Monday 4 April 2011

Help A Hermit...

I first met Fr. George Byers when he was a chaplain at Lourdes and I was helping to organise the Parish Pilgrimage, back in 2008 (I think.) In 2009, just before he left Lourdes, Fr. George arranged for our group to have Mass at the parish church in Lourdes - a wonderful experience.

After a period of teaching in seminary, Fr. George has decided to follow his vocation as a hermit. This was a bit of a shock, as I'd always assumed that a hermit would tend to be of a rather solitary, almost anti-social frame of mind... and I can't quite picture Fr. George as anti-social and solitary. However, it seems that this has been a long-cherished dream of his. You can find out more about his work via his blog, Holy Souls Hermitage.

Anyway, Fr. George is setting up his hermitage on the Blue Ridge Mountains - of North Carolina. No, I didn't think they were in North Carolina either. But my geography is pretty dire.*

He intends to offer up his prayers and penances for the sanctification of priests and bishops, living and dead. The Holy Souls Hermitage needs quite a bit of support as it's starting out, so any donations will be gratefully received. The Benefactors Page gives details of how you can donate money, and the sidebar has links to pages giving specific details of items which are needed, like altar breads, candles and so on. I believe that the chainsaw shown in the photo above is lacking a chain, for example. Fr. George will pray daily for benefactors and offer Mass for them about once a month.

Those of us who can't afford to support the Hermitage financially are asked to pray for Fr. George and his work. Prayers are always welcome!

* For anyone wondering where I thought those mountains actually are...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL - that's where my geography came from too!

Jane said...

Thanks for this news Mac. I've done my best to spread it via my two blogs, with acknowledgements to you of course!

Mary Liz said...

Oh you were just fine about the Blue Ridge Mountains! They are in both Virginia and North Carolina!

They are also in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and my home, Maryland.

They are a pretty sizable range for not being very tall. They're also just a sub-range of the Appalachians which go all the way up into Canada.

They are beautiful too.

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