A still from “The Great Silence”, documentary film directed by Philip Gröning in 2005 – archive
How many times caught up in discouragement have we felt like a football team at the mercy of the adversary, powerless and offside compared to this time. And maybe looking in the mirror we saw the silhouette of Munch’s The Scream shouting our need to know what meaning this life and the reality that surrounds us has. How many times have we then “screamed” the desire for authentic relationships and friendships in an era in which virtual reality often only masks our solitudes. In short, there are many reasonable reasons to think of living in the worst of possible worlds: not only wars and pandemics, but also the ideologies that are unhinging the family or the new technological addictions that are putting the parent-child relationship in crisis. In reality, however, every era has its crosses, comparisons are misleading. What matters is the human heart which has always been the same and determines our path. To become aware of it, it is regenerating to dive into the river of pure and crystalline water that flows from a precious volume: At the school of silence. An itinerary of contemplation. Anthology of Carthusian authors (Rubbettino, pages 534, euro 29.00) with a preface by Armando Matteo. The clearest thoughts of all the great men of one of the most rigorous and fascinating monastic orders of the Catholic Church have been collected. A monumental work that quenches contemporary man’s thirst even with texts written even a thousand years ago. The Carthusian order was founded by Saint Bruno, a native of Cologne in Germany around 1030, who died in the Calabrian hermitage of Serra San Bruno in 1101. The first monastery he founded was the Grande Chartreuse, near Grenoble, France, which he explains also the name of the order. At the base is the awareness that all the greatest secrets were also revealed to the biblical characters not among the crowds but in solitude because it is here that the heart acquires “that pure and luminous eye” which can see the Creator of the universe . And Bruno’s gaze sees God above all as goodness: «Can there be anything better than God? Indeed, what other good can there be outside of God alone?». They say that the saint always had a happy face, but this is a privilege reserved for the “brave” who embrace this life. As he himself wrote: «Only those who have experienced it know what utility and divine joy the solitude and silence of the hermitage give to those who love them». Inner peace is a conquest that requires training, a constant struggle with oneself, finding strength in the One who wanted us on the pitch. “And God – writes Saint Bruno – gives his athletes, for the fatigue of combat, the desired reward: the peace that the world does not know and the joy of the Holy Spirit”. The literary production of the Carthusians, warns the volume, is rather scarce compared to the other monastic orders. There is a well-founded reason also reiterated in the Statutes and it is the fear of neglecting the first and most important task for a Carthusian: to concern himself only with God in solitude and silence. One more reason to appreciate a collection that presents many texts translated into Italian for the first time by even little-known authors. In the end we have in our hands a real manual for experiencing a silence that speaks and the power of prayer. Because “in prayer, if God leaves us in the night, it lights up with clarity”. A lifeline, since immersed as we are in this hectic society we struggle at the bottom in search of the only thing perhaps not just a click away: peace of heart. This is why the ancient motto of the Carthusian order is still relevant: Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis (“Stable, then, is the cross of Christ, while the world moves”). It is certainly not easy to come to terms with the suffering, the innocent pain of the little ones or of those we love. We would like to do without our “crosses”, even if Golgotha comes to our rescue. And when we are no longer able to look up, the Carthusians teach: “God is absent to be more desired”. It is the trust of those who already feel safe like a child in the arms of that Father who will one day make us happy forever. Faith as a relationship, to get around the biggest pitfall, that of thinking you have to play it alone. The monk Augustine Guillerand writes: «We no longer see ourselves alone in carrying the weight of our being and of life. There is no more dangerous mistake than this. God offers himself to us to fill the emptiness of our soul and transform all his desolations into joy”.
Spirituality. Silence that speaks: the lesson of the Carthusians