✙ help once, double your impact
OK, OK, So I think I need help too but you are in no way required to help me.
Why do I need help? Because given my daily schedule (see here) there is no way for me to keep on living this life of a traditional solitary hermit, while helping others for free (as both the Bible and the Desert Rules command and most people nowadays also still expect from me), save for my old age, and arrange a hermitage as well. This problem is increased because a hermit has, under canon law (the law of the Roman Catholic Church), explicitly no right to any kind of financial nor practical support. That type of help is only reserved for the priests.
So the question has been for a long time now: how to enable myself to accept financial support, without violation of the applicable Dessert Rules? In other words: how can I adapt the traditional begging rules to the financial realities of our 21st century, without losing Christian values?
After prayer and discernment, I think I’ve found a solid solution.
- First, in accordance with the Desert Rules I will only accept financial support for that what I objectively need help with
- And second, I will make absolutely sure that any financial support I do accept will upon my death be passed on automatically - in whole and without loss of value - to the poor.
I’ve realised this solution as follows.
Upon receiving your financial support, I will:
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Immediately store it in a separate account dedicated to helping me buy a hermitage
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Then, when I’m enabled to buy a hermitage, I will inscribe your name - together with the names of all other benefactors - in the head and sides of the front door frame, in remembrance of God’s and your loving kindness, and as a permanent call to gratitude and prayer
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And last-but-not-least, I’ve now stipulated in my last will (drawn up in 2025 by a notary) that within 12 months after my death any hermitage I might possess must be sold on the open market, and that - within the following 12 months after completing the sale - the full proceeds of the sale must be distributed in person among the local poor.
This way, your financial support to me will - in fact - bear not once but triple fruit, have a double impact (first by helping me and then upon my death by helping the local poor), and will not be of help only once but for a very long time to come. Because:
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First, during my life your financial support will help me live the life of a solitary hermit and by doing so your support will directly increase and enable my help to others too
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Second, over time the sum of your support will increase in value (with the yearly value appreciation of the hermitage, plus the investments and maintenance costs I put into it). This way, the sum of your financial support will keep pace with (and on average probably outgrow) the inflation rate during my life thereby maintaining (and increasing) the purchasing power of your financial help to the poor upon my death
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Third, your financial support - together with the pro rata value increase mentioned above - will upon my death be transferred in whole and without loss of purchasing value to the poor as stipulated in my last will (see description above).
Therefore: if you really and voluntarily would like to help both the poor and help me find a hermitage to settle down as a hermit and extend my help from there to others… And if you can do so without denying yourself anything because of it… then any financial support you can provide is very helpful and warmly welcome.
And although I do not know God's (+) accounting principles, I’m sure that your personal Heavenly treasure will not only grow with the size of your financial support to me, but also with the size of your financial help to the poor upon my death as described above, and on top of that be increased with a pro rata part of the Heavenly treasures I try to gather during my life with my help to others as a hermit.
help once, double your support
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to beneficiary: bartholomeus
IBAN: NL31 INGB 0008 1495 96
with the description:
double impact financial support