Moore is chaplain/hermit with an artistic flair

By Meg Heaton

Mention the word hermit, and the images of a man with long hair and an even longer beard, voluntarily shut away from the world and something a part of a distant past all come to mind. But think again.

The Rev. Jon Moore is a hermit. He has served as chaplain to the Carmelites on Laurel Avenue in Hudson for the past five years. He has a small home on their grounds. He also works at Clair House, a housing facility for people with AIDS in St. Paul. And he is a craftsman weaving at least one rug day on a loom in his home and selling them to help support himself.

Moore and Brother Henry Sota, also a hermit and craftsman, who lives and works in the Twin Cities, agreed to an interview at Moore's home to talk about what being a hermit means today.

Hermits were a common part of society in the early centuries and that is where the stereotypes about them originated. According to Moore, they did live lives of silence, prayer and penance and lived apart from others, often in the desert or mountains and supported themselves. "The gospels are full of references to Jesus going off to pray by himself, often before he came back and performed his miracles. He would go into the desert to pray or up into the hills. The hermit's life bears witness to that part of his life, to solitary prayer," said Moore.

But in the 1400s, the Council of Trent disallowed hermits as an order of religious life in the Church. It was not restored until 1985 when Canon law restored it as a way to re-ignite religious life among Catholics.

Moore said the change was a "whole new awakening" within the Church. "It acknowledged that the Holy Spirit could speak to you directly, not just through the community of the Church. It seems a more mature approach, more truthful. It meant you could experience communication with God yourself, not just when the Church decided."

Soto, became a brother after college and working at IBM. He, too, works with those living with AIDS at Samaritan House in Minneapolis. "I always had an attraction to religious life. After the change in the law I saw it as a possibility for me," said Soto.

The same basic elements of the early hermit's life apply today. It is a penitential life that involves prayer, penance and labor. Moore said the path of a hermit's life is unique and is a matter between the individual and their spiritual director but has at its center a desire to imitate the life of Jesus, particularly his solitary, prayerful life.

Both men have made a choice to be caregivers and to create with their hands. Soto designs and hand weaves wool shawls on a 7-foot loom in his home. It takes a week to create one shawl. Moore decided rugs were a useful item everyone could use and he tries to make at least one rug a day, although he has stepped up production in anticipation of the three craft sales he participates in around the holiday season.

The solitary nature of their craft appeals to both men and even though they know they could probably sell far more than they do each year, increasing their business is not part of the agenda. They create to support themselves and their lives of prayer and service. That is enough.

"It is a simple thing, a little thing that people can use. I can do it in my home, on my own. It fits into my contemplative life," said Moore. "A career is not the center of our lives. Prayer is."

Moore believes prayer and solitude can play an important part of anyone's lifestyle, especially in a family. "Children are naturals at prayer. They have a wonder and a reverence about life. Remember we were told to become like children. Parents can learn to pray from their children. It is the family where we begin mold and develop the soul."

He also recommends creating a "sacred space," somewhere quiet and isolated to create a holier, healthier person.

And he notes, that "prayer is never a self-centered thing."

"As a hermit, I am not pursuing God alone. The closer I can get to God, the closer humanity gets. That is true for us all."