If there is one abiding principle I have learned in the 20 years I have been living the hermit life, it is that the Lord is always with us and all we have to do is turn our gaze to Him to submerge ourselves in the recognition of the continuing connection between the sheep and their Shepherd.
How this is done forms the life work of the spiritual aspirant. The more quickly one returns to God as each worldly task is completed, is an indication of our appetite for Him, for if we are tempted by the allurements of the world, then we tarry too long entertaining our baser instincts, wasting the gift of our attention when we should be delighting God with our loving glance.
Even the hermit cannot experience the submersion of the concentrated faculties in God every minute of the day. Our minds are required to negotiate our way down our path, whichever road we have chosen or which has been chosen for us.
To pray unceasingly is the path of the contemplative hermit. Prayer and Labor, Ora et Labora, establishes the rhythm for the hermit, as our engrossment moves from one mode to another, from work to the Lord and back to work again, everything in its proper time. Our concentration needs to be complete for each. The Lord will know when our entire mind is not with him, and He will miss those parts of us that are withheld from Him, as He wants our entire consciousness to be upon him. Likewise, during our dedicated labors, even if only washing the dishes, we need our whole mind for the task, otherwise the crockery gets broken.
Just now, there is a lot of crockery being broken on Capitol Hill, and it is very distracting. We have a president who is rampaging through all the arms of the government and breaking things, in contravention of our laws, the Constitution, and our customs. It is disturbing to the hermit, first of all, because many people are being hurt unnecessarily and cruelly, which always bothers this hermit.
The overriding problem, as I see it, is that this is not "business as usual" because this ruler is imitating many of the same things Hitler, Stalin and others have used to suppress and control people.
I have reason to believe we are in danger of losing the democracy that allows me to live as a hermit, in peace. It will be more than crockery that gets broken if this man is allowed to follow through with his stated aims. Our entire way of life may be broken.
Because of all of this, my attention has, of necessity, been captured by current events in a way that has not been done before this. There are civic duties to discharge, and I must do them. But at the same time, I cannot abandon my contemplative life.
Although I am aware that there is a constant stream of bad news and reportage of frightening events, I am posting this to remind my friends not to fall down that deep well of fear and despair. Do what you have to do in this crazy world of ours. Advocate for justice, write your letters, make your phone calls, have your meetings, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and encourage the downcast, but as soon as you are finished, return to the Lord in haste, and abide with Him in peace, quiet, and blessedness.
REMEMBER that, when you turn your attention to the Divine, the anxieties do not follow you. They do not follow because they CAN'T.
When we are absorbed in God, the Blessed Mother, and the encouraging saints, that beautiful vibration that we reach and then match with our inner selves will not allow for the anxieties to catch us. God is all good, and when we are absorbed in Him, Satan and all the worries of the world CANNOT join us in that protected space of Sacred Love.
The one caution I would give is to make sure you do not cling to the bad news. Don't become fascinated by the evil of the world. Don't attach yourselves to your pet peeves, or you will become peevish instead of holy.
Do only what you feel you HAVE to do in order to discharge your duties, and then flee to the Lord. You do not want to become attached to the anger and hostilities that are flooding the public space. Anger has its own type of endorphins that flow into the body, and then you are caught.
I have seen more than one religious person become stuck like this. Their "message" becomes fixated on ugliness. Instead of pointing to our holy Lord, and presenting the beauty of the Holy Face, they post pictures of the torn-up bodies of aborted babies, and the images of people who live alternative lifestyles and have dozens of piercing and tattoos on their faces and necks. Instead of attracting the world to the promises of Christ, they repel them with grotesqueries and attempt to engage them with hatred toward people who live or think differently than we do.
Part of staying focused on The Lord is by maintaining a loving eye on the world. To love our neighbor is not to objectify him as a person to hate, but as a person who is beloved by God and to whom we may offer a brilliant image of the Lord, our blessed Mother Mary, the saints and angels, and the heavenly realm.
After all, life on this earth is not all we have to look forward to. So we attend to our duties with love and care, laying our minds at the feet of our Lord as much as we are able, all the while keeping a willing heart within us, always ready to incline ourselves toward God.
I pray for you. Please pray for me.
Silver Rose
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