermitage.

By the way, any confessions heard at Holy Souls Hermitage are like confessions anywhere else, under the seal, unto death, no matter what… no matter what is said, no matter what is threatened. The soul and eternal salvation come first. Always. Thanks be to God!

from wikipedia

In the above painting of Saint John being tossed over a bridge to be drowned, one of the angels is holding an envelope with a seal, representing the seal of confession.

In Confession we recieve an abundance of sanctifying grace, which makes no room for the guilt of the sin. This is because God is the Father of Mercies! Go to confession! Jesus is so good and so kind! You’ll be very, very happy that you did!

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2011/08/09 · 15:22

Patron saints for HSH? What think you? Updated

UPDATED: Thanks for the suggestions via email…

The Sacred Heart of Jesus  / Infant of Prague / Our Lady of Guadalupe/ Saint Joseph…. of course!

I was thinking of the following, about whom I have much to write and who have special significance for my life as a hermit, not in particular order, though my guardian angel must be first:

  • My guardian angel!
  • The Holy Souls in Purgatory
  • Benedict
  • Benoît-Joseph Labré
  • Catherine of Siena
  • Rita
  • Bernadette (Marie-Bernarde Soubirous)
  • Ignatius
  • Thomas Aquinas
  • John the Baptist
  • John the Evangelist
  • Saints in the Roman Canon
  • Mary of Magdala
  • John of Nepomuk
  • Jean-Marie Vianney
  • Philomena
  • Jerome
  • Damasus I
  • Paul the Hermit
  • Anthony of the Desert
  • Robert Bellarmine
  • Aloysius Gonzaga
  • Pius X
  • Pius di Pietrelcina
  • George!
  • David
  • Elijah
  • Lawrence
  • Romanus
  • Mary MacKillop
  • Giovanni Bosco
  • Domenico Savio
  • Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort
  • Francis
  • John of the Cross
  • Teresa of Avila
  • Thérèse of Lisieux
  • Gianna Beretta Molla
  • Maximilian Kolbe
  • Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton

And some of the beatified:

  • Pius IX
  • John Paul II
  • Jacinta and Francisco Marto
  • Elizabeth of the Trinity
  • Mary of Jesus Crucified
  • Teresa of Calcutta
  • Charles Eugène de Foucauld

And there are others I might ask to intercede for me from time to time, though they are not canonized or beatified:

  • Sixtus V
  • Leo XIII
  • Pius XII
  • Padre Dolindo Ruotolo
  • Lúcia de Jesus dos Santos
  • [!] Alexamenos [!]
  • Mother Mary of Saint Peter (Marie Adele Garnier), foundress of the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre, known popularly as the great Tyburn Nuns.

Any suggestions?

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2011/08/08 · 15:35

Green light for blogging on Holy Souls Mountain

OBEDIENCE IS THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION – BXVI
Obedience is its own reward – HSH

Be forewarned: Hermits are pretty straightforward about the spiritual life of priests and bishops (not to mention deacons). The laity, can, of course, follow along! Ye are all most welcome!

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· 15:28

Awesome Angels — projected new book

Part of what I do at HSH is to write and write and write and write about all that will be helpful for the salvation of souls, as is my mandate from the Fathers of Mercy. Very cool! I started just now to work on book on the angels, some commentary about some of the angels in Sacred Scripture and then on the role of the angels in our lives. I won’t hold back on some of my personal experiences with these great and most holy spirits of the Most High God. This work will be imbibed with teaching consonant with that of the Angelic Doctor, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and with the magisterial interventions and those of the Fathers.

Some might think that dirt is a rather odd cover for a book on the angels. However, there is much ado with angels and dirt in the Scriptures, much of it being what those who are visited by an angel see as they lie protrate in the dirt, almost without life, all strength gone out of them until the angel strengthens them. When you’re prostrate with face in the dirt, you see dirt. One hardly dares to look up to him who is a living and loving reflection of the truth and charity of our Heavenly Father… These are, after all, AWESOME ANGELS!

From the description at the MY BOOKS page:

The many who had me for spiritual direction at the last pontifical seminary where I also taught scripture and theology and liturgy, where I heard confessions and had many for formation advising, know some of my stories about my guardian angel, and will rejoice to see this little book come to light. Guardian angels see the face of God now, and, they are just so cool!

Here are pictures of the stained glass windows given to HSH by Father K.L. the very day he received them from the old Poor Clares Convent in Ohio, just before they also moved down to the Diocese of Charlotte. They are not yet installed on either side of the huge window behind the tabernacle of the chapel of HSH since construction is still ongoing!

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· 15:28

“O”rthodox hermit and an “o”rthodox hermit

I’m not an “O”rthodox hermit, but this is pretty cool…

I enjoy being an “o”thodox hermit, of course.

Not all orthodox hermits are Orthodox hermits, and not all Orthodox hermits are orthodox hermits. The Othodox have great treasures in which we can rejoice, and this we can be sure even if just by way to the comment — I think it was the Patriarch of Russia — who said that the greatest ecumenical move to be made by Rome was Summorum Pontificum. I would remind our Orthodox friends that excommunications have been lifted. Does that not mean that “ex-” is removed from EXcommunications, and does that not say something about Communion?

This reminds me of a film I made while I was a chaplain in Lourdes, all about grunge caving. The background music at the beginning and at the end comes from a recording I made of a Russian Choir during the candellight rosary procession during the Jublilee year of 2008; they had been delegated to come to Lourdes on behalf of the Russian Patriarch.  Very, very cool! This video has over 42 hundred views and dozens of links. Note, however, that the blog “Immaculata Conceptio” which I used to run in Lourdes in now defunct… so this is a blast from the past!

My hermit heart rejoices, especially now that I have my own hermit cave, although it is more of a shack on stilts on the top of Holy Souls Mountain.

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