Rule Vows and Bibliography

God give you space in which to live, and live in
happiness and peace within it. You will not find
peace in anything but God.

 

A Rule for Solitaries

For those who find themselves called by God to seek Him out and to live a life alone by virtue of not belonging to a community of monks but otherwise free to be dedicated to God while not totally withdrawn from the life of the world.

Not everyone is called to live in a monastic community. But those called to seek God and be apart from the world to seek Him in contemplation must have a guide. Whether this guide is a Rule or a confessor, a guide is necessary to avoid falling into costly errors. If you are called, then you already believe there is a God and that He involves himself in your life, and you have faith, hope and charity sufficient to obey Him. Likewise, you are present at Mass daily, and are in obedience to the Holy Church, receiving the Sacraments by which you will be strong to succeed.

 

St. Benedict has said, “We must hasten to do today what will profit us for eternity.”

God exists and He has a right to ask anything of us by virtue of having created us and keeping us in existence.

Let us resolve to seek the counsels of the priest, frequently confess our sins and attend Holy Mass daily.

 

 

Let the Rule be no burden for any person. I impose nothing on any person, but give it to my brothers and sisters as a guide on our way to God. I do not even suggest anything I would not do myself, and I respect the journey to God of every person who comes. If my example may inspire anyone, then I bless the Lord for shining so brightly, that you may take inspiration from my life.  May we walk together in love.

The times we live in are perilous for souls. This is the reason for solitaries; to offer prayer for sinners and those persecuted and tormented. Such terrors require strong measures. Since Jesus won salvation for all persons by His death, our prayers have infinitely more value in union with His sacrifice than by themselves.

 

The transition between a lay person and a religious seems to be in the depth of the conversion of the person, and the response to God’s call. I have in mind Saint Francis of Assisi who began life as a wealthy playboy, but who converted to a serious pursuit of life in God. He did not seek to enter a religious community or reform any, but he was called to restore vigor in the Church by the testimony of his life of radical poverty in contrast to his former existence. He founded an order composed of those inspired by his conversion to join him in his mission. He took vows and wrote a rule by which to live and then lived it as rigorously as he could. Clearly he changed from being a lay person to being a religious, but he did not receive Holy Orders and was not a priest nor did he seek to attempt to offer Holy Mass.  Priests were glad to serve him by offering Mass for him. Likewise, we may desire to enter more deeply into prayer and a life in which we might exclusively seek Him and seek to reform ourselves to conform to Him, responding to a call. Our calling is the reform of ourselves and watching with Jesus, conversing with Him. I have in mind also those who previously might have felt God’s call but because of circumstances were not able to respond as we wanted. Now we have the time and wish to dedicate ourselves and the remainder of our life most fully to Him. We feel as part of God’s call the need to pray for sinners and to make reparation for sin and to effect reconciliation in the world to bring peace where it does not exist and threatens humanity itself. But we most rigorously understand that we achieve none of this by our own efforts, but painfully and arduously and joyfully by uniting our sacrifices and prayers with the sacrifice and prayers of Jesus Christ and the rest of the Holy Church. We also fully understand that we are not priests and the priest has the responsibility for souls.

 

Firstly, no one should think they can prosper unless they are free to engage in the pilgrimage to God’s Kingdom. They must be healthy, and they must have a developed devotional life and must have practiced a moderate asceticism by which they have achieved some mastery of their thoughts and impulses that leaves them free. They should be unencumbered of worldly distractions, unmaterialistic and free of worldly commitments. You cannot be master of property and persons and still be master of your own soul, for either God owns your soul or the world. So let those otherwise unencumbered by illness or worldly commitments seek God in solitude. In order to do so, insofar as they are able, let them relinquish power, property and wealth and keep only what is necessary to live. If desired, a habit consisting of a lightweight black cassock for the warm season and a heavier one for the cold, and a white scapular with a black hood are your attire. A white rope cord and black shoes or sandals for your feet may be worn. Wear it remembering whom you serve and being reminded of your commitment. Otherwise dress modestly. I feel it is a good thing to wear a habit, especially during prayer or at Mass, but abide with the parish priest’s desires on the matter.

Let those who wish to seek God in solitude work for their living and give of their resources to the poor, in particular, let them greet the homeless with cheer, give of their resources to feed the homeless and pray for the homeless that they should not despair or die in desolation. If it is possible to help the homeless find a situation in life, let them do what they can. We do not live alone as long as we live on the earth. Let us greet others as we go out in the world to do our duties and let our countenance reflect the peace in our soul. While we seek solitude, we are not exempt from contact with others. Let us not live so alone we never have contact with others. Let us go deliberately about the world still seeking Christ as if we were alone.

 

Secondly, solitude and asceticism are not ends in themselves. The voice of God does not resound in the wilderness for all to hear. It must be sought and desired with all your heart for His voice is still and quiet like a night in the desert. For some He may be easily accessible, standing unseen always near the heart. For others, He may seem distant. You cannot succeed if you are not patient and humble, and therefore you must desire to find Him in your prayers and by their means unceasingly.

 

Be patient, for God moves in our life and in our soul at His own pace. Impatience can lead to unnaturally forcing something to happen which can lead to deception, or cause frustration and unnecessary fatigue. God allows us time in which to become accustomed to life with Him and to gradually see what we must learn to grow. Expecting signs and wonders can simply lead us astray and it can be difficult getting back on the true path. You cannot mistake the presence of God for anything else. The peace, joy and love are too pronounced, and He gives spiritual fruit to nourish us. He writes His will in our hearts, and we can see when we are able, like a child that learns to speak. When we realize that we have succeeded in accomplishing what He asks, our joy will be great that we have obeyed Him and grown to more closely resemble Him. Sweeter than any sign or wonder is the presence of God, and He satisfies our souls far better than anything of earth. He will work through us to transform the world if we are faithful.

 

We have spiritual enemies, clever and persistent in the ways of beguiling or wearing down our resistance with temptation or trying to distract us with things that are not true and subtly lead us to believe what is certainly not true. Beware of thoughts that lead to anger or resentment over things that do not matter that can drive a wedge between us and the ones we love or our confessor or advisor. Better to get out of bed for prayer than to give in to temptation and have to apologise to Jesus. Better to go hungry and be tired working hard than to lose a friend we cannot afford to lose, or hurt a friend by our cruel words.

 

 

 By your fruits you shall know that you truly walk on the one path whose destination is the heart of God. It should be seen by others that you are at peace and joyful and that your heart is quietly centered on God because your labors bring forth the same fruits in the world.

You must have hope. You must believe. And you may ask of God what you need, but most of all that He tell you what He wills and that He grant you the graces needed to obey Him. Consolations and spiritual occurrences are not the reason for solitude or prayer or a dedicated life. Seek always to obey and please God and leave the disposition of your soul to Him. Go simply through life, offering everything to Him as a child, in love. In this He will rejoice in you and peace will be all around you.

 

God may give us a desire. He may guide us in it to accomplish something He asks, something dear to His heart. Blessed the person who strives with all his being to do what God desires. If we do not see confirmations, then we should question the source of the desire, even if it is a holy one. If it is destroying our inner peace or filling our soul with anguish that is not in accord with what we know to be true, then we must question its source, because God does not tell a lie or inspire what is impossible. We might grow to see that we simply did not understand at first what God had asked. It will be made clear if it comes from God and we will be expected to seek all the more ardently for the truth and to correct our path and our thinking. God will never be angry with a faithful servant who asks for understanding or confesses an error or that he misunderstood. God does not lead us astray and He understands human desire, especially for holiness. We will be credited for goodness if we are honest with Him, ourselves and our confessor. Abraham believed what he could scarcely endure to hear – that he must take his only beloved son and sacrifice him on a mountain. Only at the moment of cutting his son’s throat to execute the sacrifice did God restrain His hand. If we do not in all truth have the same determination to do what we believe is God’s will believing that we heard Him right, then we need ask Him for the grace to do so. If God was testing us, then we shall have the honor of having acted with a clean conscience to carry out His will, and no man can then question our actions or integrity. God may indeed cause us to be filled with sorrow but when darkness comes unbidden it is time to fly to Him in prayer and seek Him.

 

Thirdly, do not obsess about what you should do, but keep busy and be at peace. Commend yourself into God, giving Him your whole heart, mind, will, feelings and emotions and your very body with all its unruliness and demands. You must nourish yourself and maintain cleanliness in order to be healthy, but as with every other aspect of your life, do so prayerfully, commending and beginning and ending your activities in prayer. A prayerful person may succeed in all God asks Him but a person who ignores prayer is wasting his time as a solitary and might as well live as any ordinary person free of religious commitment. It may be by leaving solitude, God may find a person and draw him back to solitude when he discovers what God meant to say. I have drawn up a schedule to follow:

 

Daily Schedule

2:00am-3:00am            Prayer

3:00am-3:30am            Coffee

3:30am-5:00am            Prayer

5:00am-5:30am            Personal Care

5:30am-7:40am            Spiritual Reading

7:40am-9:30am            Mass

9:30am-10:00am          Breakfast

11:00am-11:00pm       Prayer

12:00pm-3:00pm         Recreation, shopping, Business

3:00pm-4:00pm            Rosary

4:00pm-6:00pm            Dinner

6:00pm-7:00pm            Prayer

7:00pm                            Retire

This is my personal schedule and is only a suggestion.

 

Fourthly, let no one believe he may approach God without examining his life , revealing his sins, and repenting of them. Let a person who wishes to find God examine his heart and mind and beg His forgiveness for his sins and transgressions and ask Him for the grace to avoid sin. Let those seeking God ask Him for forgiveness and a means of making reparation.

 

Fifth , I suggest upon rising, commend yourself to God and say the Angelus. Have something to eat. At noon say the Magnificat and eat lunch. In the afternoon about three spend an hour saying the Holy Rosary. Have an evening meal about five and in the evening between the evening meal and the time you retire for the night, write in a diary about your soul and your thoughts and experiences, read the Holy Scriptures dividing the time between the Psalms, the prophets and the New Testament, and spend some time listening to pious music or playing an instrument and singing joyfully or doing some spiritual reading such as the lives of the saints. Before retiring, confess your sins to God and ask His forgiveness if there is anything on your conscience. Commend your well-being into His hands and retire. It is no dereliction of duty to take some time to walk in a park or jog a little during the day. Nor is it bad to set aside your schedule to help a person in need. There is nothing like putting theory into practice to gain insight and grow a little.

 

Sixth, if tempted, say “O my God, I worship and adore you because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.” In all humility and simplicity with tenderness of heart confess your faults and temptations to the Lord. He will have mercy on His children who seek Him, serve Him and love Him because He has called them. Remember that He will not call you without it being possible to succeed in finding Him and being joined to Him in all consolation. Remember that His reward for faithfulness is everlasting. Remember His sacrifice for you in giving over His life to crucifixion at the hands of impious men. Recall the lives of the saints whose generosity in willingness to suffer for Christ was judged to be holy, and imitate the thoughts and actions of their good example.

 

It is not a sin to be tempted or to be tormented. Jesus Himself was tormented in the wilderness. God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength, and He will give relief in due course, particularly if we are ardent in our prayer and very honest with Him about what is happening to us. Strength comes through exercise just as faith comes through trials. The one almost never comes without the other. The sincerity of the love we profess to God will be revealed if we are humble and truthful with ourselves before God. And we will rejoice when we realize that we passed the test because God gave us the grace. Gratitude is powerful in drawing us closer to God and deeper into humility. Humility is not mushy pap, it is brutally honest and a sincere and burning desire to be correct in His eyes. I do not recommend corporal punishment of ourselves, for love can be injured by brutality. God will teach us if we truly desire to be taught, no matter how dense we may be. He will teach us a thousand lessons if that is necessary, and He will think no less of us for it.

 

 

The world does not know Him and does not seek Him, believing that it is all there is and that it is accountable to no one. The world lives by no other rule than to please itself to the ruin of all. The world seeks its own glorification and is ruled by selfishness. Since we have left these behind, we should show the God who calls us to those who have not seen Him and do not know Him. It should be carefully considered that the reason for our solitude is to seek God and find Him to be united to Him and to offer prayers and sacrifice for the salvation of souls. We should especially be mindful of those in grievous suffering, near death and who have died in desolation, especially those who have not known God and those who have lived ungodly lives. We must ask Him to be merciful to them, forgive them their sins and that God bring them home to Him in heaven. Between the decades of the Rosary, after saying the Glory Be, I recommend that we say these additional prayers:

 

 “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those who have most need of thy mercy”.

 

“Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee”.

 

“Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us”.

 

“Precious blood of Jesus, save us.”

 

“O my God, I worship and adore you because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.” This prayer is particularly powerful against temptation if we keep in mind the stark difference between our pleasure and the anguish suffered by the Lord on the cross.

 

Seventh, in due course we may develop a desire to solemnize our life by vows. Let us carefully deliberate before doing so, and tell our confessor of our desire. A reason to take a vow might be that we feel God desiring it of us, and because we feel it is necessary for our spiritual journey. We should know when we are ready because we have seen confirmations of growth in our life. It would be best to make a vow on a temporary basis, and if we find no great struggle or opposition, then we might approach our confessor. If we feel peaceful and joyful in our action to profess our vows, then we might ask to make our vows perpetually.

 

 

We should do penance. Let us refrain from eating meat each morning and during Advent and Lent all day. Exercise restraint in the consumption of meals and give thanks to God for what we have to eat, and express our gratitude to God in providing the shelter in which we live, and in wearing the clothes He has provided for us. Let us give up some sleep if it seems agreeable and we can do so and remain cheerful and charitable. Doing anything for charity is penitential, especially being so toward others and especially in trials.

 

We should not our health, because if we are not alive we cannot complete the mission God has given us. Prudence is important in our exercise of asceticism. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Our Lord contemplated the Passion He was about to live, and for our salvation subjugated His will to the will of the Father. Knowing what was about to happen, nevertheless He submitted to the cruelties of His executioners, and when the moment came, submitted to being nailed to a cross. He submitted to death, giving up His life and on the third day taking up His life again. By this example we know the consequences of obedience. Let us ask God before undertaking ascetical practices, whether this would be pleasing to Him. We have little to offer, but nothing is too small to offer Him if we offer it with the greatest love. Therefore let us be satisfied with offering the little things life gives us to offer, constantly thanking God for His love and generosity. Rather than setting out to punish ourselves, let us rather seek to unite our will with God and our offerings with His sacrifice. He who called the universe into being and makes it function in an orderly fashion, knows the power of our love combined with His to transform the earth.

 

Do not lose heart. In your troubles be before Him as a little child. Offer your tears of sorrow and await Him coming to transform all your troubles in the moment He reveals his Presence to you. Then you will be able to rejoice with Him in His peace, for there is where you will find Him and be united to Him at the appointed time. In the moment of temptation or trouble, pray to Mary His Mother to take you under her mantle and hide you that you may not be found or troubled by evil.

 

Recall that we have sinned, and with Adam and Eve are subject to death. While we should not live in inordinate fear of death, we should ready ourselves for the moment God will call us. Let us keep our life in perspective, so that we are able to offer prayer and sacrifice for others, but also that we may do penance and receive forgiveness of our transgressions. A person does well who recalls their sins and God’s merciful forgiveness. A person does well not to squander the life His forgiveness has provided us. A person does well who offers sacrifice and prayer for those who do not concern themselves with them. We will have mercy if we have been merciful to others. We will enter into the Kingdom if we have forgiven those who have offended us, even if they do not forgive us our transgressions. We should ask forgiveness of God for our transgressions against others and if possible seek to mend the hearts of those we have offended. Then our conscience will not trouble us and we may have peace and succeed in seeking God. Remember that our feelings only feel, they do not think. Let it be your will that you forgive, and it will be so. “God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him”. Recall the Mount of the Transfiguration as a presage to the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit. He will not leave us alone or abandon us to desolation forever. Nor will He call us to anything we do not have the grace to do. He will lead us to those to whom we should testify.

 

Let us read the Holy Scriptures, study the Gospels and Epistles, and set out to live by the words of God. Carefully consider the words of God and ask Him to help you understand what you cannot understand. This way we may amend our life to be as God desires.

Amen

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

New Seeds of Contemplation Thomas Merton New Directions Book  Abbey of Gethsemane 2007

Das Weinachts –Oratorium 2004 edel CLASSICS GMBH Hamburg Germany

The Little Flowers of Saint Francis Dover Thrift Editions Dover Publications

St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle Study Edition ICS Publications 2010

The Imitation of Christ Thomas A Kempis Dover Thrift Publications

The Cloud of Unknowing edited by Evelyn Underhill

Abandonment fo Divine Providence Jean Pierre de Coussade

The New American Bible St. Joseph Edition Catholic Book Publishing

The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross ICS Publications 1991

The Rule of St. Benedict Liturgical Press Collegville Minnesota 1981

The Way of Perfection Kieran Kavanugh Study edition ICS Publications 2000

The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila Volume Three Kieran Kavanaugh OCD ICS Publications 1985

Padre Pio the Stigmatist rev. Charles Carty tan Books 1963

Conjectures of an guilty Bystander Thomas Merton Image 2014

The Philokalia The Complete Text Volume Two GFH Palmer 1981

Thomas Merton The Seven Story Mountain Harvest Books Harcourt Inc. 1998

Toward God Michael casey Liguori 1996

Behold the Pierced One Joseph Ratzinger Ignatius Press 1984

Mother Theresa IN My Own Words Grammercy Books New York 1996

St. Therese of Lisieux Story of a Soul Marc Foley OCD ICS Publication 2005

A Holy Life St. Bernadette of Lourdes Ignatius Press 2005

The Magnificent Prayers of Saint Bridget of Sweden Tan Books 1940

Therese Neumann Adalbert vogl 1987 Tan Books

Autobiography & Diary of Saint Gemma Galgani

Sister Wendy’s Book of Saints Dorling Kindersly 1998

Journey of Faith The Story of the Archdiocese  Editions du Signe Ersel, Laughlin 2013