A Hermitess is Consecrated

This is a cool story:

For more than four years, Kathryn Bloomquist has prepared to formalize a life of solitude and prayer. Late last month, she made the final step and was consecrated as a hermitess before Bishop Paul Coakley and a few witnesses.

Now, as Sister Kathryn Ann of the Holy Angels, she will spend her days mostly in solitude, “lived to the praise of God and the salvation of the world,” she explains.

It is a path she has walked for much of her life. She moved to Kansas from Washington, D.C., with her husband, Len, in 1989 when he joined the faculty at Kansas State University. Eventually he became chairman of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work.

Even then, Sister Kathryn said, she chose a life of prayer and silence. “He worked in the world, but he so believed in my calling. He protected me,” she said of her husband. “This life came about as we built this chapel. I was practically already a hermit. It just fit. It happened,” she said.

Together, they constructed the native stone chapel, hidden even from their residence tucked away in the wooded hills near Manhattan.

She adopted the practice of a Benedictine oblate, focusing on the Rule of St. Benedict written 1,500 years ago. She prayed the Litany of the Hours and learned the Gregorian chants in Latin.

And then Len became ill. A rare cancer took his life just four months after they finished the exterior of the chapel.

You can read the whole story here and chapel pictures at her website.

It is a wonderful thing to know there is yet another person whose whole life, day-after-day, is a living prayer of praise to God and for the sake of the rest of us.

I told my husband about this story, tonight, and joked, “if you ever get that kneeler and oratory done for me, you’d better watch out; I might go all hermit-y on you, too!”

He said, “you’re already a semi-hermit; we lock you in the office in the morning and let you out at night.”

“With a slow, clunky computer,” I reminded him, since we’re still not-quite decided on my new laptop, for me.

“That is your daily penance,” he said. “You should just offer it up for my sake, and stop complaining.”

Hmmmm…that’s a good point.

But I really can’t bear this lag-time much longer. Most days the ‘puter can’t keep up with me, and is it really wrong for me to want to be able to you know…watch a video on the computer without everything freezing up?

Ah..sacrifice. Tonight my husband continued his search (he is the best guy!) but every time we get close to a decision he throws a curve my way. Now, it’s docking stations. He thinks I should have one and will want one. I think anything I have to plug and connect is just going to confuse me. He sees a “killer package” with two something graphic thingys. I don’t need graphic thingys; I don’t play games.

We’re getting there. But by the time a decision is made, I may be asking Sr. Kathryn Ann if I can spend a weekend with her!