Bodmin Hermit

HERMIT RULE 12:
Learn how to prolong the privileged moments when time is traversed vertically; it is so at The Lord’s Table, yet there are still distances in time and space. Unite yourself to the life unseen which requires your prayer and your vigil.

BEFRIEND DEATH:
If we are to become wise we must learn that we have no abiding city (Heb: 13-14)
To have life in focus we must have death within our field of vision. Within this vision we see life as a preparation for death and death as preparation for life.

BEAVERS and TREES
Time and the flowing streams of life
Make changes on the earth around
Villages emerge as towns
That were by old-world customs bound.
Trees spread or fall and rivers widen
Brooks run dry and forests grow
We always find some changes
In the views we used to know.

THE QUIETER YOU BECOME,
THE MORE YOU CAN HEAR:
Here we will sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears:
Soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.

AUTUMN: The most prominent spiritual lesson of autumn is the necessity of releasing what no longer serves us as trees shed their leaves to prepare for winter. This can mean releasing old habits, emotional burdens, or past hurts to create space for future growth and healing.

HERMIT RULE 11:
Live one day at a time. Take advantage of the moments and the dawns. Discover in each moment, in landscapes, in music and in all manifestations of beauty, the depth of your true interior solitude.

HERMIT RULE 10:
Don’t settle down in or get tied to a rigid timetable. Stay within a harmonious order that you can easily change. Try to integrate surprise and the unexpected. Live in the silence of your own interior and cultivate peace.

The Power of Silence:

SPINOZA & BIBLE
This quote went semi-viral, though, as usual, without a source cited, so likely not actually anything Spinoza said, but in essence, is true to Spinozism.

"I am that I am" is found in Exodus 3:14, where God speaks to Moses & identifies Himself using this phrase.

HERMIT RULE 9:
Know that although you feel yourself in the mystery of exile, the Kingdom of Heaven is already within you and all is One sacred universe beloved of God.
These are the first words in the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1)

ADVENTURE IN GOD
The hermitage is a centre of prayer only to the degree that it is a community of love. It testifies to the liberty of God to act as he will, to transcend the laws and conventions by which men limit the ordinary workings of their lives. God is bigger than you think!

YouTube video by RollingStones50yrs5 Rolling Stones - Little By Little

GOD, LOVE & THE UNIVERSE:
The wonder of love is that it always creates its own universe - we are explorers of a country without frontiers, one we discover little by little to be not a place but a person.
Listen: Rolling Stones: My era! 60's
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fm2...

MY FATHER IS THE GARDENER:
True silence is the speech of lovers. For only love knows its beauty, completeness, and utter joy. True silence is a garden enclosed, where alone the soul can meet its God.

PONDER:
Nature is painting for us, day after day,
pictures of infinite beauty
if only we have eyes to see them.

(John Ruskin 1819-1900)

STATIONS of the CROSS 8:
Happy are they who mourn your affliction; they will rejoice on seeing all your glory. ( Tobit 13:18 )
Jesus turn towards me and let your glance unseal me a fountain of true sorrow for my sins;

8 Jesus meets the woman of Jerusalem:

HERMIT RULE 8:
Work in silence, without saying what you do. Don't look for recognition or applause. Accept what providence itself affords you in relation to your actions.

Turn your ear to God and hear his gentle voice.

FORGIVENESS:
Lord you descend to where we are, and you take upon yourself all that hurts us. And so, in our inner struggle the contemplation of your forgiveness gives rise to a radiant goodness in the humble heart that allows itself to be led by your spirit.

YouTube video by Samaneri Jayasāra - Wisdom of the Masters St Teresa of Avila ~ The Interior Life

HERMIT RULE 7:
Be firm in your convictions, but be always willing to embrace the truth.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU5E...

TRUE INNER SILENCE
It is not a matter of trying to obtain inner silence by creating a kind of emptiness within. The important thing is a childlike trust by which we allow Christ to pray within us and then one day discover that the depths of our being are inhabited by a Presence.

HOLD US LORD:
Lord, in our darkness,
you kindle a flame that never dies.
You set your spirit within our frailty,
even when we are not aware of it,
and you hold us always,
even until the end of time.

SILENCE:
Listen in deep silence
Be very still and open your mind...
Sink deep into the peace
that waits for you beyond the frantic
riotous thoughts and sights
and sounds of this insane world.

(From a course in miracles)

WINTER:
When paths are frosty, woods are wet
I haven't seen a snowdrop yet
But am enjoying the sensation
of living in anticipation
And if by chance the time is right
To find a winter Aconite
Then will I say with words sincere
'O what a happy time of year'

Winter Aconite

HERMIT RULE 6:
Be quiet in body, mind and spirit. Don't hurry either in speaking or responding and be distrustful of your own urgency.

MY SPRING:
When the aconite is over
There will be crocus in the clover
Mauve and yellow, green and gold
Beneath the trees grow wise and old.
No car could travel down those lanes
Where Spring begins and Winter wanes
This is the path that footsteps trod
The haven of a gracious God

Q & A
You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest
and I smile and am silent, even my soul remains quiet.
It lives in the other world which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom... the water flows.
(Li Po 701 - 762)

Peach Tree in Bloom by Vincent Van Gogh

YouTube video by Simon de Voil Be still (psalm 46:10)

HERMIT RULE 5:
Don't rush about. Stop and be still. Open and close doors carefully when passing through them. Step by step you will discover silence.
Listen:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTY...

PONDER:
I need to be silent for a while.
Worlds are forming in my heart.

Meister Eckhart.

That's quite a dream... but if you really want it, it will happen. Yews are slow growers, but you can speed it up, as we have, by cutting a Labyrinth in grass. Ours is of the 'Classical' design. The advantage is that it's instant and can be walked straightaway. Pax et Bonum. Bod.

MELLOW YELLOW:
Planting daffs Roll on spring!

Leaves that are bursting open
Daffodil buds uncurled
This is the giving of Glory
the offer of Gold to the world
Wherever a garden is tended
Wherever a meadow is blessed
There will be daffodils dancing
By the kiss of spring caressed.

YouTube video by AlisonKraussVEVO Alison Krauss - River in the Rain (LIVE VERSION)

There is no quiet place in the white man's cities
No place to hear the leaves of spring or
the rustle of insect wings
The Indians prefer the soft sound of the wind
darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by the midday rain www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPMa...