MARABOU

JANUARY 1995 VOL: 1 NO: 2

Thoughts in Solitude

Jesus Is

Human and Divine
Temporal and Eternal.
Eternal Word and Palestinian Jew
Brother and Lord
Crucified and Risen One
Alpha and Omega.

Jesus is the Concrete Univcrsal.

+ + + + + +

Everyone who wishes to be a disciple of Jesus
must be a coincidentia oppositorum.
+ The reconciliation of opposites. +
Such is the Paradox of the Incarnation.

Every person must find his or her Paradox
to be a disciple of Jesus.

+ + + + + +

And The Hermit?

The hermit must
Live alone to live with everyone
Be silent in order to speak
Shut doors to open the door
Flee in order to embrace
Listen in order to proclaim
Be solitary to combat loneliniess
Alone to resist individualism
Say "Yes" by saying "No"
Forget in order to remember.

+ + + + + +

Lawrence S. Cunningham
Dept. of Theology
University of Notre Dame

Biographical Sketch

Saint Paul of Thebes: First Hermit

Paul was born Upper Egypt c. 228 and withdrew to the Thebian desert where he lived as a hermit for nearly ninety years. St. Jerome is his biographer as he wrote about two other hermits, Hilarion and Malchus. It seems that the hennit Anthony, of whom St. Athanasius wrote, visited Paul before he died. It is said that two lions dug Paul's grave with their claws when he was laid to rest.

The Paulite Order, named after Saint Paul, was founded in 1246 under Bl. Eusebius who gathered together the hermits of Hungary and Croatia. Often found in Paulite monasteries are the attributes of Paul, a palm tree and a raven, the former provided him with leaves for his attire, while the latter brought him bread. One of the most famous Paulitc monasteries is that of Jasna Gora in Poland where the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa continues to be venerated.

Library

WHERE GOD BEGINS TO BE: A WOMAN'S JOURNEY INTO SOLITUDE, by Karen Karper, PCPA Published Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994, ISBN 0-8028@718-6, Paper, 127 pp, $10.99. To order, call: 1-80@-253-7521

HERMIT LISTING: 1994, from Sr. Mary Vogel, H.S.S.R., Prayer Mountun Hermitage, Route 3, Box 3574, Palestine, TX 75801, Price: $1.00.

FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHT'S, Brother Ramon, S.S.F ISBN 551-02738-x, Harper Collins, U.K.

Sounding Solitude

For those who may be interested, I am a carmelite sister into her second year of exclaustratiom for the purpose of discerning the authenticity of a call to a more eremitical way of life. In England, at this point of time, most carmelite monasteries do not deem it right to integrate a hermit, even from their own community, into a life within the enclosure. I understand that a few do in America. I've been advised to "try several ways of leading the hermit life." I am currently renting a small flat in a private house; well-supported as to silence and solitude; listening, I hope well, and trusting that the Lord's usual one-step-at-a-time will continue to become clear. Perhaps 'pilgrim" may be a better describer than hermit! I am unclear about many things and would value a clarification of terms, for a start. E.g.

1. Hermit, in the twentieth century; consecrated virgin; order of v1rgins; solitary; recluse and maybe others.

2. Is it felt that there exists an absolute need for a spiritual director or does a genuine eremitical call presuppose sufficient maturity to discern for oneself?

3. Is it felt that to develop the various third orders would offer a certain flexible structure for some would-be hermit?

4. Because most of us no longer neither live in the desert nor caves, at a distance from "civilization," the question arises as to how much interaction with others of the human family constitutes a threat to an authentic eremitical vocation? To observe -- as a case in point -- a Thomas Merton with his massive correspondence and international journeyings while a hermit belonging to an enclosed religious order can, with to his judgement, create confusion in the minds of lesser mortals. Connnents on this area would be gratefiuly received, together with some guiding criteria.

- Sr. Mary of the Trinity, O.C.D.

"Sounding Solitude"
Hermits-Helping-Hermits
Route 3; Box 3574
Palestine, TX 75801

Canonical and Legal Reflections

It is the fate of lawyers, whether civil or canonical, to be unpopular because they are often called on when people are in trouble or frustrated. The same is true for physicians. Physicians do a better job of emphasizing preventive health care, even if many people disregard the advice. The legal profession could serve a lot of people better by emphasizing "preventive legal care."

My reflections in this issue deal with thc subject of "preventive legal care" for hermits. If solitude and freedom are tresured aspects of eremitical life, prudent efforts to secure these are worthwhile at the outset. This means avoiding unneccssary legal hassles. To begin with, the diocese in which the hermit seeks to locate may provide a valuable referral to a reliable attomey. Such an attorney can assist a hermit in learning the legal status of the location of the hermitage (any uknown tax lines?), securing a proper sale or lease to protect the use of the location, etc. If the hermit is seeking the advantages of a church-related tax exemption, the attorney can help through setting up a charitable non-profit corporation for the hermitage. The diocese can help by making sure the hermitage is listed in the Official Catholic Directory which is used by the government to determine the tax status of Catholic institutions. A good attorney can assist in determining the tax liabilities for any incorme-raising projects - crafts or products from the hermit. In short, it is to the advantage of any hermit or group of hermits to do the necessary legal homework prior to settling somewhere, no matter how remote. Proper legal advice can save a great deal of hassle later on. An ascetical disdain for these "worldly" realities cam jeopardize the very solitude and peace that hermits seek.

-- Fr. R. B. Williams, O.P., J.D.

Poet Tree

Silent is the snow
Like tiny angels floating form the heavens
S i f t i n g
S l o w
Reducing all the earth to purist silence
God to know.

Sister Mary Grace, O.C.D.

Puer Natus est Nobis

Babe who suckled hand-cupped breast
And sought mother's love-embrace,
Needed Mary to grow from wrinkled body and face
To ageful maturity;
Wisely setting aside any trace of power-might Godhead.
He chose dim shadow of weak and helpless groping.
We welcome him at peak of Triune intervention,
That we might seek him,
Rid of fear and misery-ridden convention.

Today he is born to us, joined life to us, Emmanuel,
And born beyond us as life-giving new well
Of spring water rising to due swell
To assuage our God-thirst;
So born from her womb-inn,
Severing umbilical cord of Adam's sin,
Giving birth to him in every friend and sin.

--Bede Jagoe

Anchorite in Metropolis

The mind's Sahara closes out
the steel trees of the city,
glassed-in mountans,
sounds of a concrete land.

Alone, I search my
proper country's bounds
to find a footprint in the sand.

--Leonard Cochran, O.P.

Bulletin Board

Sr. Mary Vogel has a list of hermits, who allowed their names to be submitted for 1994. She also has a list of hermitage retreat sites. However, she does not have information concerning the availability of helmitage sites. MARABOU would be interested in these permanent sites and such information could be sent to the newsletter.

Please note a correction: Sr. Mary Vogel's zip code is 75801.

If you have information for the Bulletin Board, send it to MARABOU 7200 Division Street, River Forest, IL 60305.

A sincere thanks to those (36 in number) who have sent in a contribution to support MARABOU. A special note of gratitude to those who had to sacrifice to send in $1.00 or $2.00 and to those who sent more than the suggested $5.00. The estimated cost for paper, printing, and posting is $100.00 for 200 subscribers.

A debt of gratitude to those who have sent in matenal for Sounding Solitude and Poetry Tree. All of this will appear in forthcoming issues.

A change of address, and a full zip code (zip-plus-four) should be sent to Karen Karper, Colt Ridge, Route 1, Box 187-B, Spencer, WV 25276.

On a seasonal and liturgical note, MARABOU wishes you a most blessed Christmas season and a New Year filled with peace, joy and love, all in harmonious solitude. St. Paul remmds us in Ephesians that God, in giving life to Jesus, gives life to us. May we live that life to the fullest!

Maribou is a quarterly newsletter for hermits and those interested to the eremitical life. This newsletter seeks to affirm this life style since it is ecclesiastically recognized and endorsed by the Church. Marabou is to be a collaborative effort and thus depends on the reflections, poetry, news and information from hermits themselves. Marabou (ma-ra-bu) also marabout, marabu, (a. Frencg marabou), app. repr. an Arabic use of murabit, hermit. The stork is said to be mrabt i.e. holy (Pagni in Daozy, Suppl. aux Dictt. arabes, s.v. murabit). Marabou, a large stork or heron, leptoptilius marabou, or crumnifer, a native of West Africa.