Hermit Nests Within the Sacred Heart

The hermit has struggled a bit recently with being viewed. This is rather a self-centered problem of the ego, the who-I-am.

The Lord desires the hermit to ponder this, and lessons come from all directions. The hermit's writer friend wrote in his novel, the main character's discovering who he "really is"--and had left that discovery at the level of the character's sexual identity. This is a seed on the surface of senses.

The hermit then felt the returning pricks of being noticed, of being viewed by others, of being objectified. Who is the person: that one who comes and goes from Mass, who on occasion is an extraoridinary Minister of the Eucharist, who on occasion is a lector at weekday Mass, who seems not to socialize, has adult children not in the area, lives someplace unknown, often has a book in hand, goes to confession frequently, is tall, thin, older, and now dressed in tasteful, proper, more formal attire?

For the most part, the outer aspects serve as a privacy fence about the hermit's personhood. Only a handful of closest encounters have heard the "hermit" descriptor used. It means nothing to the bulk who do not know what a hermit is. And who is the hermit?

Again, the outer apparel, the garb, the "habit", has become a point of consternation. The hermit made a trip to the store the other day, to return some items, to purchase some gifts for the Church's "giving tree" program, and also to see about some additional black and brown sweaters to layer in the cold winter months. The hermit found several, some clearanced, all low prices but nice quality, all very classic and tasteful. The cart was mounded, as the hermit needed to determine sizes and fit, and to think through what would be beneficial or not.

Along came a person from the hermit's Church, who in the past has made remarks of establishing authority and territory. The hermit shrinks from such needs. The person commented to the hermit that soon the hermit will become a fashion model. This comment was yet another threat to the hermit's peace; and the hermit began to explain the habit, the black and brown, the having rid out all else in an attempt to not be noticed--but stopped. The person making the comment did not need to know the interior reasons the hermit has for this or that. "He spoke not; He opened not His mouth."

No, the hermit must root out the issues that reside within the hermit. Awkwardness from an early age, not feeling comfortable in being noticed, not appreciating comments on "looks" or "outer appearances"--all contribute. But the hermit cannot (and ought not!) control what others notice or what they choose to make comment.

This brings the hermit to the point of having asked the confessor about taking up more austerities, of being more ascetical. And this morning after Mass, the hermit shared with the priest how it seems Jesus prefers the "austerity" of a soul--a genderless soul--in nothingness, to nest within His Sacred Heart. It seemed this nesting is austerity itself, for from within the Sacred Heart, the genderless soul views all from Christ's view, and thus nothing of the exterior really matters all that much.

But yet it matters in the view and sense of love. And in love, by love, and for love--all temporalities and objects must be viewed. As the Carthusian wrote of detachment not meaning that one does not love things, from within the Sacred Heart the genderless soul loves all that Jesus loves. And Jesus loves all that is of God and all that can be of God.

The priest this morning at first said that being in the Sacred Heart is not an austerity. Then he said, that of course, from the world's view, it would seem an austerity; but from the spiritual realm, and for the soul's existence, nesting within the Sacred Heart of Jesus is very rich indeed, and very good! In fact, he said there is none richer.

Nesting within the Sacred Heart of Jesus is so perfectly internal that it places all externals in order. It creates an ordered love; and love of objects, people, thoughts, comments, actions, intentions--when loved from within the Sacred Heart--are loved appropriately. From within the Sacred Heart, the view is not of extremes, for their is naught but stability within this Heart. There is not re-action to actions not so loving or not from the Heart, nor lesser than purity and goodness.

The hermit pondered being inside the Sacred Heart and the peace, love, joy, security.... All the Nine S' reside in His Heart: silence, solitude, slowness, suffering (Jesus' wound is in His Heart), selflessness, simplicity, stability, stillness, and serenity. All is in order, and the genderless soul in nothingness is thus not concerned with what is not but rather with what is. The outer realm then becomes one to be viewed and also that which is to be put to order, in kind.

This process emanates from some mysterious center point in the darkness of the Sacred Heart--so mysterious as to be not pinpointed, and barely ponderable. It is rather a reverse of ordering, from the soul with its will and intellect (and understanding) to the imagination to the emotions to the senses at the outer ring, back out into the temporal. All is put into order, into ordered love. Detachments become disciplined by love, and the body's functions are lovingly ordered with proper health and maintenance. The cleanliness, posture, tidiness, and appropriate apparel are put in loving order. The hermitage and all its lovely, comforting and useful items are put into order. The books are put into order. The vehicle is put into order. The garden is put into order. The food to prepare and eat are put into order. The other-encounters are put into order. The hours and minutes and moments are put into order with nothing allowed that is not of God, not befitting the Sacred Heart.

At the same time, the emotions are put into order; the imagination--the nightdreams and daydreams--are put into order, the intellect and will are put into order: all is lovingly ordered to the loving and perfect propriety of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Thus, it is not a matter of taking "the discipline" unless that brings loving order, or of dieting unless that brings gluttony into loving order, or of ridding out material objects unless that brings excess and not-of-God-objects into loving order. Discipline is used to bring vices, bringing other-than-God, into loving order.

How large is the Sacred Heart? It is large enough to hold all genderless souls and all their ordered loves.

It comes down to love, to order, to loving order.

The hermit pondered what the priest said, and exclaimed gratitude, for the hermit had not considered austerities in this light, and also had not considered how very rich is what the world would consider barren.

Perhaps the person commenting on the hermit's outer appearance and apparel might consider the acoutrements of body to be rich, when it is the acoutrements of soul that may be far the richer. And that person may not come to know what is within the hermit and within Whom the hermit nests--unless in time that person enters into the Sacred Heart as a genderless soul, in nothingness, to view others from a light in the darkness.

And this is how all souls should exist and make their views be known: from within the Sacred Heart.

The hermit stopped at a bakery on the way back to Agnus Dei and purchased a walnut-date, caramel-iced, Danish roll. The hermit, as genderless soul, was celebrating the view from within the Sacred Heart, from the nest of Love. The soul who waited on the hermit remains a genderless soul, but one quite pleasant and helpful; and the money spent was a tiny bit helpful for that baker-soul's daily bread. Love was exchanged in the order, and the Danish roll was later eaten in orderly love.

Does this make sense? Has the hermit learned a more perfect perspective of ascetism, austerity, orderly love and richness?