By Joanne Cahoon
Hermit Day is coming up on October 29th, and Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center has made space for those who would like to gather to make space too, within our hearts/minds/calendars/lives – for quiet and for solitude.
In the 21st century, when our day-to-day experience is full and noisy, often scattered and demanding, it is essential for those who would live a life of integrity and the wholeness and holiness that God invites to quite deliberately make space to pay attention, to listen, to notice what life and God wish to speak to our hearts. This is not an easy thing. Once space is made, there is a discipline to deep listening, and there may be challenges we encounter, ways we need to be healed, dynamics or voices we’ve been hesitant to be with, a vulnerability we don’t regularly allow. The human and spiritual journey requires courage, but bravery is possible because it is God who calls us Beloved and who guides our way, and who DELIGHTS in being with us and drawing us to growth, wrapped in the assurance of Love. Whatever we might hear in solitude – whatever its invitations to our hearts and lives – we must FIRST create and find regular environments where quiet can be found and willingly entered into. Absolutely necessary for us are holding environments of safety for the work and for the grace of listening and receiving. These environments are time, place, sometimes relationships, images, symbols – and more.
Events at Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center like the upcoming Hermit Day event, or other regular scheduled offerings like Quiet Mornings and Centering Prayer (both held onsite and online), provide structures where we who wish to make entering quiet a regular practice can find consistent times and places as part of what supports our desire to respond to God’s invitation to do so.
A few AI crafted suggestions for Hermit Day are below for your consideration on 10/29 – and then some quotes for your consideration. Whatever is possible for you, I know the Center is a sacred and beautiful place to respond to God’s call to spend time with him as his loved one through many opportunities. It has been for me for decades. I hope you too utilize the space and offerings for nurture and refreshment, and for entering into the sometimes ‘inconvenient inner work’ we are invited to as a result of our listening, always empowered by the Spirit, and accompanied by a God – in Jesus – who ever walks with us and who will never leave us on our own.
Ways to observe National Hermit Day
- Disconnect from Technology: Turn off your phone and other devices to step away from the constant demands of the digital world.
- Spend Time Alone: Putter around your house, enjoy your own space, or find a quiet spot to read, journal, or engage in other peaceful activities.
- Focus on Self-Reflection: Use the day to look inward, clarify your thoughts, and reconnect with your true values and aspirations.
- Prioritize Mental Wellness: Recognize the benefits of solitude for mental health, which can include lower anxiety levels and improved clarity.
- Be Present: Shift your focus from external distractions to the present moment and enjoy the process of self-discovery.
At Bon Secours, silent time and space will be yours – including a lovely meal in silence – to enjoy as you feel called so to do. We’ll hope for lovely weather too in the midst of autumn’s freshness and beauty to further enhance the day.
If you’d like to attend, the link for information and registration for the event is:
https://bonsecoursrcc.org/event/celebrating-national-hermit-day-a-day-of-quiet-at-bon-secours/
Consider these words of wisdom:
It is a difficult
lesson to learn today,
to leave one’s friends
and family and deliberately
practice the art of solitude
for an hour or a day
or a week.
For me, the break is most difficult…
And yet, once it is done,
I find there is a quality
to being alone that is
incredibly precious.
Life rushes back into the void,
richer,
more vivid,
than before!
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea
By waiting and by calm you shall be saved; in quiet and in trust shall be your strength.
Isaiah 30:15
Solitude and silence are ways to get to the heart, because the heart is the place where God speaks to us, where we hear the voice that calls us beloved. Prayer and solitude are ways to listen to the voice that speaks to our heart in the center of our being. One of the most amazing things is that if you enter deeper and deeper into that place, you not only meet God, but you meet the whole world there.
Henri Nouwen
Calm us, O Lord, as you calmed the storm
Still us, O Lord, keep us from harm
Let all the tumult within us cease
Enfold us, O Lord, in your peace
Northumbria Community, Tuesday Compline, Celtic Daily Prayer
After the fire there came a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave.
1 Kings 19: 12-13
Be still before the Lord; wait for him.
Psalm 37:7
There is a contemplative in all of us, almost strangled but still alive, who craves quiet enjoyment of the Now, and longs to touch the seamless garment of silence which makes whole.
Alan P. Tory
When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.
Dalai Lama
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…
St. Teresa of Calcutta
I hope to see some of you on October 29th, and certainly to cross along the many events and beautiful pathways of Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center ongoing! Blessings!