(If you want to read about how the two are related, at least in my experience, you can check out post at http://beegleanings.blogspot.com/. But that may be more than you care to read, so feel free to ignore...)
I called Sr. Carolyn when I was leaving Pea Ridge to get directions to the Hermitage. I have been acquainted with Sr. Carolyn for a number of years through CBA. I would visit with her at the convention each year, and each year she would invite me to come visit the Hermitage. (I would also see her jogging in the mornings through the city streets wearing her habit and running shoes.) I had emailed her a few weeks ago so she was kind of expecting me. The drive from Pea Ridge is awesome--through the Ozark Mountain region, through Eureka Springs (a quaint old mountain town with really neat historical stone stores that, inexplicably, all sell the same plastic crap and same vulgar t-shirts. Sigh...), past Holiday Island. Then I turned onto a gravel road for the next 10-12 miles. At first I wondered about driving on this kidney-busting road. But the further I drove down the gravel road, the further I felt myself driving away from civilization.
Sr. Carolyn met me at the bottom of a last steep drive; she was not wearing her habit as they dress in, as she calls them, "regular clothes" on Saturdays.
The good news is that no one was hurt in the fire. The bad news is it destroyed the chapel and the common building. On Tuesday, April 29, just after midnight, a spark from the wood-burning stove in the corner of the chapel flamed to life and spread rapidly.
"Fortunately," said Sr. Carolyn, "we were saturated from weeks of rain. We had been complaining to God that we had had too much rain. But God knew we needed it. If it had been dry, the fire would have spread and it would have been a huge forest fire."
Four volunteer fire departments, three from Arkansas and one from Missouri (which is just a few miles to the north) responded and kept the fire from destroying more than it did. It stop just short of the small stone chapel--right in front of a stone depiction of Mary.
"It seemed that God said, 'You shall come this far, but no more" said Sr. Carolyn.
The small chapel is now where the brothers and sisters say Mass and pray together. Behind the altar are a few stairs that lead down into a prayer grotto with two kneeling benches for prayer before a hand-carved crucifix. The brothers and sisters join together in prayer, I believe, three times a day. They use the Common Book of Prayer for their daily offices and prayers.
Outside of the chapel is the prayer garden. Honestly, I don't remember when I have been in a more beautiful garden. It is better than Cox Arboretum in Dayton; it is even better than the beautiful Linnaeus Garden here in Tulsa. If I were a brother at the Hermitage, I think I could spend most of my waking hours either in the chapel praying or in the garden.
And that is where the members of this community spend many of their waking hours. But they also have work assignments. The community supports itself in part through raising and selling chickens--"meat chickens," as Sr. Carolyn calls them. They have chicken coops where they raise fowl from chicks ("We get them in the mail. The post office calls and says, 'Your chicks are here.' They want us to get them quickly because they make so much noise!") Part of Sr. Carolyn's assignment during work times is bookkeeping--not only in the sale of chicken, but also in the sale of John Michael Talbot books and music. The fire destroyed her office and computer--she lost the last five weeks of sales records in the fire.
As we walked through the garden, I asked Sr. Carolyn why she chose to separate from the world and join this community. I mean, there are many times I wish I could separate myself and join a monastery. There is a member of our small online community who has told me many times, I told Sr. Carolyn, that she is fed up with this world. That there is nothing this world has to offer. So is it right to pull away and live apart from the world like this?
"Oh, no," she said. "Living in this way makes us much more able to engage this world."
How so?
"When we are able to give ourselves more fully to God, we draw closer to His heart, which is to love others. So we are able to love others as we should."
Wow. Makes sense to me.
A lot more I could share. I asked as I was leaving how I could help. How can I serve her and the Hermitage?
"The fire destroyed our library in the common room. We will need to rebuild that."
So I am going to start gathering books for them. And I will call publishers I know and have them send books as well.
How can I pray for you?
"Pray that I can learn to love others as I should," she said. "And that I can give myself to God more fully."
How could we possibly improve upon that?
I have some ideas for our community, for us Misfits, following this trip. But you've had enough of me for now. I will digest these ideas and get back to you.
In the meantime, here are some shots from the Hermitage (the last is actually taken on the road to the monastery--I told you it is beautiful there).
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