Franciscan Eremitical Life Conference

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The following is an excerpt from the above Special Report Vol. 6 No. 7, September 2, 1985, prepared by the Franciscan Communications Office of the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province 135 West 31st New York, N.Y.  10001 (212) 336-8500 ; Cassian A. Miles, O.F.M. editor
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The Third Franciscan Eremitical Life Conference at the Christian Unity Center of the Atonement Friars in Greymore, Garrison, New York

Noted Cistercian spritual director and author, Fr. Basil Pennington has also been close to the groups.  He made an unscheduled appearance to the conference to encourage everyone in their vocation.  "Enter daily into the hermitage of your heart," he told them, "to get to know yourselves from God's point of view and to see the dignity that is yours." 

Anthony Carrozzo, who directed the St. Francis Retreat Center in Rye Beach for six years, before being elected a Provincial Councillor in January, gave the intial conference presentation. 

Rooting his remarks in the teaching of St. Bonaventure, Anthony explained the unique vocation of a hermit in Franciscan tradition.  According to this spirit, he pointed out, the eremitical calling is not restricted to the contemplative who abandons the world to seek purgation in the desert.


Instead, he told the conference, the hermit in the Franciscan experience, climbs to the "mountain top' through his contemplative prayer experiences, there to be transfigured by God as Jesus was on Mt. Thabor, he then returns to the world to become a 'wandering hermit', preaching the message he has heard to everyone in the marketplace.