Becoming a hermit

[Paphnutius]

[quote name='Mary-Kathryn' date='Jan 16 2006, 05:42 PM']There are The Hermits of Bethlehem.  I believe they are in New Jersey. I had read another book that their Desrt Father, Fr. Romano wrote, and picked up their Rule of Life out of sheer curiosity.  If you would like, I can mail you the book on their rule.  Email me off-line with your info.

BTW:  If you are more comfortable with the mail being addressed to, and going to, to someone you trust, parents, trusted adults...I completely get it in this day and age.

Mary-Kathryn
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As one interestedin Monasticism I would appreciate a link if you have one.

[Mary-Kathryn]

[quote name='Paphnutius' date='Jan 16 2006, 06:49 PM']As one interestedin Monasticism I would appreciate a link if you have one.
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I do not know of an email address or website for them. They are in the Diocese of Paterson New Jersey. The kink below takes you to an article writen by a lay person who visited. At the end of the article is an address

[url="http://www.laycarthusians.homestead.com/Lit1.html"]http://www.laycarthusians.homestead.com/Lit1.html[/url]

I also found pictures on this page of the Transfiguration monastery in Vermont. It is Carthusian.

[url="http://www.laycarthusians.homestead.com/TRANSFIGURATION.html"]http://www.laycarthusians.homestead.com/TRANSFIGURATION.html[/url]

I would also suggest the Cistercians and here is one of my favorite Benedictine monasteries:

[url="http://www.christdesert.org/"]http://www.christdesert.org/[/url]

prayers for you!

Edited January 17, 2006 by Mary-Kathryn

[Extra ecclesiam nulla salus]

[quote name='Mary-Kathryn' date='Jan 16 2006, 06:42 PM']There are The Hermits of Bethlehem.  I believe they are in New Jersey. I had read another book that their Desrt Father, Fr. Romano wrote, and picked up their Rule of Life out of sheer curiosity.  If you would like, I can mail you the book on their rule.  Email me off-line with your info.

BTW:  If you are more comfortable with the mail being addressed to, and going to, to someone you trust, parents, trusted adults...I completely get it in this day and age.

Mary-Kathryn
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Hi,

I thank you for your generosity. But I could not accept that. I am really not suppoused to be on Forums (my confessor said it was ok if it was a Catholic forum). My parents would not be pleased if i recieved a book about Catholicism in the mail. Thank you once again.

God Bless,

sam

[jezic]

Carthusians are the only one of the older orders never to be reformed (up to now).

If you are doing a personal hermitage thing, i don't think that you need a rule of life. If it is something that would be professed, that would be a different story.

Why can't men be consecrated virgins?

[shortnun]

[quote name='jezic' date='Jan 16 2006, 08:10 PM']Why can't men be consecrated virgins?
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I can not give you a truly historical and/or theological explanation. I can give you a quote from the website of the US Association of Consecrated Virgins.

[quote][b]Who can be consecrated?[/b]

A woman living in the world who has never married or lived in open violation of chastity, and who by age, prudence, and good character is deemed suitable for dedicating herself to a life of chastity in the service of the Church and of her neighbor may petition her bishop to receive the Consecration. She must be admitted to this Consecration by her local Bishop; it is he who determines the conditions under which the candidate is to undertake a life of perpetual virginity lived in the world. Usually, a woman who aspires to the Consecration works with a spiritual director and has lived a private promise of perpetual virginity for some years before seeking the Consecration of a Virgin.

It is understood that a laywoman aspiring to the Consecration of a Virgin is able to support herself by work or pension or independent means and has provided financially for her medical care.

A woman aspiring to the Consecration should be practicing her faith. She accepts the teaching of the Church and Sacred Scripture, with a readiness and capacity for personal growth. She should be able to give herself totally to God and the Church.[/quote]

[url="http://www.consecratedvirgins.org/"]Consecrated Virgins website.[/url]

Edited January 17, 2006 by shortnun

[photosynthesis]

[quote name='Myles' date='Jan 16 2006, 06:21 PM']Fr John Corapi is a hermit. Great guy
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then why is he on TV?

I did my high senior school project on hermits and early monasticism. it's kinda funny because i was really militant and anti-catholic then. who knew that i would have come back to the Church? i still wonder why I picked that topic... but I know the Hand of God was working. For part of the project I spent a weekend "in solitude" in my basement. No one was allowed to come down and bother me for a whole weekend, and I spent it reading the Apothegmata and Thomas Merton's "Thoughts in Solitude." It was awesome... I highly recommend doing the same

[Myles Domini]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Jan 17 2006, 05:55 AM']then why is he on TV?

I did my high senior school project on hermits and early monasticism.  it's kinda funny because i was really militant and anti-catholic then.  who knew that i would have come back to the Church?  i still wonder why I picked that topic... but I know the Hand of God was working.  For part of the project I spent a weekend "in solitude" in my basement.  No one was allowed to come down and bother me for a whole weekend, and I spent it reading the Apothegmata and Thomas Merton's "Thoughts in Solitude."  It was awesome...  I highly recommend doing the same
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The short and simple of why Fr Corapi is on TV is because he gets asked to preach in various places as various hermits and monks have throughout history e.g. St Bernard of Clairvaux who preached the 2nd Crusade. Obviously were he not being invited by diocesian officials to preach he'd be at his hermitage but Fr Corapi has a gift for apostolic preaching and part of his ermetical vocation is to share the fruits of his contemplation.

[Theoketos]

Keep in Mind the warning of St. Benedict.

It is well known that there are four kinds of monks. The first kind is that of Cenobites, that is, the monastic, who live under a rule and an Abbot.

[b]The second kind is that of Anchorites, or Hermits, that is, of those who, no longer in the first fervor of their conversion, but taught by long monastic practice and the help of many brethren, have already learned to fight against the devil; and going forth from the rank of their brethren well trained for single combat in the desert, they are able, with the help of God, to cope single-handed without the help of others, against the vices of the flesh and evil thoughts.[/b]

But a third and most vile class of monks is that of Sarabaites, who have been tried by no rule under the hand of a master, as gold is tried in the fire (cf Prov 27:21); but, soft as lead, and still keeping faith with the world by their works, they are known to belie God by their tonsure. Living in two's and three's, or even singly, without a shepherd, enclosed, not in the Lord's sheepfold, but in their own, the gratification of their desires is law unto them; because what they choose to do they call holy, but what they dislike they hold to be unlawful.

But the fourth class of monks is that called Landlopers, who keep going their whole life long from one province to another, staying three or four days at a time in different cells as guests. Always roving and never settled, they indulge their passions and the cravings of their appetite, and are in every way worse than the Sarabaites. It is better to pass all these over in silence than to speak of their most wretched life.

[Paphnutius]

What translation of the RB is that?