P. Gorazd Cetkovský O.Carm.
During one of the formation meetings, we reflected on the meaning of solitude in our spiritual life in some communities of Carmel's tertiaries. We offer this material for personal inspiration also through the magazine.
The first brothers on Mount Carmel were hermits
They intentionally sought solitude. The rule states: “You may have places in solitude or where they are granted to you…” (c. 2) and “each of you shall have a separate cell…” (c. 3). By “cell,” it was originally meant to be a little house, later a room.
And “all shall remain in their cells or nearby, and day and night meditate on the law of the Lord and be vigilant in prayers, unless they are otherwise occupied for just reasons” (c. 7). To ensure peace for the brothers: “The prior's cell should be close to the entrance, so that he may meet the newcomers first, and according to his decision and orders, all that needs to be done shall be carried out” (c. 6). Thus, the brothers experienced together only: the celebration of the Eucharist each morning and the so-called chapter on Sundays (“discuss the matters of keeping the rule and the salvation of souls” – c. 11).
Only the adjustment of the rule by Pope Innocent IV in the year 1247 brought about communal prayer of psalms and common meals in the refectory. Until then, both were done in private cells. The 14th century meant both prosperity and often decline for the rule and Carmel. The practical life in monasteries increasingly differed from the hermitic nature of the rule, and this discord was to be resolved by the relaxation of the rule, requested from Pope Eugene IV. In 1432, he permitted the Carmelites to remain at certain times in the monastery complex and in the order's churches (not just in the cell).
The hermitic life has a rich tradition in the Church
From apostolic times, predecessors of later religious were living in ecclesial communities – fervent Christians (ascetics) who practiced abstinence (celibacy) for the sake of the Kingdom of God (in anticipation of its coming in glory). They lived “before their own house” – i.e., “in the parish,” in the village, or nearby. In the 4th to 6th centuries (under the influence of St. Anthony the Great's example), there occurred, in the words of P. Špidlík, “almost a mass exodus into the desert.” The word monk comes from the Greek monachos – isolated. These zealots departed to the desert to live in solitude, in deserted places. Although soon a communal form of consecrated life developed – monasteries – and prevailed in number, the hermitic life remained an integral part of the life of the Church.
In the Middle Ages (often as a reaction to the decline of monasteries or clergy), new waves of interest in hermitism arose, colonies of hermits were formed, and from them, hermitic orders (St. Romuald and the Camaldolese, St. Bruno and the Carthusians, etc.). In them, life in silence and solitude was connected with obedience to the superior and the community. A distant echo of these spiritual currents can also be seen in the formation of the community of brothers on Carmel.
Hermits have belonged to the life of the Church in the following centuries as well, including in our countries. We can mention St. Procopius, hermit Vintíř (venerated in Břevnov), St. Ivan, the flowering of hermitism here during the Baroque era, and the formation of the order of St. Ivan at the instigation of Prague Archbishop Kuenburg in 1725. The current Church Code (c. 603) also takes into account hermitic life, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of it as well (nos. 920–921).
What is the meaning of hermitism as a deliberate experience of solitude?
Even ancient philosophers recognized the value of solitude in their pursuit of wisdom: “The true philosopher knows only the way to the temple and to school, he does not know the way to the marketplace.” (Plato) Thus, solitude aids in contemplativeness, focus – being alone with oneself. Seneca's saying: “Whenever I went among people, I returned less human,” suggests that the company of people can not only disturb us but directly spoil us.
However, monasticism was much more inspired by the biblical understanding of solitude. In the Holy Scripture, the concept of solitude is closely linked to the idea of the desert and residing therein. The desert is a land without water, cursed by the Lord and uninhabited by people. It is barren and desolate. Dangerous animals and evil spirits dwell there, and death lurks within. (The opposite of the desert is the garden. Cf. Jer 2:6–7.) But the Lord, in delivering Israel from Egypt, led His people through the desert, and thanks to what Israel experienced there, their view of the desert changed:
- the desert is a place through which God acts, not a place for permanent settlement,
- the desert is a place of testing: loss of previous certainties and comforts, a threat to life, where the only support remains with the Lord (trust in Him), and the wandering people did not withstand this test,
- the desert is a place of unmastered temptations, manifested lack of faith and rebellion, a place revealing the hidden depths of human hearts and the limitations of one's own strength, vulnerabilities,
- the desert is a place of meeting with the Lord and great experiences of how He leads and cares for His people (the establishment of the covenant at Sinai and God's self-revelation to the people, water from the rock, manna, quails, the bronze serpent…),
- the desert is a place where a multitude of nomads became a true nation, God's people, which can be counted (Num 1:1ff) and brought into the promised land.
In summary: the desert is not punishment, but a place of testing and manifested unfaithfulness of the people, but much more a manifestation of the Lord's mercy and faithfulness. Simply stated: in the desert is revealed “what is within”: it shows who we are and (above all) who God is. Because in the promised land, the people soon settled down and relaxed in their faithfulness to the Lord, the time of Israel's wandering in the desert was later idealized by the prophets and given as a model of intimate closeness between the Lord and His people: “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown” (Jer 2:2).
Also, the great figures of the Old Testament, who became models of monks – Moses, Elijah, and at the dawn of the New Testament, John the Baptist – are men of the desert. If the persecuted Elijah flees through the desert to Horeb, then “for strength and not merely in an attempt to find refuge” (Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 357).
The time of the New Testament began when “John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness” and “all went out to him” (Mk 1:4–5): the desert is a place of conversion and preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Jesus Himself also prepared for His public ministry by being in the desert; for Him, too, the desert is a place of temptation, yet He overcame the tempter. The Gospels bear witness that even during His ministry, Jesus sought solitude: as a place of rest (He invited His disciples to it as well: Mk 6:31 – this scriptural passage is often referenced in monastic tradition) and as an environment for personal prayer to the Father. Jesus' rebuke of His sleepy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane attests that solitude was difficult for Him. In the abandonment from people, foretold by the prophet Isaiah (Is 53:3): denied by His own people, forsaken by His disciples, led out by the hands of strangers beyond the city gates (Heb 13:12), He then died with a cry expressing the feeling of abandonment even by God Himself. Likewise, the Church of Christ lives “in the desert” for now – like a woman who gave birth to a child who was caught up to heaven: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Rev 12:6). The desert is thus a place of expectation for the second coming of the Lord. However, this expectation must continually be proven in the hard struggle against the dragon – Satan. The monks were very well aware of this, having rich experience with it (cf. the life of St. Anthony the Great).
The testimony of the Holy Scripture can be summed up: the desert (solitude) is a place of
- testing,
- meeting with oneself and one's limits,
- meeting with God and receiving His gifts,
- waiting for God's kingdom.
Solitude plays an important role in the life with God
The hermits and monks have confirmed this on their own skins and joyfully accepted the same testimony of Scripture. With seriousness, however, they also reminded of the other side of the coin:
- the motive for withdrawing into solitude can also be bad; it needs to be honestly examined and discerned whether it is God's call or a willful escape of man from the world: out of resentment, anger, suspicion, masked comfort (purely out of selfishness), running away from responsibilities,
- solitude (as a place of spiritual struggle) is very demanding: “Do not go into solitude recklessly, foolishly… it could be not for your salvation but for the ruin of your soul!” (St. Nil), thus it became established practice that hermitic life was permitted only to those who had matured for years in life within the monastic community.
Every person is called to solitude – with God
The degree and outer form of this solitude are different for everyone. From childhood to old age, we are subjected to moments of solitude, longer or very short, often unexpectedly and even amidst a multitude: in waiting rooms, on escalators and platforms, during school breaks or sleepless nights, on the streets and in studio apartments of high-rise buildings. Thus many are crushed by solitude, so many desperately and vainly flee from it… And after years spent in lively relationships with others, solitude gradually increases due to aging… Is it merely a banal inevitability, a natural law, or God's intention, a calling? “You created us for yourself, O God,” said St. Augustine, and we want to add: “and you will not let us forget it…” In this lies the value and meaning of every solitude in our lives: it is a space open to God.
There is no solitude without a spiritual struggle
If we realize that moments of solitude are neither punishment nor emptiness, but God's invitation, we must take very seriously the monks’ experience with the demands of solitude: in solitude, no one finds a cozy nest or a quiet refuge. Solitude means revealing and painfully shedding one’s reliance on so many people, but also on things and trivialities. Solitude means confronting oneself – as one truly is, including one's depths. Solitude means waiting for God – and this can take a long time: it is up to Him when and how He will speak, enter, reveal His closeness. Solitude may even bring about the fact that the wicked tries to intrude into the space open to the Lord: with temptations or scares. Thus St. Anthony found in solitude the struggle with demons. Our modern world offers various ways to escape from solitude, how to “fill” the space that should remain primarily reserved for the Lord with something else, how to drown out the silence. And so, at the moment our fingers reach for the button of some receiver to make it sound, we may be waging a similar spiritual battle as Anthony before his cave. The experience of Israel from the desert shows us that God is always concerned about us, even when we commit unfaithfulness...
The current view of the Church on hermitic life
The articles of the Catechism (920–921) are not only an official expression of the Church's teaching but also an invitation to contemplate the value of solitude:
can. 920: Hermits, through stricter separation from the world, dedicate their lives to the praise of God and the salvation of the world with the silence of solitude, persistent prayers, and penance, without always publicly promising to observe the three evangelical counsels.
can. 921: They show everyone the inner aspect of the mystery of the Church, which is an intimate personal relationship with Christ. The life of the hermit, hidden from the eyes of men, is a silent preaching of Christ, to whom he has entrusted his life, for Christ is everything to him. It is a special calling to find in the desert the glory of the Crucified precisely in the spiritual struggle.
Our desert is Jesus Christ
Through the incarnation of His Son, God wonderfully entered among us, wishes to enter our life and into our solitude, into our deserts. Jesus declared: “I am the way… No one comes to the Father except through me…” (John 14:6). The rejection with which, according to the testimony of the Gospels, many of His contemporaries turned away from Him shows that the mystery of Jesus' person is also a test. (The union of divinity and humanity in one person, boundless openness to everyone, especially the poor, miracles and forgiveness of sins, the horror of the cross, and the reality of resurrection – all of this is far from being credible as smoothly as it seems to us, who have gotten used to it.) However, Jesus is not our desert only in the sense of trial, but (above all) He is for us a new and intimate meeting with God, He is the incarnate presence of God among us and “is the fulfillment of former divine gifts: He is the living water, the bread from heaven, the way and the leader, the light in the darkness, He is lifted upon the wood, giving life to all who look upon Him with hope in salvation… In Him we overcome temptation, through Him we are perfectly united with God” (Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 358). In Christ, God has concluded a new and eternal covenant with us.
Prayer of blessing
upon those who lay aside worldly attire and take on the garb of hermits, given in a medieval English pontifical, succinctly expresses the content and purpose of life in solitude:
Brother, we hand you the hermit's garment:
this we encourage you to live from now on purely, chastely, and holily,
to spend your time in holy watchfulness, fasting, work, prayer, and acts of mercy,
so that you may attain eternal life and live for eternity.
Sources used:
The roots of monastic life, in: Benedictine issues of St. 1, Prague-Břevnov
T. Špidlík, Sources of light, Christian Academy, Rome 1972
Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Velehrad-Christian Academy, Rome 1991
E. Boaga O.Carm., Come as living stones… Rome 1992
