NAZARETH HERMITAGE

 

(chapel at Nazareth Hermitage)

NAZARETH HERMITAGE

 

"Hermits are those who choose to live alone in silence for religious reasons.  They dwell on the fringes of the church ...this eremitic life has a long tradition in the church, beginning with the desert saints of the second and third centuries.

Nazareth Hermitage was established in 1976 with the permission of the local bishop.  Each hermit lives in his or her own hermitage, a small cement-block house dug into the side of the ridge.  Windows look out over the trees to the distant vistas of the oak-pine forest.  Once a week they gather for a common vegetarian meal, which they take turns cooking.

Each hermit rises early, at 3 a.m.  Each prays the liturgy of the hours alone.  There's a flexible structure to their day, allowing each hermit to adapt to whatever seems best suited to their needs, while incorporating various practices common to all.  One practice, for example, is agreeing to work only three hours a day in the winter and four hours in the summer."

Rich Heffern penned those words in an article he wrote for NCR about our Nazareth Hermitage here on property donated to them by the Trappist monks of Assumption Abbey in rural Ava, MO.    It captures for you some of the tone of their life together in prayer.   They do share daily Eucharist.   Along with two sisters,  Sr. Mary and Sr. Miriam,  the other founder, Fr. Leon,  is a Trappist hermit who has been there from the beginning with the sisters.    Today there are 7 hermits living as part of the hermitage.

Sharing remotely in their lives, but always in their prayers, the friars here are blessed by their presence here on the monastery property.   Pray for them,  as we do.   They are certainly praying for you and the many needs of our Church and world.