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July, 1996 Vol. 2 No. 4
* Thoughts in Solitude by Karen Karper. |
MARABOU is a quarterly newsletter for hermits and those interested in the eremitical life. This newsletter seeks to affirm this life style since it is ecclesially 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.Subscribers to MARABOU are limited to those who are hermits and to those who aspire to the eremitical life. The circulation of MARABOU is limited, but if you feel you would qualify to be on our mailing list, kindly indicate your hermit status.
Write to MARABOU at 7200 W. Division St.; River Forest, Illinois 60305. The annual subscription fee is $7.50. MARABOU (ma-ra-bu) also marabout, marabu, (a. French marabou), app. repr. an Arabic use of murabit, hermit. The stork is said to be mrabt, i.e. hole (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.
Thoughts in Solitude
The trouble with solitude is that until you've dived in so deep you expect to drown, you never overcome the innate terror of being defenseless which haunts us all. Every time I return to my hermitage, even if I've only been away for a few hours doing some necessary business, I experience a twinge of angst as I step over the threshold into the quietness. Something is there -- no, here! -- waiting for me and I revisit the question: "Am I ready?" Anything can loom up out of the stillness and once I am in the hermitage, my barriers are down, I am vulnerable.Defenselessness! It happens whenever I let myself sink once again below the surface of things. No matter how often I've done it and found that I can breath in this serene space, I must renew my choice to risk everything. What am I risking? Merely who I think I am at this point in my life. I too easily identify who I am with labels such as "hermit", "solitary", "religious" or even more generally "woman". I could be all of these yet none of them are who I am in God's eyes.
What I have no defense against in solitude is God's beholding me in all my nakedness. This Rampant Rover overleaps all my barriers of self-definition with a Love I cannot measure and offers me an embrace I cannot bear. That this embrace will involve transformation is a given. Instinctively, I want to shout: "Halt! I doubt that I want to be transformed just now. I am so unsure of who I am. I'm feeling more like an amorphous blob than a definable being. Transformation can be so risky; the outcome so unpredictable...!" No, solitude is not a safe and comfortable place for the fainthearted. The only way I know to survive in it is to forget about surviving. There may be life after death.
Still Wood
Spring Creek, NC
Sounding Solitude
The term "eremos" could be applied to three different lifestyles:The first are those who are more or less born solitaries or else those who have become, for one reason or another, social outcasts. Not all of them are necessarily misanthropes like the current unabomber suspect. Most people of this type are simply harmless introverts who happen to prefer living among wild things more than they do among people. But even the more disagreeable among them sometimes do us a service, if only by remaining out of sight, providing an interesting topic for gossip and speculation, but not forcing themselves or their ideas on anyone else.
Second, there are those, many of whom are very gifted people, who deliberately shut themselves off from human contact for long periods of time, to create some of humanity's greatest treasures while experiencing, Thoreau-like, life in the woods or as Emily Dickinson, in the seclusion of a garret or hidden room. It may very well be that it is their strong extroverted genius (why else do they strive so hard to express themselves?) that drives them to solitude, because it is their very sociablity that is their worst enemy. One cannot help but to think here of Thomas Merton, who once was accused of wanting to be a "hermit on Times Square." Whatever one may think of their inner contradictions, it is unlikely that any of them would have accomplished what they did in a crowd.
Finally, there is the third type of "hermit": they are those who deliberately isolate themselves from normal human contact for reasons that have to do with the search for God -- and perhaps alone are only fully understood by God. Despite the fame of Anthony of Egypt and the fabled "Desert Fathers" (and "Mothers") this is not strictly a Christian phenomenon. There were colonies of solitaries on Mt. Carmel in the time of Elijah the Prophet. There were groups of "theraputae" in Egypt before the beginning of the Christian era, and even well after those times, there were neo-platonist philosophers who believed that the seeker of the ultimate truth must remain "alone with the Alone." But for all that, this solitary religious guest was not seen as something exclusive or esoteric, rather it was seen as a necessary stage in everyone's life -- at least for everyone who truly seeks God.
Stella Maris Hermitage
Johannesburg, Michigan
Sounding Silence II
God is my intimate companion, a friendship that began in childhood. Over the years the friendship grew and fluctuated until in the recent decades I know God as Lover and Beloved and as the Center and Reality of my daily life. All the moments of life are charged with God'presence. I breath God. We commune in silence. God is wherever I am. Rarely is this experience one of any special feelings but just that of deep conviction, a deep knowing. In fact most of the time nothing happens, yet the heart's desire experiences everything more perfectly, more precisely, more profoundly and silently, "the heart rears wings".
Sacred Heart Monastery
Canonical and Legal Reflections
In the last issue of Marabou, I commented on the importance of the relationship between a Hermit and the local ordinary in terms of non-membership in an "institute of consecrated life." I think it would be important also to note that this has an impact on the relationship of a Hermit to the I.R.S. as well! Why?It is the policy, not guaranteed by any law, of the U.S. Government to give exemption to members of religious orders "with a vow of poverty" from income tax provided the income is the result of the particular religious or charitable ministry of the Order and comes from another Catholic exempt entity. For example, the salary paid by a diocese to a sister who works for the diocese is exempt from income tax if that salary goes to her congregation. Presumably her vow of poverty prohibits her from having "private income." If she works for a Methodist hospital, however, her income would be taxable even if that Methodist hospital is tax exempt. In other words, the government tends to regard the institutional side of the Church as one big entity. The proof of exemption is a listing in the Official Catholic Directory, published by the Kenedy Co. And the exemption is not automatic, it must be applied for. A tax I.D. number is given.
This is important because even though a Hermit professed according to Canon 603 makes a public profession of the evangelical counsels, he/she is not a member of a religious order with a vow of poverty. Thus, the Hermit is still subject to paying income tax. Some Hermits seek to create a non-profit corporation, the I.R.S. may show some interest in how the Hermit stays alive and seek to tax according to the fair market value of the benefit received. If the Hermit is an employee of the corporation, the income is taxable, as is any income received from ministry or arts/crafts, etc. Thus, it is important to consult an attorney with a good knowledge of tax law - federal and state - when setting up a hermitage and making profession as a Hermit according to C. 603.
Dominican Priory of San Juan Macias
San Antonio, TX
The Shepherd CallsMy heart at Your sweet VoiceIs rent with longing Ah! I cannot bear it! Yet cannot live without Your Song, Your siren Song, My soul's goal. I long - I yearn. You but touch me lightly And I swoon At this boon. Love's gentle touch wells up From the eternal spring within Filling my cup To its brim And does bring Such ardor For right order In everything. I hear, so near Let Me love you Now! Here! You are mine And I will not let you go.
Sr. Alice Carr |
The Four GiftsI. Give the gift of holinessto me, the gift a pilgrim's life to lead; and penitence, soul's gift: these grant, Christ, untrimmed.
II. Trials gladly volunteered
III. May I depart, powerful
IV. Hear, Christ, of hosts angelic
Maol Tosa O Brolchain |
Bulletin Board
Una-hermit?This is big news if you're an Anglican: Brother Harold, the Church of England's last official hermit, recently converted to Roman Catholicism. Now in his 60s, Brother Harold lives in the wilds of Northumberland and is a bit of a local celebrity. The Anglicans were said to be "saddened" by his decision, and have graciously allowed him to remain in his hermitage, which belongs to them and whose address is a secret. The hermitages only creature comforts are cold water, an oil lamp and a wood-burning stove. Brother Harold has not been able to find peace "with the changing nature of authority in the Church of England," his fellow friars say. (The first Christian hermits fled into the Egyptian desert to escape Roman persecution in the third century. They helped lay the foundations for other monastic lifestyles. The hermetical tradition is rare today in western society.) New World 4-19-96
"Sounding Solitude" is looking for more writers. It is subtitled, 'Hermits-Helping-Hermits' and we would be delighted to receive information and experiences from other hermits. Please submit any copy to the Marabou address. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Change of Address: Karen Karper, Box 562, Hot Springs, NC 28743, does all our address labels. If you have a change of address, kindly write to her.
New Subscription, or Renewal to Marabou: Send new and renewal of yearly subscriptions to the Marabou address. The going rate is $7.50 per year for those who can afford it.
Kindly take note that Marabou is for hermits and those who aspire to the eremitical life. Of late we have been getting enquiries and some subscriptions from New Age groups, curiosity seekers, and those who now find Marabou on the Internet. We are unable to meet the demands of those who are not aligned to the hermit lifestyle. When seeking a subscription, please let Marabou know of your eremitical status. Thank you!