Little Gidding is the tiny collection of farm buildings and a church not too far from Cambridge. It was the location of a small religious community headed by Nicholas Ferrar, who was a friend of the poet George Herbert. Eliot made a pilgrimage to the church and wrote his famous poem--the last of his Four Quartets. [...]
There is a Great Deed which the blessed Trinity shall do at the last day, as I see it. And what that deed shall be, and how it shall be done is unknown to all creatures below Christ. And it shall be hidden until it is done. He wants us to know of it so that [...]
Silence is a cornerstone of Benedictine life and spiritual development, but the goal of monastic silence is not non-talking. Instead it is "selective talking." Someone following Jesus Christ in the way of St Benedict will often be silent because he realizes that what he has to say is either disrespectful, gossipy, unfruitful, insulting, vulgar, unkind or [...]
In the summer of 1987 I did something which changed my life forever. I hitch hiked from England to Jerusalem staying in monasteries all along the route. As I walked I prayed and as I prayed I was healed. I won't go into the details, but God was cleaning house, and to do a really thorough [...]
I see that the Suburban Hermit has been silent since the middle of February. Readers have asked, "What has happened to the Suburban Hermit? Have you closed that blog?" The answer is that I have been very busy and have been feeling for some time that my writing is going in a different direction, but I'm [...]
The hermits of Camaldoli were founded by St Romuald--a Benedictine monk-- in the mountains of central Italy in 1012. It is the home base of the Camaldolese Monastic order. I visited Camaldoli in the summer of 1987 during my hitch hiking pilgrimage from England to the Holy Land. It was a long hike up the mountain before [...]
The Suburban Hermit is always enthusiastic about Lent. In fact, he'd dearly love to become more of a hermit if possible and be the turtle that draws into his shell and stays there--only peeking out from time to time to nibble a lettuce leaf. The trick to a happy Lent is to see it as a [...]
Solitude is not loneliness and loneliness is not simply being alone. Loneliness is a condition of the heart, not the circumstances of life. When one is lonely there is a lack of knowing love in the depth of the human heart. Loneliness is a symptom of the yawning absence at the foundation level of each human [...]
Emily Dickinson's Home with her room illuminated A reminder that there are those with a hermit's heart who are not Catholic and have never taken vows. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although part of a prominent family with strong ties to its [...]
Skellig Michael The ancient Irish hermitages of Skellig Michael were used as a location for filming the new Star Wars movie. Skellig Michael (Irish: Sceilig Mhichíl), or Great Skellig (Irish: Sceilig Mhór) is the larger of the two Skellig Islands located 11.6 km west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland.[2] A Christian monastery was founded on the island at some point between the 6th and 8th [...]