This protects the authenticity of the eremitical lifestyle, and in approving the plan, the bishop or his delegate assumes the responsibility for seeing that this rule is followed or, when considered necessary, altered. The essence of the solitary life is stricter separation from the world, silence and solitude, with constant prayer and penance. Each hermit will have a personal way of achieving that end. Each rule may be different but there will be a commonality, not only with other hermits, but also with the basic pattern that was given to the church by the Desert Fathers. The rule must thus reflect the hermit's strict separation from the world, as well as the particular choices made about how he or she will live in silence and solitude, and in constant prayer and penance.
Many hermits enter the eremitic life with a very rigorous rule all mapped out.
Most solitaries seem to feel that the rule is absolutely necessary as a support when they do not feel like praying, or when they are sad or beginning to experience real solitude and the lack of human companionship. Then they can be obedient to the rule, if nothing else, and continue to persevere. Hermits must take their vocation very seriously but it helps if they do not take themselves too seriously. In this matter, as in others, the support of the hermit's spiritual director will be of inestimable value. The director, in ordinary circumstances, would be the person most likely to be aware of any problems the hermit might be encountering in being faithful to the rule of life.