The Monastic Contribution to Modern Society

The Franciscan University study abroad program in Gaming, Austria is situated in a former Carthusian monastery dating back to the early 14th century.  As such, the spirit and ethos of the Carthusian monks still permeate the walls and environs of this historic and holy place. 


In this vein, Pope Benedict XVI, recently visited a Carthusian monastery in the Italian region of Calabria where he spoke on the contemporary value of monasticism, silence, and solitude. 

His apt words per Vatican news are as follows: 

"Monasteries have an important, I would say indispensable, role", he said. "Their purpose today is to 'improve' the environment, in the sense that sometimes the air we breathe in our societies is unhealthy, it is polluted by a non-Christian mentality, at times even a non-human mentality, because it is dominated by economic interests, concerned only with worldly things and lacking a spiritual dimension.

   "In such a climate not only God but also our fellow man is pushed to the margins, and we do not commit ourselves to the common good. Monasteries, however, are models of societies which have God and fraternal relations at their core. We have great need of them in our time".

  Benedict XVI completed his remarks by exhorting the faithful of Serra San Bruno "to treasure the great spiritual tradition of this place, and seek to put it into practice in your daily lives".

SILENCE AND SOLITUDE REVEAL THE PRESENCE OF GOD

VATICAN CITY, 9 OCT 2011 (VIS) - Having addressed the local people of Serra San Bruno, the Holy Father entered the Carthusian monastery of Sts. Stephen and Bruno where he was greeted by the prior, Fr. Jacques Dupont. At 6 p.m. the Pope presided at Vespers with the monastic community in the monastery church.

  In his homily the Pope explained that the aim of his visit was to confirm the Carthusian Order in its mission, "more vital and important today than ever before", he said. The spiritual core of the Carthusians, founded by St. Bruno, lies in the desire "to enter into union of life with God, abandoning everything which impedes such communion, allowing oneself to be seized by the immense love of God and living from that love alone", through solitude and silence.


Technological progress, the Holy Father noted, has made man's life more comfortable but also "more agitated, even convulsive". The growth of the communications media means that today we run the risk of virtual reality dominating reality itself. "People are increasingly, even unwittingly, immersed in a virtual dimension, thanks to the audiovisual images that accompany their lives from morning to evening. The youngest, having been born in this state, seem to fill each vacant moment with music and images, almost as if afraid to contemplate the void. ... Some people are no longer capable of remaining silent and alone".

  This situation of modern society and culture "throws light on the specific charism of the Carthusian monastery as a precious gift for the Church and for the world, a gift which contains a profound message for our lives and for all humanity. I would summarise it in these terms: by withdrawing in silence and solitude man, so to speak, 'exposes' himself to the truth of his nakedness, he exposes himself to that apparent 'void' I mentioned earlier. But in doing so he experiences fullness, the presence of God, of the most real Reality that exists. ... Monks, by leaving everything, ... expose themselves to solitude and silence so as to live only from what is essential; and precisely in living from the essential they discover a profound communion with their brothers and sisters, with all mankind".

  This vocation, the Pope went on, "finds its response in a journey, a lifelong search. ... Becoming a monk requires time, exercise, patience. ... The beauty of each vocation in the Church lies in giving time to God to work with His Spirit, and in giving time to one's own humanity to form, to grow in a particular state of life according to the measure of maturity in Christ. In Christ there is everything, fullness. 


However we need time to possess one of the dimensions of His mystery. ... At times, in the eyes of the world, it seems impossible that someone should spend his entire life in a monastery, but in reality a lifetime is hardly sufficient to enter into this union with God, into the essential and profound Reality which is Jesus Christ".

 "The Church needs you and you need the Church", the Holy Father told the monks at the end of his homily. "You, who live in voluntary isolation, are in fact at the heart of the Church; you ensure that the pure blood of contemplation and of God's love flows in her veins".

The Deafening Silence

A blog post by Emily Rolla, Spring 2011

Walking up to the gate bearing the infamous phrase, “Arbeit Macht Frei,” I heard a small child wailing. Spooked, I turned around and saw a women walking past with a small child. It was a coincidence, but it certainly set the tone for my experience with Auschwitz. As soon as you stepped onto the grounds, you felt the death looming over the area.

Now, let me just start by saying I’ve always been a bit of a crybaby. I cry at the end of Disney movies. Visiting this place where so many were stripped of their human dignity made it difficult for me to cry. It was so incomprehensibly evil. I couldn’t cry for a large portion of the camp, because I couldn’t process how anyone could be so inhumane to our brothers and sisters.

“Here is where they preformed experiments on women and learned how to sterilize them… Here are cells that had no ventilation and the prisoners slowly suffocated… here are all of the toys of the children that died here…here is the hair of the prisoners they would ship to factories to make rugs for the Germans…” –It was far too much.

I spent the day fasting in preparation of Auschwitz. I complain about being hungry about every two hours, and now I know that I have no right to. There are so many freedoms we take for granted- going to the bathroom whenever we want, for example. It sounds silly or trifling, but you got shot if you tried to use the latrines more than twice a day. In fact, the best job in the camp was cleaning the latrines because they had access to their use. It’s amazing. We have the gift of life- with TVs and computers and fast food and convenience. They had no sense of what “convenience” was because they didn’t care about their own appetites so much as just surviving.

I have been to the Holocaust Museum in D.C., but that cannot prepare you for what you see here. You are not just looking at artifacts, removed from the conditions of others- you are staring people in the face. You can see them form lines, you can hear them scream, you can feel them clawing for air in the gas chambers. You see the black smoke. You are staring evil in the face, and it’s too much to handle. As it was said in the movie we watched on the way to Poland, “When evil is only imagined, you can live with it. But when it is manifest, before your eyes, there is no way out.”

How many evils are we living with? Abortion is still legal in our country. Human trafficking continues. Poverty eats away at the dignity of our fellow human brothers and sisters. Why do we feel so uncomfortable when we see someone begging for food? As Christians, we know we are obliged to help them, and we are denying our conscience when we don’t. We know that person deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, but we walk on the other side of the road and pretend they don’t exist. It is those who remain passive and silent who perpetuate indignities.

“When it is manifest, there is no way out.” Imagine that you witnessed an abortion. Imagine that you were the one who was homeless and starving. Imagine that you were forced to sell yourself, just to survive. Would you fight, or do nothing? How much despair would you feel when no one came to help you? How much doubt in God would you have, when someone created in His likeness is the reason you are suffering and those claiming to love Him do nothing?

We tend to put a wall up when we hear about atrocities, saying, “Oh, that’s so sad,” and then return to our daily activities and maybe say a prayer and forget about it later on.

The silence here- the silence was deafening. It wasn’t the silence of the prisoners, though. The indignity shown throughout the history of mankind was crying out- and it was I who remained silent. My own silence was the loudest I had ever faced- silence for the sake of convenience, something these victims had no concept of. It wasn’t convenient to go pray outside the clinic in the cold. It wasn’t convenient to drive down to the soup kitchen. It wasn’t convenient to love. It wasn’t convenient to act or speak up.

I hope I will always carry this experience with me, that I may never remain deaf and silent in the midst of the cries of others ever again.