✙ vocation and daily schedule

Christian vocations in general

All Christians are called to follow Christ as much as we can. We do this through fighting our old fallen-self and this old fallen-world, trying to become a better and more Christlike version of ourselves. How? Through prayer, self-observation, introspection, study, lots of practice, and with constant failures along the way.

Against that background the best division I can make between the different paths (vocations) of a Christian in general (married or unmarried), a priest, a monk or nun, and a hermit, is this: a married or unmarried Christian in general is called to live a life fully immersed in worldly affairs, a priest is called to live his life in between his flock, monks and nuns are called to live in between their other brothers or sisters, and a hermit is called to live as much as possible outside society in a deliberate seclusion, silence, and solitude. As an old Desert Father (hermit Nistero the Great) phrased it: “Not all works people do are the same. Scripture tells us that Abraham was given to charity, and God was with him; Elijah sought silence and God was with him; David was humbled, and God was with him."

None of these paths is easy. In fact: they all have their own battles, difficulties, and advantages.

 

“Not all works people do are the same. Scripture tells us that Abraham was given to charity, and God was with him; Elijah sought silence and God was with him; David was humbled, and God was with him."

 

my vocation

For me in particular, I’ve discussed and foreseen with my spiritual director (a priest) from the very beginning - and written down in my Ratio Vivendi (*) - the possibility of not only being a hermit but also running the risk of falling into the sub-category of ‘fools for God’. And truth be told: I’ve resisted that potential part of my calling from the very beginning until the current day.

However…, despite all my resistance my life seems to be falling more and more into this sub-category of hermitism. Nonetheless, for the time being I will continue focusing mainly on the traditional hermit aspects, because - as you can read on this wikipedia page - the distinction between being a traditional hermit and/or a fool for God is not so easy to draw.

As stated above, the traditional hermit’s path is to live his or her life in deliberate seclusion, silence, and solitude in order to prioritise praying and introspection above all else at the expense of his (or her) worldly income, social status, and security. Of these, inner-silence (stillness) is the most important aspect. The other two (seclusion and solitude) are helpful to accomplish that stillness, especially for beginning and intermediate hermits who - like me - still have difficulty maintaining full inner-silence while being among others and/or when outside of their hermitage.

To paraphrase and extend on how the hermit Abba Moses (one of the Desert Fathers) saw this: silence, seclusion, and solitude - just like fasts and vigils, the study of Scripture, renouncing possessions and everything worldly - are not in themselves perfection. They are tools. For perfection is not to be found in them, but it is acquired through them.

This is why a hermit’s life is traditionally described as 'a life of watchful stillness’, and as 'the path of spiritual knowledge’.

(* a hermit’s Ratio Vivendi is an official written document stating the hermit's life plan. It contains i.a. the hermit’s past, his (or her) calling, the discernment process that followed, and the hermit’s proposed new way of life)

daily schedule

In line with the well-established hermit tradition, my daily schedule normally stays within the standard averages for a (traditional) hermit’s life shown below:

  • prayer: a traditional hermit’s prayer life consists mainly of contemplative, meditative, and continuous prayer. If you add to those types of prayer the daily psalms (liturgy of the hours, also known as the Divine Office) and other standard vocal prayers, then (excluding continuous prayer) a traditional hermit devotes on average a minimum of between 5 and 8 hours per day on prayer. In other words: prayer becomes the mainstay of the day.

The remaining hours are for:

  • studying theology both in practice and theory: between 3 and 4 hours per day
  • shower, cook, eat, and other daily household chores: between 1 and 2 hours per day
  • sleeping: the necessary hours - about 7 to 8 hours per day
  • working (or instead when explicitly asked: helping others in their (prayer) life): the remaining 3 to 4 hours
  • leisure: only when needed, plus the Sunday's

As a contemporary Maronite hermit phrased his own experiences living this type of life:

"The hermit should be occupied all day with prayer and spiritual reading. According to the Rule of St. Antony he is allowed only small breaks. Every day is difficult. It is the same for all hermits. As you get closer to God your enemy attacks you more. At first [hermits] feel lonely and depressed. But after that there is the indescribable joy of feeling the presence of the Lord.”

(shortened citation taken from William Dalrymple’s travelbook ‘From the Holy Mountain – a Journey in the Shadows of Byzantium’ - entry for ‘Bsharre, 5 October’).

 

"The hermit should be occupied all day with prayer and spiritual reading. According to the Rule of St. Antony he is allowed only small breaks"

 

so… why?

The honest and most simple answer to that question is: God's calling.

And I think a more theoretical and theological comprehensive answer might be this:

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states in par. 405: “Baptism, (…) erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.”

So… what does that actually mean?

This means that even though baptism can erase original sin, it cannot and will not restore in us the peace and grace of original holiness that Adam and Eve lost as a consequence of their fall from paradise (see CCC par. 399 - 404). Therefore, all of us (baptised or not) are still faced with an inevitable spiritual battle during our life here on earth. As Saint Thomas Aquinas phrased it: “[after baptism] there still remains the inclination to sin that assails us from within, and also the flesh and the devil which assail us from without”. These battles are forced upon us, whether we like it or not. But using our God-given free will, we can either decide to try and tackle them head-on, or run away from them.

Unfortunately, lacking clear and experienced real-life guidance, most of us end up doing a little bit of both and often end up mistakenly incorporating buddhist and other types of meditation or mindfulness techniques to our Christian spiritual armoury. Mistakenly, because the same - but God (+) centred and therefore more effective - techniques have already existed as prayer methods both in the ancient Jewish and later Christian traditions from the very beginning. In the era of the Desert Fathers the general practice, intens study, and therefore increasing efficacy of these prayer techniques reached its zenith.

Though these prayer techniques (Christian meditation, contemplation, and watchfulness) since then slowly became diluted, less central, and therefore ever less practised within the mainstream churches of today, traditional hermits (especially so within the orthodox tradition) have always remained predominantly focused on the original, undiluted, forms of these prayer techniques as practised by the Desert Fathers.

 

"This means that even though baptism can erase original sin, it cannot and will not restore in us the peace and grace of original holiness that Adam and Eve lost as a consequence of their fall from paradise. Therefore, all of us (baptised or not) are still faced with an inevitable spiritual battle during our life here on earth. As Saint Thomas Aquinas phrased it: “[after baptism]there still remains the inclination to sin that assails us from within, and also the flesh and the devil which assail us from without”. These battles are forced upon us, whether we like it or not. But using our God-given free will, we can either decide to try and tackle them head-on, or run away from them"

 

With the help of these more effective prayer techniques, according to (i.a.) the Desert Fathers’ experiences and writings, the outcome of our spiritual battle, when fought deliberately, focused, and well-guided, can in some cases effect God to restore through His (+) grace the peace and original God-centred innocent obedience to God’s will from before the Fall. This battled for (but eventually only God-given) grace of restored original holiness from before the Fall is often referred to as theosis, which is a somewhat exalted word for the very real, direct, and God-given grace of getting to know God (+) through one or more direct personal experiences. This is what the orthodox tradition describes as ‘real theology’.

At its best this spiritual - and very real - battle will eventually lead to a stable state of dispassion. And then - who knows - towards a stable state of theosis already during this lifetime.

 

"Though these prayer techniques (Christian meditation, contemplation, and watchfulness) since then slowly became diluted, less central, and therefore ever less practised within the mainstream churches of today, traditional hermits (especially so within the orthodox tradition) have always remained predominantly focused on the original, undiluted, forms of these prayer techniques as practised by the Desert Fathers"

 

Unfortunately, this is not a one way street. For there are many ups and downs and pitfalls along this spiritual path. So, when we find ourselves placed before such a supernatural battle and goal, we should not ignore 2000 years of history. Because history shows us that this spiritual battle is a very uneven fight indeed, and must even be characterised as asymmetric warfare when seen from our individual human perspective. If that is not yet enough to humble us, then it’s good to remember - as many Desert Fathers already rightly foresaw - that in our present time and in the coming generations there will almost be no one anymore who will successfully reach the threshold of Christian perfection (and will therefore be able to maintain God’s grace of restored holiness) during his or her remaining lifetime here on earth. This means we have to fight this spiritual battle without the help and guidance of real life spirit-bearing elders who can see directly into our souls and who could teach us from their personal experience instead of from hearsay. Without this hands-on help, winning this - unavoidable - spiritual battle during our lifetime becomes even harder to accomplish.

But is this battle and its stated goal still attainable? Yes, it is.

How? By maintaining a dynamic balance between doing our own very best within our life (through the various types of prayer with a focus on Christian meditation, contemplation, and watchfulness, in combination with unflinching self-observation, honest introspection, study, lots of practice, and with constant failures along the way), while at the same time entrusting ourselves fully to God’s (+) divine will and providence.

Or as apostle Paul phrased it more succinctly: by fighting the good fight while aiming to finish the race and keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).

Nothing more. Nothing less.

And this is also why I will always appreciate to receive your feedback - especially when it is critical or even downright negative - in order to help me become a better person, to grow as a hermit, and to apologise and make amends to you whenever you may have felt offended because of me.