Desert

  • "...be impregnated of silence and solitude" Gd.3christrebukessatan.jpg
  • "The monk, who continues faithfully in his cell and lets himself be molded by it, will gradually find that his whole life tends to become one continual prayer. But he cannot attain to this repose except at the cost of stern battle; both by living austerely in fidelity to the law of the cross, and willingly accepting the tribulations by which God will try him as gold in the furnace. In this way, having been cleansed in the night of patience, and having been consoled and sustained by assiduous meditation of the Scriptures, and having been led by the Holy Spirit into the depths of his own soul, he is now ready, not only to serve God, but even to cleave to him in love". Carthusian Statutes Chapter 3
  • Let not the novice be worn down by the temptations which are wont to beset the followers of Christ in the desert; nor let him put his trust in his own strength, but in the Lord, who has called him and who will bring to perfection the work he has begun. Carthusian Statutes Chapter 8 and 17
  • As we contemplate all the benefits which God has prepared for those he has called into the desert, let us rejoice with our Blessed Father Bruno that we have attained the peaceful haven of a hidden port, in which we are invited to experience, in some sort, the incomparable beauty of the Supreme Good. Let us rejoice in the beatitude, which has become our lot, and in the generous outpouring of God‘s grace on us; and let us always give thanks to God the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Amen. Carthusian Statutes Chapter 8
  • When our Father St. Bruno entered the desert with his six companions, he was following in the footsteps of the monks of old, who had been completely dedicated to silence and poverty of spirit. But the particular grace of our first Fathers was to introduce into this form of life a daily Liturgy, which without detracting from the austerity of the eremitical vocation, would nonetheless join it, in a more visible way, to the hymn of praise which Christ the High Priest entrusted to his Church. We have maintained this Liturgy, as being thoroughly in accord with our solitary contemplative life. ... Liberty of spirit is a mark of the solitary life. The Liturgy celebrated in the secret of the cell should reflect this, be in profound harmony with the aspirations of the heart, while always remaining an act of our community life. Carthusian Statutes Chapter 21 FAQ
  • To the praise of the glory of God, Christ, the Father‘s Word, has through the Holy Spirit, from the beginning chosen certain men, whom he willed to lead into solitude and unite to himself in intimate love. In obedience to such a call, Master Bruno and six companions entered the desert of Chartreuse in the year of our Lord 1084 and settled there; under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they and their successors, learning from experience, gradually evolved a special form of hermit life, which was handed on to succeeding generations, not by the written word, but by example. Carthusian Statutes Chapter 1
  • Guigues’ Praise of Life in Solitude Carthusian Statutes Chapter 2
  1. Those monks who have praised solitude wished to bear witness to a mystery, whose riches they had indeed experienced, but whose full penetration is reserved for heaven alone; for in solitude there is ever being enacted the great mystery of Christ and his Church, of which our Lady is the outstanding exemplar, but which lies hidden in its entirety in the depths of every faithful soul, where to its unfolding solitude greatly contributes. Hence, one should seek in the following chapter — taken from Guigues’ Customs — as it were, sparks of light thrown off from the soul of him, to whom the Holy Spirit entrusted the compilation of the first laws of our Order. For these words of our fifth Prior, while they do indeed interpret Sacred Scripture in the vein of ancient allegory, nevertheless, when rightly understood, attain sublime truth, which links us, who enjoy the same grace, with our early Fathers.
  2. In praise of solitude, to which we have been called in a special way, we will say but little; since we know that it has already obtained enthusiastic recommendation from many saints and wise men of such great authority, that we are not worthy to follow in their steps.
  3. For, as you know, in the Old Testament, and still more so in the New, almost all God’s secrets of major importance and hidden meaning, were revealed to his servants, not in the turbulence of the crowd but in the silence of solitude; and you know, too, that these same servants of God, when they wished to penetrate more profoundly some spiritual truth, or to pray with greater freedom, or to become a stranger to things earthly in an ardent elevation of the soul, nearly always fled the hindrance of the multitude for the benefits of solitude.
  4. Thus — to illustrate by some examples — when seeking a place for meditation, Isaac went out to a field alone; and this, one may assume, was his normal practice, and not an isolated incident. Likewise, it was when Jacob was alone, having dispatched his retinue ahead of him, that he saw God face to face, and was favored with a blessing and a new and better name, thus receiving more in one moment of solitude than in a whole lifetime of social contact.
  5. Scripture also tells us how Moses, Elijah and Elisha esteemed solitude, and how conducive they found it to an ever deeper penetration of the divine secrets; and note, too, what perils constantly surrounded them when among men, and how God visited them when alone.
  6. Overwhelmed by the spectacle of God’s indignation, Jeremiah, too, sat alone. He asked that his head might be a fountain, his eyes a spring for tears, to mourn the slain of his people; and that he might the more freely give himself to this holy work he exclaimed, "O, that I had in the desert a wayfarer’s shelter!" clearly implying that he could not do this in a city, and thus indicating what an impediment companions are to the gift of tears. Jeremiah, also said, "It is good for a man to await the salvation of God in silence." — which longing solitude greatly favors; and he adds, "It is good also for the man who has borne the yoke from early youth," — a very consoling text for us, many of whom have embraced this vocation from early manhood; and yet again he speaks saying, "The solitary will sit and keep silence, for he will lift himself above himself." Here the prophet makes reference to nearly all that is best in our life: peace, solitude, silence, and ardent thirst for the things of heaven.
  7. Later, as an example of the supreme patience and perfect humility of those formed in this school, Jeremiah speaks of, "Jeering of the multitude and cheek buffeted in scorn, bravely endured."
  8. John the Baptist, greater than whom, the Savior tells us, has not risen among those born of women, is another striking example of the safety and value of solitude. Trusting not in the fact that divine prophecy had foretold that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, and that he would go before Christ the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah; nor in the fact that his birth had been miraculous, and that his parents were saints, he fled the society of men as something dangerous and chose the security of desert solitude: and, in actual fact, as long as he dwelt alone in the desert, he knew neither danger nor death. Moreover the virtue and merit he attained there are amply attested by his unique call to baptize Christ, and by his acceptance of death for the sake of justice. For, schooled in sanctity in solitude, he, alone of all men, became worthy to wash Christ — Christ who washes all things clean — and worthy, too, to undergo prison bonds and death itself in the cause of truth.
  9. Jesus himself, God and Lord, whose virtue was above both the assistance of solitude and the hindrance of social contact, wished, nevertheless, to teach us by his example; so, before beginning to preach or work miracles, he was, as it were, proved by a period of fasting and temptation in the solitude of the desert; similarly, Scripture speaks of him leaving his disciples and ascending the mountain alone to pray. Then there was that striking example of the value of solitude as a help to prayer, when Christ, just as his Passion was approaching, left even his Apostles to pray alone — a clear indication that solitude is to be preferred for prayer even to the company of Apostles.
  10. We cannot here pass over in silence a mystery that merits our deepest consideration; the fact that this same Lord and Savior of mankind deigned to live as the first exemplar of our Carthusian life, when he retired alone to the desert and gave himself to prayer and the interior life; treating his body hard with fasting, vigils and other penances; and conquering the devil and his temptations with spiritual arms.
  11. And now, dear reader, ponder and reflect on the great spiritual benefits derived from solitude by the holy and venerable Fathers, Paul, Anthony, Hilarion, Benedict, and others beyond number, and you will readily agree that for tasting the spiritual savor of psalmody; for penetrating the message of the written page; for kindling the fire of fervent prayer; for engaging in profound meditation; for losing oneself in mystic contemplation; for obtaining the heavenly dew of purifying tears — nothing is more helpful than solitude.
  12. The reader should not rest content with the above examples in praise of our vocation; let him gather together many more, either from present experience or from the pages of Sacred Scripture.