Feast of St. Bruno: Oct. 6

Since the Austrian Program of Franciscan University is located in a restored 14th century Carthusian monastery, it only seems natural for the University to celebrate the Feast of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order.

Each year, the St. Bruno's feast occurs on Oct. 6, after the Feast of St. Therese and right before the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Besides celebrating a solemn mass and venerating the relics of St. Bruno, all of us are invited on this feast to contemplate some of the lessons which St. Bruno and his companion followers leave to us Americans who inhabit their former residence.

The Carthusians are well noted for their rigor and discipline, but often outsiders forget that these negations are almost imperceptibly swallowed up by beauty, harmony, and transcendence.

Philip Gröning, Director of the Film, Into Great Silence, about the Carthusian Order says, "This is what a [Carthusian] monastery is, it's getting rid of all the superfluous stuff, and then things become much more transparent--time becomes transparent, objects too. There's this transparency, this inner freedom that comes, which is felt as joy, of course."

Indeed, in the film, are a pair of scriptural texts to which the film returns again and again. One is a text emphasizing discipline and self-denial: "He who does not give up everything cannot be My disciple." The other is a prophetic utterance evoking ecstatic self-surrender: "You seduced m, O Lord, and I let myself be seduced." {This section as well as others in quotes are taken or summarized from Gröning's interview with Decent Films Director, Steven D. Greydanus.}

So, the Carthusians remind us that discipline and joy are not mutually exclusive. So like them, we also have to find moments of discipline and structuring ourselves, and we also must find ways of abandoning ourselves to what life is. And finding this balance is one of the major human requirements.

The Carthusians also epitomize "living by faith." Gröning observed that "They feel like they are in the hands of God, and this is good."

Finally, the Carthusian Monasticism remind us that "a monastery is something that is letting go of things in the beginning, letting go of more and more things, and then a certain liberty and a certain joy will come up."

From Gaming, Happy Feast of St. Bruno!