In the course of a year the necessary financial and property arrangements were gradually agreed, so that I might continue living in the Hermitage at Shepherd's Law, though now as a Companion of my community and with the approval of the Trustees. This passage was not without difficulties, but I see it as the fruit of a long prayerful preparation and as a prophetic sign. I am deeply conscious of the guidance and advice of several spiritual Fathers and Mothers over many years, together with the opportunities for dialogue given in pilgrimages to monasteries and holy places. In matters of contemplative spirituality I have received much from the Anglican Sisters of the Love of God and Benedictines who, through the centuries, have cared for Hermits. Thomas Merton's writing on Franciscan Eremitism was seminal.
Sacred icons tell of the spiritual beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Gazing on them draws one into the spiritual life of the Church. They represent scripture in visible form. Like silent, healing sermons icons are a connection between the earthly and the heavenly. Through a gift of an icon a deeper relationship with God developed that led me to the desire to paint icons in my eremitic journey of silence and solitude. I gazed upon the icon in prayer for about a year when on the feast of St. Basil a certainty over-flowed in my heart saying praying and painting with icons is a special form of prayer that is joyfully compatible with my eremitic life.