When I first came to work at the Austrian Program, somebody had coined a saying which really stuck with me: "The Austrian Program is the Crown Jewel in Crown that is Franciscan University.”
After working here 3 years, I couldn’t agree more.
But the question remains, why is the Austrian Program the Crown Jewel? To answer this, we would need a book or perhaps a dissertation; however, I think part of the answer lies in the forefathers of the Kartause: those mysterious Carthusian monks who lived, prayed, and worked here for nearly 400 years!
What are some of the more prominent characteristics of Carthusian spirituality?
In essence, these singular monks strive for perfect renunciation, near continuous silence, contemplation, and in the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, they are “battering the gates of Heaven with stones of prayer.”
Other words associated with this incredible order are: habit; fasting; vigils; discipline; hair-shirts; chastity; poverty; and of course obedience. In essence, they represent signposts throughout the ages: this way to heaven please!
One observer succinctly summed up their lifestyle in this manner: A charterhouse (Carthusian Monastery) is a powerhouse of prayer—bringing God down from heaven, and lifting up the world to heaven. In essence, they are already “halfway to heaven.”
It is true that they are the only religious order never to have been reformed because as many put it bluntly, they have never been deformed.
Indeed, those who have been privileged enough to have visited a Charterhouse of Kartause almost always comment in the same way our students do about the Kartause Gaming. They note the area as:
* A precious place of peace and silence
* A place of Healing
* Heaven on Earth
* An Unforgettable experience
* An Oasis in a crazy world
* “Now I know that I am loved; before I just hoped.”
Now, can you begin to see why the Carthusian history of the Kartause is indispensable from its prominence as the Crown Jewel of Franciscan University? If you can’t, I can assure you that the students who are here or have been here can….!
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