How to get started

quies_faq.html carthusian_reading_portes.jpgWe would strive to convert our life, as laity living in the open world, within our duty of state, to the point where it is simple and perfectly balanced for us to live in the spirit of continual prayer of Saint Bruno (and the Carthusian Order). This is an internal endeavor, which will be developed and favored by our discerned, elective, discrete and eventually shared, personal, external lay monastic adapted practices or customs.
  • Catholics (List of Catholic rites and churches external_link)
  • Non-Catholics
  • Non-Christians
  • Communion with the Catholic Church
    • The possibility of coming into full communion with the Catholic Church is a delicate and very real subject of concern, for non-catholic aspirants experiencing and adhering to Saint Bruno's charism. There definitely is an opening, a possibility of assistance, within a total respect of individual processes of reflection and conversion of ways, which may lead a person to seek to come into full communion with the Catholic Church. This is possible if not probable since the Carthusians are Catholic. But in our fraternal exchanges, this needs for any persons to happen at God’s pace, who respects and guides man’s soul, and realizes more for all epochs, through our personal collaboration, – or our Fiat to our personal daily discovered missions within our family, culture, religion of birth, which were confided and imposed on us by mystery of the Divine Providence – than all that the human mind can fathom and will be able to fathom in eternity. We are living in this epoch together by God's Will. The theological sources in the 11 Guidelines are Catholic, but Saint Bruno's contemplative path attracts in fact, people from all Christian Denominations and also Non-Christians. The SBPCLC's respect as regards Interfaith and Ecumenic dialog, is to follow God’s path, which is personal, edifying, progressive, vivifying and non imposing.
A lay contemplative application of the carthusian ideal, could be summarized within these (11 guidelines) key concepts:

1.    The spiritual journey of Saint Bruno is characterized by the search for God in solitude, this God he knows to be intimately present in his heart. It would be desirable that the members of the CLC consecrate every day, according to their possibilities, a few moments to silence for: prayer of the heart, meditation or reading.
2.    CLC officials will provide, at the disposal of their members, a few essential elements to help in the development of this prayer (texts, life of St. Bruno, order history, excerpts of the Statutes of the Order).
3.    It is important to encourage a regular sacramental practice, depending on the possibilities of each one (the Eucharist and confession), as well as to make an annual retreat to better be impregnated of silence and solitude.
4.    Contacts between members are to be encouraged, indirectly through the internet forum, but also through small groups when this is possible. Leaders will organize these internet contacts within a frequency which can vary between two and four weeks (video conferencing?). It is advisable to set themes and 'helm' the exchanges.
5.    An executive board consisting of about seven members (including a priest and at least two women) is to be to put in place, who jointly decides which path to follow.
6.    This executive board also prepares the creation of a private association of the faithful. To properly set everything up, one must take time and hasten nothing.
7.    Serious discernment, if not severe, must be put in place for the admission of members into the second degree. They must clearly know what they undertake and what are their obligations (see 1.2.3.)
8.    Regular contact with the hierarchy of the Church (the best is a bishop) is to be sought and maintained.
9.    The forum, which is not an end in itself, but a means to help some people develop their spiritual life, in the example and with the help of Saint Bruno, must be cleansed:

a.    Avoid unnecessary chatter and discussions that are far from the aim of the CLC.
b.    The ecumenical openness must be conducted according to the norms of the Church and you will exclude any tendency to religious syncretism.
c.    You also avoid to compromise with pressure groups of ideas either integrist or avant-gardist. To the spiritual path in accordance with Saint Bruno, is appropriate great sobriety and modesty, remote from any controversy.
d.    We progress, all together, in the respect of the Magisterium of the Church.
e.    The role of the moderators is very important; they must work and intervene according to clearly defined rules.
10.    The name of the CLC: it would be desirable to make an explicit reference to Saint Bruno, rather than to the Carthusian Order. "International Fellowship of Saint Bruno" is good; otherwise "Saint Bruno Lay Contemplatives".
11.    To obtain an official support from the Order, the time is still premature. It becomes possible only after the establishment of the association and to the extent where this one, in its organization and practice, truly reflect the spirit of Saint Bruno, in an adaptation to the condition of laity living in the open world. This may take several years, which is not at all serious, since we are working on the long term.

FAQ

  • I am interested in joining the SBPCLC. What must I do?
  • From the 11 guidelines, what would be the status concerning the obligation of individual recitation of the Liturgy of hours?
    • As an example, the recitation of the Liturgy of hours as such, isn't referred to in the 11 guidelines; so we can conclude that it is optional, but depending on one's discernment and our duty of state, the Liturgy of hours could be a marvelous, but elective support for contemplation, in the spirit of Saint Bruno, in an adaptation to the condition of laity living in the open world.
      • 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
    • The participation of the lay monks in the Sacred Liturgy can take various forms (49.10), but all have the value of public prayer of the Church. Carthusian Statutes chapter 21.
  • What is the focus of the spirituality of Saint Bruno and the Carthusians?
    • God.
  • What are the means of the spirituality of Saint Bruno and the Carthusians; in an adaptation to the condition of laity living in the open world?
    • Depending on one's discernment and our duty of state: Solitude. Quies. Sobriety/austerity. Balance. Simplicity. Silence. Poverty. Continual union with God; prayer of the heart. Limited but regular fraternal community exchanges with the other lay contemplative members. Sacramental practice. Fidelity and obedience to the Magisterium of the Church and to its hierarchy.
  • Can the fullness of the 11 guidelines be compromised?
    • The life of a Carthusian monastic is not easy exteriorly and interiorly as it leaves no room for compromises (and maybe this is the cause of resistances to the 11 guidelines in their fullness – since there is no room for compromise then), as it is a life of pure contemplation and union with God in silence and solitude and interior life, but is also a very interiorly naturally accessible, and balanced life; through manual work, studies, prayer and community life; as duty of state – similarly to many situations in the open world, all in the attraction to God only, which only avoidable distraction can hinder; because God always gives us the possibility to live in His Loving presence since He created us for this sole purpose. So the Carthusian gift to us of the 11 guidelines is a normal path that is accessible and only rejected by neglect of it’s uncompromising fullness. The carthusian life is a whole, (a take or leave) with the cell and horarium and customs; the 11 guidelines are a whole and Quies.org tries to analyze its different parts to understand how the whole can become our life in the open world – just as the carthusian horarium and customs balance the human and spiritual call to God - in a life that makes actual that we live (ourselves also as Lay Faithful) in His Loving Presence, for which He gratuitously created us. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Saint Augustine.
  • Integration - Quies?
    • With time the spirituality of Saint Bruno will become integrated, for the faithful members more and more into a manner of being, informing anew their whole personality, where the Presence and Love of God in their soul will be rooted through the Grace of God and purification from blessed tribulations, in the fullness of living the 11 guidelines; and the faithful effort of integrating this special conversion of ways, will open the soul to an art of living as a SBPCLC, a simplification; the spiritual process through which memory, intellect and will, progressively will die to every interest and complacence for things, and the Presence of God’s peace fill more and more all reality.
  • It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me ?
    • Spiritual life becomes forever further configuration to Christ crucified, Mary's perfect Fiat, the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification: for ever increasing conformity to our individual mission in the Mystical body of Christ, for the Will and Glory of our Father and Creator.
      • "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 external_link
      • To understand the path one might meditate Holy Scripture and discover it in the writings and mission of : Blessed Dina Bélanger, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, Marthe Robin, Saint Faustina, whose lives detail the progressive evolution of the Christification to which we are all called by the grace, mercy, pure gift Loving Will of the Holy Trinity. Our "identity has been taken away and made part of an even greater identity; I still have my personal identity, but now it is changed and open to others as a result of my becoming part of Another: in Christ I find myself living on a new plane"
      • My brothers and sisters, “let us make haste to know the Lord”, the Risen One! As you know, Jesus, perfect man, is also our true God. In him, God became visible to our eyes, to give us a share in his divine life. With him a new dimension of being, of life, has come about, a dimension which integrates matter and through which a new world arises. But this qualitative leap in universal history which Jesus brought about in our place and for our sake – how is it communicated to human beings, how does it permeate their life and raise it on high? It comes to each of us through faith and Baptism. This sacrament is truly death and resurrection, transformation and new life, so much so that the baptized person can say together with Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). I live, but no longer I. In a certain way, my identity has been taken away and made part of an even greater identity; I still have my personal identity, but now it is changed and open to others as a result of my becoming part of Another: in Christ I find myself living on a new plane. What then has happened to us? Paul gives us the answer: You have become one in Christ Jesus (cf. Gal 3:28). Through this process of our “christification” by the working and grace of God’s Spirit, the gestation of the Body of Christ in history is gradually being accomplished in us... (Benedict XVI, Homily at Saint Paul's Church in Luanda, March 21, 2009)
      • 12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
  • Other questions?

In progressionem