The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLI, Part II

Avoidance: often this can be the fundamental reason that an individual gravitates towards solitude, religious, or otherwise. We do not want to be in the presence of others, because it is there that we stand revealed - not only in their eyes, but in our own. In our interactions with others, we begin to see our dominant passions and the poverty of our sin. Our weak spots, blind spots and hard spots become perfectly evident to us. It is for this reason that the desert fathers counsel spending many years in the common life because it is there that true purification takes place. It is in our day-to-day struggle with the movement of our own thoughts and emotions and interactions with others, that sin is overcome and virtue begins to grow. To flee into solitude, prematurely, and even with the highest spiritual aspirations, promises only danger. It is perilous to enter into deep silence alone. If one falls, there is no one to pick them up. If one is swallowed up by delusion, there is no one to set them aright. How can we repent without having the other as one to whom we can direct our compassion or who reveals our darker side? 

Silence can never be an escape. In fact, silence can only be loved by one who has been freed from every impediment in order to encounter He who is Love and find true respite and peace in Him. 

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Text of chat during the group:

00:04:13 FrDavid Abernethy: page 359 Letter C From Abba Mark   00:04:17 FrDavid Abernethy: Welcome Sandy   00:11:11 FrDavid Abernethy: page 359 Letter C   00:15:40 Cindy Moran: Is this like a consecrated virgin?   00:26:06 LauraLeigh: Replying to "Is this like a conse..."   Cindy, I think it is probably different, in that you can continue to live in the world in any way you feel called as a consecrated virgin, but I believe that being a hermit involves deliberately leaving the world to live apart, yet following the monastic rule. Maybe Father can add or correct this.   00:27:38 Cindy Moran: Thank you!   00:27:39 LauraLeigh: Replying to "Is this like a conse..."   Your diocesan office will probably have someone who can answer questions about both.   00:27:50 LauraLeigh: Reacted to "Thank you!" with 👍   00:31:41 Rachel: This reminds me of Saint Paul stating that he doesn't even judge himself. Years ago this statement left me wondering at what he meant and have now come to believe that what Cassian is saying is the same thing that Saint Paul was saying. He had a thorn in the flesh, knew a man taken up to the third Heaven yet does not even judge himself. Not even stopping to examen himself except to boast in his weakness in order to glorify God's great mercy.   00:32:15 LauraLeigh: Seems like, whether in community or as a hermit, one needs to be prepared to be a "plucky fighter"!   00:32:22 Eric Ewanco: Can you relate these eremitic hazards to ordinary laymen who live involuntarily alone but in the world? Obviously some hazards apply, but some may not. Can you comment?   00:32:39 LauraLeigh: Reacted to "Can you relate these..." with 👍   00:32:55 LauraLeigh: Replying to "Can you relate these..."   This is my question too.   00:38:05 LauraLeigh: The thing is, though, about living alone in the world, you know very well that there is no one there to catch you when you fall. Everything   00:45:47 Anthony: I suggest that maybe women have more living examples of a secular spiritual life since widows with their maturity and their link to other widows are more common than widowers   00:45:51 Anthony: Grand torino   00:46:25 Eric Ewanco: Oh that's where that came from! I've used that. :-)   00:52:47 LauraLeigh: Thank you for not running off to a cabin in the woods, Father.   00:53:26 melissa kummerow: Reacted to "Thank you for not ru..." with 👆   00:54:12 Anthony: Sometimes I think we try too hard to be good Catholics, so hard that we dispel that peace we might otherwise have if we didn't try so hard , since trying too hard can focus us on our turbulent selves. Perhaps it's to have a hobby and cigar and an occasional prayer than making and measuring ourselves against a lot of self imposed religious obligations.   00:56:55 Eric Ewanco: With all due respect to Tolkien, I'd rather live under corrupt government than anarchy.   00:57:21 sue and mark: Reacted to "Sometimes I think we..." with ❤️   00:58:09 Patrick: Reacted to "Sometimes I think ..." with ❤️   01:09:39 Anthony: Or by taking obligation to pray and fast because you're going to fight evil......that _can_ lead to obsessive type of behavior for an ostensibly good reason. It's perhaps like a modern day "Children's Crusade."   01:12:34 John: Yesterday's Gueranger article talks about exterior-only asceticism: "The Jewish casuists were not slow in drawing up their famous formula, that all moral goodness was guaranteed to him that had received circumcision! St. Paul, later on, told them how such a principle was a stumbling-block to the Gentiles, leading them to blaspheme the name of God. According to the moral theology of these Hebrew doctors, conscience meant only what the tribunal of public justice issued as its decisions: the obligations of the interior tribunal of a man’s conscience were to be restricted to the rules followed by the assize-courts. The result of such teaching soon showed itself: the only thing people need care for was what was seen by men; if the fault were not one that human eyes could judge of, you were not to trouble about it."   01:17:24 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethy!   01:18:22 sue and mark: Thank you   01:18:32 Rachel: Thank you