How do you become a religious hermit?

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I’ve always had a reclusive life and now I feel called to religious life as a hermit. I want to dedicate myself to serving the God I love. Any advice on how to do that would be appreciated! 🙂
 
jredden92 said:
Any advice on how to do that would be appreciated!
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It starts with contacting your diocesan vocations director. If they are convinced you are hermit material, you will be assigned a spiritual director under whom you can discern the finer details of your vocation.
 
A means of support, along with a support system. You’d also be required to have a will and life insurance.

A plan of life that includes Mass; Liturgy of the Hours; and personal devotions. Will you wear a habit, and how will it show your Spirituality?

Do you plan to follow an established rule? Or will it be eclectic? Do you know how to fight spiritually? Is this effort coming from misanthropy, or a genuine call to be alone with the Alone for the sake of humanity?

The local parish will be considered your community.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
 
I failed to add that one will have to live their plan of life for some years, then, if desirous of having canonical status, make vows in the hands of the bishop. Read everything you can about hermits, and especially about spiritual warfare.

If adapting a habit, utilize a prototype one day a week, without going outside, nor being seen through windows, to see if the habit will work for you.
 
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You can do it the old fashioned way and leave everything behind and wander off into the wilderness. You can be a desert hermit or a woodland hermit or even a guy that lives in a van down by the river.

But so you know being a Hermit is no easy task. Both physical and spiritual level.
 
A couple of things that might be helpful:
  1. No matter what we believe our vocation is (hermit, priest, married, electrician) we should discern with someone else, particularly a very wise spiritual person - a Spiritual Father. Humans are often wrong when they try to judge themselves.
  2. The Hermit/Anchorite vocation is exceedingly rare and should be approached with care. One should never, under any circumstances just go into the woods on one’s own. There are many stories of people going insane from that much isolation. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, one becomes a monk or nun and then gets a blessing from their superior to live that lifestyle.
 
I recommend reading posts from notesfromstillsong.blogspot.com. This is a blog by Sr. Laurel O’Neal, who is a diocesan hermit. She has a lot of information about the process of becoming a hermit and also talks about what it is like to live as one.
 
Most modern day hermits do not live in the wilderness under harsh conditions and cut off from everyone.

They may live in a rural area or in an apartment in a city. They will attend Mass in a parish and will have some socialization time as part of their rule of life.

They must have a means of support as the diocese does not support them. For some this involves use of a computer and the internet for writing, editing, etc.
 
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