Hermitage Meditation October 26, 2024 
by Anne Arseneau
The Oyster River is running fast below the Hermitage. The larger watershed starts high up in the snow-covered Beaufort Mountains, the range that creates the spine of this west coast island. It rushes and swirls its way past the old Hermitage out to the Salish Sea – part of a greater maze of salmon rivers and streams. When Father Charles Brandt arrived on these banks over 50 years ago, wearing his fly-fishing vest and carrying his poles down the steep bank to the waters below, the woods were young and eager to refill the recently logged forests. Immersed in the wonder of creation, he was also concerned and involved in the local environmental challenges. We remember Father Charles this week – his passing 4 years ago reminds us of the inscription on his memorial stone covered in autumn leaves – “only the sense of the sacred will save us.”
“In the distance, on my early morning walk on the old logging road every day, in the first light, a robin begins its canticle…the forest suddenly becomes a celebratory event, exploding into song and motion and joyous exchange…they speak the story of the universe, the galactic story, the earth story, the life story, the human story. If we could learn to pay attention and teach others to do the same, I think we could come to appreciate the story of the universe. We could learn to commune with nature and the natural world, realizing that the natural world is a community of subjects to be communed with, not a collection of objects to be used and exploited. Meditation is simply learning to pay attention. We all naturally have a sense of the sacred.”
Self and Environment – On Retreat with Charles Brandt