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Pages River Road, Murrurundi NSW Australia
For some years, a number of Capuchin friars in Australia pondered the possibility of having a friary given primarily to prayer and contemplation, where other friars also could go, from time to time, for periods of recollection. The idea was that this hermitage would be an integral part of the fraternal life of the province and an expression of our desire to recapture and give expression to the contemplative element of our early Capuchin reform that we consider valuable for the life of our province today.
Let us be clear, our hermitage is not separate from the life of our province and only those friars who are solemnly professed and have lived our life in fraternity for some years are eligible to go there for longer periods of time, at the discretion of the Provincial and his Definitory.
One cannot simply join the hermitage and live there. You have to join the Order and go through the necessary years of formation and ministry so as to learn to live our way of Gospel fraternity.
So sorry, but if you have a vocation strictly to the contemplative life, you should look elsewhere. The Capuchin friars, although we value contemplation and prayer, also value greatly our charism of fraternity which flows into various ministries like Parishes, Chaplancies, Care of the Elderly, Youth, Missionary activity and indeed where ever we are needed by the Church.
It is somewhat like St Benedict or was it St Alred who said about hermitages in their tradition, that the monk should first of all learn to live in community and be exercised in loving charity before he is allowed to go off into a hermitage. Of course they were speaking of a hermitage like the desert fathers “alone with the Alone.”
For Franciscans, following the style of life given by St Francis of Assisi in his Rule for Hermitages, a Capuchin hermitage is always a place of fraternity for more than one friar and an integral part of the rest of the Order. In fact our Constitutions invite not just friars from a province to participate in a hermitage but friars from a region of the Order. The emphasis is that a Hermitage by its life of prayer reaches out to the fraternal life of the whole Order.
The Capuchin style of life is always “Contemplation and Fraternity” For
us they cannot be separated and must ultimately be integrated so that the friar
is at home with God and the people, where ever he is sent or given permission
to go.
What applies to a friar who is inspired to go to the foreign missions also applies to those friars who desire to live in a hermitage. Thus Chapter 12 of the Rule of St Francis could read: “Should any friars moved by divine inspiration desire to … [live in a hermitage] … they should ask leave to go from their Ministers Provincial. But the Ministers shall not grant leave except to those whom they deem to be fit to be sent.”
As in all our houses, the spirit of fraternity suggests that hospitality, an ancient monastic charism, is also an aspect of our Capuchin way of life. Many of our houses also have nearby a place where people can stay. So too at the hermitage there is simple accommodation where Priests and Religious and Lay people can stay to spend some time in private recollection.
For More Information: hermitage@capuchinfriars.org.au
- The Way of the Cross, winds its way through all our lives -
Way of the Cross – High
Valley
>> Study Paper
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