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How to get started
quies_faq.html
 We 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
 )
- 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?
- Begin by the page How to get
started. If you have any specific questions you can write to us.
- Spirituality is something to be experienced, it cannot be
explained. The Quies 5
step commitment to following the 11 guidelines is the door
to access the spirituality, beginning with
living step 1, then … the other steps one by one founded on
the deepening of the practice of its previous steps. There
will be progressively developed a community
structure for fraternal exchanges, and there are often many
informal exchanges being done daily. But the life of the
Charism of Saint Bruno remains a personal solitary endeavor
– although collegially shared, managed, and developed.
It is projected to be a Lay Faithful Association, and is a
beautiful and simple spirituality to propose progressively
through the example of living it, its simplicity and its
balance; to any parishioner, to any friend, to
all. It is recommended that one make as
preparation Saint
Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort's Total Consecration to
Jesus through Mary
with a 33-day period of spiritual preparation.
(You might want to refer also to the Treatise
of The True Devotion to Mary by Saint
Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort ).
- 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?
- 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
- 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?
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