I was looking up a url link to another book I am currently reading to prepare a book review; while looking up that other book, I happily came across the book The Hermitage Within on Liturgical Press’s website (I read a lot of books by Liturgical Press – they have great books!).
I wish I had thought of this phrase “The Hermitage Within” and had chosen this title as the name for my blog. This phrase gets to the heart of what I want to convey in this blog….
Liturgical Press summarizes this book with articulation I’ve been seeking to describe about people’s inner experience: “Not everyone can, or should, live as a hermit. Yet all Christians need an inner hermitage, a place apart where we come face-to-face with our true selves, and listen to the still small voice of God. It is a place of silence, of fear and fascination, of anguish and grace. The writer of this profound yet simple volume encourages us to find our own inner hermitage—a place of calm and contemplation, apart from the demands of the modern world, a place so silent that we can hear God. The desert, the mountain, and the temple provide the focus of the anonymous author’s reflections. He meditates on the wilderness experiences of such biblical persons as Jesus, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalen. He considers the place held in the Christian story by Mount Sinai, the Mount of Olives, and Calvary. He ponders the idea of temples, using such images as our inner temple and Christ the temple, the foundation of the Church.”
I encourage everyone to connect with and cultivate regular time spent in your inner hermitage – such time can and should be nourishing. Western culture largely encourages us to be outwardly focused….. Sometimes it can be tempting to avoid the challenges of encountering the difficult aspects of our inner experience. Yet we must encounter these difficult aspects of our own inner experience, wrestle with these aspects of our experience, and surrender this to God’s healing grace. Further, there is much richness available to us within our own inner hermitage. It is in our own inner hermitage that we experience both the essence of our own self and a relationship with the divine. Yes, our own inner hermitage is an important place where we can “allow God in” so God can foster God’s healing grace in our lives.
Daily time spent alone in our own inner hermitage is important for encountering and cultivating those aspects of our life experience that can only be experienced by going inward. Going inward is an opportunity to experience rich vibrancy. For more of my reflections on our inner hermitage, visit my previous post Geography of Grace.
Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist. If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you subscribe to follow this blog (it’s free – thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them and invite them to subscribe (thank you!).
