By Joseph R. Wood, The Catholic Thing - This year’s routine announcement of clergy assignments in my diocese included one that you don’t see often. A priest will follow a hermit vocation... Eremitical life, and the contemplative vocation in general, were central in early Christianity and remain a search for union with God for the contemplatives themselves, and for the good of the universal Church... The early Desert and Church Fathers, often hermits, are a source of strength and grace, always being forgotten and always being found again. Today seems to be another “found again” moment.