I am reading several books by Sister Benedicta Ward SLG. Her order, the Sisters of the Love of God, is the closest to the ideals of the Desert Christians within Anglicanism. In one of her books (well, actually the introduction), she makes the following point:

They were people who did without: not much sleep, no baths, poor food, little company, ragged clothes, hard work, no leisure, absolutely no sex, and even, in some places, no church either—a dramatic contrast of immediate interest to those who lived out the Gospel differently.

The Desert Of The Heart: Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers

The Desert Christians did without the church! There is, I think, a parallel between the Abraham of Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling – a person before religion – and the Christians of the desert – individuals before the institution. These desert dwellers lived (more or less) without the Eucharist – they had a eucharistic life rather than living the Eucharist. Something that strikes me as outside of the experience of modern-day monasticism.

The second point that Ward makes is:

Their name itself, anchorite, means rule-breaker, the one who does not fulfil his public duties.

The Desert Of The Heart: Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers.

A solitary is someone who steps outside the common norm, who does not live like everyone else, and who displays desires that are considered odd. Maybe it is about living outside of the norms in a society and culture where Jesus no longer has a place.

Food for thought. Anyway ….

There are always likely to be some men and women who feel that ‘material’ solitude is essential for their spiritual life. They can no more do without it than without food or drink, and if they are deprived of this isolation their lives become spoilt, cramped, and distorted, and they never find their true vocations. The ‘born solitary’ is drawn to an eremitical life for various reasons, partly natural, partly supernatural. … They discover that they need to separate themselves from their fellow-creatures, in order that their latent powers may have room for expansion and growth, that they may be more fitted so to serve mankind generally.

Solitude and Communion: Papers on the Hermit Life (Fairacres Publications) .

The above is a quote from Peter F Anson’s The Call of the Desert. (A book, btw, I do not own or have read so if anyone wants to donate it to The Anchorage Library please do!!!!). It is quoted in the collection of papers from the 1975 conference on the solitary life. The essays are a must-read for anyone interested in the topic, especially those in the wider Anglican world.

I was struck by the line: “The ‘born solitary’ is drawn to an eremitical life for various reasons, partly natural, partly supernatural“. The vocation of any individual is (partly) a call to use natural gifts for a supernatural end. The inclination of the individual to be alone is not the supernatural end! Or, to look at it slightly differently, a vocation is not a role one plays but a life one lives.

No matter what the gift – music, solitude, art, intellect, caring – it must be pointed to Jesus to become a vocation. St Paul calls it “upbuilding”, as does Kierkegaard. Your “happy place” only becomes a vocation when it is used for the upbuilding of the people of God.

Anyway ….

The Church, whose function is to proclaim the Kingdom, is preserved from the folly of compromise with the world, insofar as she heeds and cherishes the strange scandal of the solitary vocation.

“The Biblical Background to the Solitary Life”, Roland Walls, in Solitude and Communion: Papers on the Hermit Life

Social alienation is a person’s feeling of disconnection from a group – whether friends, family, or wider society – with which the individual has an affiliation. Such alienation has been described as “a condition in social relationships reflected by (1) a low degree of integration or common values and (2) a high degree of distance or isolation (3a) between individuals, or (3b) between an individual and a group of people in a community or work environment”.

Social alienation

I am reading the papers that were presented at the 1975 St David’s Meeting on the solitary life. A must-read for anyone interested, especially in the Anglican context.

A modern world, and maybe even a modern church, mistakes being “alone” for being “alienated”. The recluse is alienated from society – feels no connection with the world – the solitary is alone with God. According to the desert Christians, the solitary has a profound “solidarity” with all human beings. I feel alienated in most social contexts!

Alienation is “abstraction over the individual”. A role is something I do, vocation is something I am. A role (abstraction) works from the outside in, a vocation works from the inside out.

Where I am in all that I have absolutely no idea!

The church is a community that exists because something has happened which makes the entire process of self-justification irrelevant. …

The church points to the all-sufficiency of Christ when it is full of people whose concern is not to separate others from the hope of reconciliation and life by their fears and obsessions. A healthy church is one in which we seek to stay connected with God by seeking to connect others with God; one in which we ‘win God’ by converting one another, and we convert one another by our truthful awareness of frailty.

Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert, 33-34.

The solitary‘s aloneness allows them to live beyond comparisons. And, the solitary‘s humanness allows them to live in deep communion with other people.

Whatever happened to hand-written letters?

I want to share something from Appendix V from the section dealing with spiritual direction for hermits:

Frequent meeting is not desirable, and most questions might be dealt with by correspondence.

Soul-friendship (a much better word for spiritual direction) should be via hand-written letters: sitting down, planning, and then physically writing with a pen. Some people journal – I do with a fountain pen. So a hand-written letter to your soul-friend asking questions, outlining problems, and celebrating “victories” would be a great way for a “hermit” (or anchorite) to receive (and maybe give) spiritual direction. One could keep the letters for later re-reading, say after a year.

What do you think?