Christ's Mass Day: the Complete Hermit Celebrates

How does a complete hermit celebrate the Feast of Christ's Mass?

Much depends upon the degree to which the complete hermit acquiesces to God, His will--and to what Christ Mass Day brings from within the Sacred Heart of Christ. And that degree is really not known to the hermit.

However, on the day of Christ's Mass Eve, the hermit went to 8 a.m. Mass, and then ran yet another errand (they will end at death!), and then back to noon Mass, for there were to be confessions following, and it seemed somehow just the thing to pray with the priest and the people of God once more, and to thank Jesus once more for His receiving this soul and allowing it to nest in His Heart.

The hermit went to confession, which is like being within Christ's Heart and within His Heart, again within His Heart once more, as if nesting within nesting. Then not sure what after, for there was praying the penance and pondering--and returning to Agnus Dei, and writing and doing a little editing, and then waiting, waiting, waiting for Midnight Mass! There was a phone call within that waiting, and that was lovely. The hermit realizes that in our time, it is the phone calls and e-mails which constitute the "visitors."

For dinner the hermit ate beet greens, simmered in vegetable broth.

Midnight Mass: description runs similar to that of what it is inside the Sacred Heart. There really is not adequate description. Perhaps "Gloria in excelcis Deo" comes closest, if words make attempt. The Bishop had a homily more forceful, eloquent, refreshed and hopeful than ever before; but this is only because Masses build one upon the other, as in crescendo of glorias. Every aspect of the Mass is more, more, more and better, better, better. This is because the Mass is the closest to Heaven that we will experience on earth. Love encounters Love, and through Love, dies and rises within, and receives imperfect love into perfect Love.

The hermit drove to Agnus Dei at 2:30 a.m. and opened the large gift from the Spiritual Da, and sipped a thimbleful of Chartreuse (liqueur made by the Carthusians since 1605, utilizing 130 herbs). A thimbleful is enough to encourage physical resting. What did the Spiritual Da give the hermit? Out of a thin, flat box shown the gilt frame encasing Pope Benedict XVI's photograph! Not a small photograph, but a large one framed professionally, and worthy of a Cathedral vestibule or Chauncery office! The hermit laughed aloud and toasted our Holy Father with the Chartreuse, and said, "I must surely be an authentic Catholic now!" The hermit is bonding with the photo, and it is standing up against the hermit's coffin here in Agnus Dei's great (small) room. The hermit laughs because just a week or so ago came the chastizing e-mail from the Protestant woman who was "horrified" by the hermit's mentioning of adoring Mary and feeling close to her--as if adoring someone or something contains only one sense of the word, such as godly worship. I suppose a complete hermit ought hang the huge portrait of the Holy Father on some remaining wall space, if some can be found, and to pray for his intentions daily. Yes, there is a reason why Pope Benedict XVI is smiling gently at me right now. He has given himself to Holy Mother Church, and also must the hermit follow his lead, day in and night out, living the Nine S' here while the Pope lives his rule of life in the Vatican and all around the world.

The hermit was awakened Christ Mass morn, early, with a phone call from an adult daughter. All the adult children and their families are visiting the other parent and (re-married) spouse in a distant locale. Later, another call came; they are having a good visit, and the hermit is thankful, pleased, and yet very amazed at just how pleased and freeing this development is, from within the Sacred Heart. Peace and joy in even this otherwise past sorrowful occurrence of events.

Then some hot coffee and a treat of stollen, purchased on clearance. Then a hot bath to ease some pain, and off to 11:30 a.m. Christ's Mass. Yes, all Masses are Christ's. The Rector spoke about Christ's Mass. He spoke about much good that benefitted the hermit from within Christ's Sacred Heart, at His Mass. Gloria in excelsis Deo, again: this describes Christ's Mass.

A couple sat behind the hermit, and they were not Catholic, and asked the hermit some questions toward the earthly conclusion of Christ's never-ending Mass. Then we spoke after, for some time, as they each attend denominations that the hermit had attended BC (before being Catholic, before Conversion, before Confirmation as a Catholic). The man spoke loudly, and they both asked questions and showed themselves to be very on fire for the Lord. Yet, as the hermit knows from having been in their Protestant shoes, what they know is but a smidgeon of an immensity that Catholicism could open to their eyes if they chose to enter in--yes, to be received into the Sacred Heart. They wanted the hermit to join them for lunch, but the hermit declined. Yet, they want to get together again, to talk, and the man is convinced that the reason we met and spoke is for him to help the hermit with some perceived insurance need; but the real reason is for the hermit to simply invite them to become Catholics, to let them know that they could go to RCIA to learn more, and that their souls would very much go onto the next rung of the ladder, and would progress rapidly rung after run, if they could allow the curtain to be drawn open and the full stage revealed.

There really isn't anything other that the hermit could discuss with them, than this invitation. Did Jesus go on and on and beg people to comprehend? He said, "Eat my Body; drink my Blood; if you do you will have eternal life; if you do not, you will not have life." Some stuck with Him; others left thinking He was crazy or not willing to follow Him. It is like that in the Church, the Catholic Church, for there is a commitment. Even those who grow lax in their commitment, at some point made that commitment, and can return to an intense degree of honoring it, any time they choose. Yes, we do have so many choices that God allows us to make!

The man spoke so forcefully, that the hermit needed quiet and prayer in the Cathedral, alone, following their departure. By then, everyone had long since left, and the hermit was alone with the Most Blessed Trinity, with the angels and saints, and with all the souls of Catholics who for a century and a half had celebrated Christ's Mass on that very ground. Kneeling at the manger, praying the Morning Office in front of Mary, Joseph and the Baby within Whose Infant Heart-Made-Sacred, the hermit nests--the hermit thanked God for all.

Back to Agnus Dei, a little editing, a little baking of holy day bread to eat, a salad with remaining avocado and cheese, and later two phone calls to elderlies. The hermit wrote from within the Sacred Heart, this year's Christ's Mass letter to family and friends.

Now, after a snack of herbed brie and crackers, and considering another thimbleful of Chartreuse, the hermit ponders afresh the penance which the priest yesterday suggested, and that of asking Jesus to allow me to be reborn in graces and virtues for His use and in God's will. At first the confessor suggested that I ask Jesus to come into my heart with these, but the hermit asked if it would be all right if, since the hermit is nesting within His Sacred Heart, and the perspective is no longer "I" or "my" but of being trained to see all from within Christ's Heart, that the request be of what He desires for me, in Him. The "me" is still not "us", for "me" is yet sooty snow. Much gratitude that He allows sooty snow in His Heart and will continue melting that snow by His touch, and washes the blackened grit out His wound.

Yes, there will be some spiritual reading, and pondering of some Scripture, but mostly it will be pondering into the night stillness, and gratitude, and the wonderment of His love.

The complete hermit will smile from within His Smile, and will be extra tiny from within His Baby Heart of Sacred Immensity on this night of Christ's Mass.