To the Reverend Father
Marcellinus Theeuwes,
Prior of La Grande Chartreuse,
General of the carthusian Order,
and to all the members of the
carthusian family
At the time when the members of the
carthusian family celebrate the ninth centenary of their Founder's death, I
with them give thanks to God who raised up in His Church the eminent and ever topical
figure of Saint Bruno. Praying fervently I appreciate your witness of
faithfulness to the see of Peter and am happy to join in with the joy of the
carthusian Order which has in this good and incomparable father a master of the
spiritual life. On October 6,1101, Bruno, aflame with divine love left the
elusive shadows of this world to join the everlasting goods for ever (Cf.
Letter to Ralph § 13). The brothers of the hermitage of Santa Maria della Torre
in Calabria
little knew that this dies natalis inaugurated a singular spiritual venture
which even today brings forth abundant fruits for the Church and the world.
Bruno witnessed the cultural and religious
upheavals of his time, in a Europe that was
taking shape. He was an actor in the reform which the Church faced with
internal difficulties wished to fulfill. After having been an appreciated
teacher he felt called to consecrate himself to that unique Good which God is.
" What it there as good as God? Better still, is there another Good than
God alone? Really, a holy soul who has any sense of this Good, of its
incomparable splendor and beauty, finds himself aflame with heavenly love and
exclaims: ‘I am thirsting for the strong and living God; when shall I go and
see the face of God?’ " (Letter to Ralph § 15) The uncompromising nature
of that thirst drove Bruno, a patient listener to the Spirit, to invent with
his first companions a style of eremitical life where everything favors one's
response to the call from Christ - who indeed ever chooses men " to lead
them into solitude and join themselves to Him in intimate love "
(carthusian Statutes). By this choice of life in the desert, Bruno invites the
entire Church community " never to lose sight of the highest vocation
which is to remain forever with the Lord " (Vita consecrata § 7).
Bruno, when able to forget his own plans to
answer the call from the Pope, shows his strong sense of the Church. He is
conscious that to follow the path of holiness is unthinkable outside of
obedience to the Church: and shows us in that way that real following of Christ
demands putting oneself into His hands. In abandonment of self he shows us the
supreme love. And this attitude of his kept him in a permanent state of joy and
praise. His brothers noticed that " his face was always radiating joy, his
words modest. To a father's vigor he joined the sensitivity of a mother "
(Introduction to Bruno's obituary scroll). These exquisite remarks from the
obituary scroll show the fruitfulness of a life given to contemplate the face
of Christ as the source of all apostolic fecundity and brotherly love. Would
that Saint Bruno's sons and daughters, as did their father, may always keep on
contemplating Christ, that they " keep watch in this way for the return of
their Master ever ready to open when He knocks " (Letter to Ralph § 4);
this will he a stimulant call for all Christians to stay vigilant in prayer in
order to welcome their Lord !
Following upon the great Jubilee of the
Incarnation, the celebration of the ninth centenary of St Bruno's death
acquires by this fact a supplementary emphasis. In the Apostolic Letter Novo
millennio ineunte I invite the entire people of God again to take in Christ
their point of departure, in order to permit those who thirst for
meaningfulness and Truth to hear God's own heartbeat and that of the Church.
Christ's words: " And lo, I am with you always until the end of the world
" (Mt 28,20) call all those who bear the name of disciples to draw from
this certitude renewed energies for their Christian existence and inspiring
strength for their path (Cf. Novo millennio ineunte §29). The call to prayer
and contemplation, which is the hallmark of carthusian life, shows particularly
that only Christ can bring to the hopes of men a fullness of meaning and joy.
How could one doubt for a second that such
expression of pure love gives carthusian life an extraordinary fecundity, as it
were, for the missions? In the retreat of their monasteries, in the solitude of
their cells, the carthusians spin Holy Church's wedding garment ("
beautiful as a bride decked out for her bridegroom ", 1 Rev. 21,3); every
day they offer the world to God and invite all mankind to the wedding of the
Lamb. The celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and the summit
of life in the desert, modeling into the very being of Christ those who give
themselves up to His love. Thus the presence and the activity of Christ in this
world become visible, for the salvation of all men and the joy of the Church.
At the heart of the desert, where men are
tried and their faith purified, the Father leads them on a path of
dispossession which questions all logic of having, being successful and finding
fleeting happiness. Guigo the carthusian would always encourage those desiring
to follow Saint Bruno’s ideal to " follow the example of the poor man
Christ, in order to share in His riches " (On the solitary life, § 6).
This dispossession passes through a thorough break with the World, which does
not mean contempt for the world but a fresh orientation of one's whole life in
a tireless search for the unique Good: " You have seduced me, Lord, and I
have let myself be seduced ", Jer. 20,7). The Church is fortunate to have
at its disposition the carthusian witness of total alertness to the Spirit and
a life entirely surrendered to Christ !
So I invite the members of the carthusian
family to remain, by holiness and simplicity of life, like the city on the
mountain or the lamp on the lamp stand (Cf. Matt. 5, 14-15). Rooted in the Word
of God, quenching their thirst with the sacraments of Holy Church, upheld by
the prayers of St Bruno and their brothers, let them remain for the entire
Church and at the heart of the world " a sort of place for hope and
discovery of the Beatitudes, where Love leaning on prayer - source of communion
- is called to become logic of life, and source of joy "! (Vita consecrata
§ 51) The cloistered life as an outward expression of the offering up of one's
whole life in union with Christ’s, shows the fleetingness of our existence and
teaches us to count only on God. It increases the thirst for graces given in
meditation of the Word of God. It also is " the place for spiritual
communion with God and our brothers and sisters, where the restricted character
both of space and of contacts favors an interiorization of Gospel values "
(Ibid. § 59). The quest for God in contemplation is indeed undissociable from
love of our brothers, love that makes us recognize the face of Christ in the
poorest of men. Contemplation of Christ lived in brotherly love remains the
safest path of all for a fruitful life. St
John unceasingly reminds us of it: " Beloved, let
us love each other, because love is of God, and whoever loves is born of God
and knows God " (1 John 4,7). Saint Bruno understood that well, he who
never separated the primacy he gave to God in all his life from the deep
humanity he showed his brethren.
The ninth centenary of Saint Bruno's dies
natalis gives me the occasion to renew my trust in the carthusian Order in its
mission of selfless contemplation and intercession for the Church and the
world. Following Saint Bruno and his successors, the carthusian monasteries
never stop awakening the Church to the eschatological dimension of its mission,
calling to mind God's marvelous deeds and being watchful in the expectation of
the ultimate accomplishment of the virtue of Hope (Cf. Vita consecrata § 27).
Watching tirelessly for the Kingdom to come, seeking to Be rather than to Do,
the carthusian Order gives the Church vigor and courage in its mission to put
out in deep waters and permit the Good News of Christ to enkindle all of
mankind.
In these days of carthusian celebration I
ardently pray the Lord to make resound in the heart of many young the call to
leave everything to follow the poor man Christ, on the demanding but liberating
path of the carthusian vocation. I also invite those in charge of the
carthusian family to respond without timidity to the requests from the young
Churches to found monasteries on their territories.
In this spirit the discernment and
formation of the candidates presenting themselves necessitates renewed
attention from the novice masters. Indeed today's culture marked by strong
hedonistic currents, by the wish for possessions and a certain wrong conception
of freedom, does not make it easy for the young to express their generosity
when they want to consecrate their lives to Christ, to follow him on the path
of self-offering love, of concrete and generous service. The complexity of each
one's itinerary, their psychological fragility, the difficulties to live
faithfully over the years, all this suggests that nothing must be neglected to
give those who ask for admission to the carthusian " desert " a
formation spanning all the dimensions of the human person. What is more,
particular attention must be given to the choice of educators able to accompany
candidates on the paths of interior liberation and docility to the Holy Spirit.
Finally, aware that life together as brothers is a fundamental element of the
itinerary of consecrated persons, communities must be invited to live
unreservedly their mutual love, and develop a spiritual climate and lifestyle
in conformity with your Order's charisma.
Dear sons and daughters of Saint Bruno, as
I reminded you at the end of my post-synodal apostolic exhortation " Vita
consecrata " you should not only reminisce and tell a glorious past history,
but make a grand history! Look towards the future, where the Spirit is sending
you to do with you still great things " (§ 110). At the heart of the world
you make the Church attentive to the voice of the Bridegroom whispering in her
heart: " Courage! I have defeated the world " (John 16,33). I
encourage you never to give up the intuitions of you Founder, even if the
impoverishment of your communities, the drop in vocations and the
incomprehension, which your chosen radical lifestyle provokes, might make you
doubt the fecundity of your Order and your mission whose fruits in hidden way
belong to God !
It is up to you, dear sons and daughters of
the Charterhouse, heirs to Saint Bruno's charisma, to maintain in all its
authenticity and depth the specific spiritual path, which he traced for you by
his words and example. Your pithy knowledge of God, matured in prayer and
meditation of His word, calls the people of God to look further, to the very
horizons of a renewed humankind inquest of fullness of meaning and unity. Your
poverty, offered for the glory of God and the salvation of the world, is an
eloquent contestation of the logic of profit and efficiency, which often closes
the hearts of men and nations to the real need of their brothers. Your hidden
life with Christ, as the Cross silently planted in the heart of redeemed
mankind, remains in fact for the Church and for the world the eloquent sign and
the permanent reminder that anybody, yesterday as today, can let himself be
taken by Him who is only love.
Entrusting all the members of the
carthusian family to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mater singularis
Cartusiensium, star of the evangelization of the third millennium, I give them
all an affectionate apostolic blessing, which I extend to all the benefactors
of the Order.
From the Vatican, May
14, 2001.
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