Nuns in the Charterhouse
of Notre Dame

For you, to whom our life poses a question, we are going to describe what we do day after day.We will try to explain to you something about why we have chosen this life.But, fundamentally, the choice is a response to a call from God. And why God has called us is his secret alone.

In 1084, Bruno and six of his companions entered the desert of Chartreuse in the Alps and established themselves there. Other hermitages were founded in imitation of the one at Chartreuse. In the twelfth century, the nuns of Prébayon in Provence decided to adopt the Carthusian rule of life. Such was the origin of the Carthusian Order.

The Charterhouse of Notre Dame

The Charterhouse of Notre Dame was built in 1978 in the Alps of Haute-Provence, between Manosque and Forcalquier. To get there you leave the village of Reillanne by the departemental route 14 (D.14) that leads to Banon. After about 3 miles (5 km), look on the right for the road that leads to the monastery. There is no other indication there except a discrete cross, since a Carthusian monastery wants to remain hidden. A forest of pine trees serves as a landmark, and the road leads through it. After a while, small oak trees take the place of the pines. Finally you will see a sign that reads:

Chartreuse Notre-Dame

After about a mile the monastery appears: some small houses behind an enclosure, then a long building; on its backside is the entrance of the monastery, and nearby, the access to the church.

Let us point out immediately that it is not possible to go any farther: our door opens very rarely. But since your interest in us has made us friends, you can at least imagine a little what is behind this shut door...

Behind this door? Some very simple houses and gardens. Nevertheless, they have a distinguishing characteristic: the houses are arranged around a cloister which connects them all together. Far from resembling roman or gothic cloisters, this cloister is made of a simple roof of tiles resting on beams.

The doors of these houses are placed at about 50 feet from one another all along the cloister. Let us open one of them.

In front of us is a covered passageway identical to the cloister, which leads to the little house. A walled garden separates it from the house next door.

The house and garden constitute the ‘cell’. You may figure each cell as a part of a living body. Well, in the adjoining cells live nuns, and we like indeed to think that these cells form a body. It is the same life in each cell.

When she goes into her house, the nun enters a bright room. The design and various tools make it clear that this is a work area. We call it the ‘atelier’, or workshop.

The opposite door opens onto a second room. A table, a chair, a bed and an oratory... Does the nun who has come to the Charterhouse to seek God in solitude need anything more? The road that leads to God is easy, because you are advancing along it not by burdening yourself but by unburdening yourself. This is what St. Bruno and the first Carthusians did.

Harmony in diversity

Ever since its origin, our Order, like a body whose members have different functions, finds its unity in various modes of living the same ideal.

The « nuns of the cloister » are called to seek God in the solitude of their cell. Ordinarily, they leave their cell only to go to the church.

The « converse nuns » serve God in their own form of solitude and recollection, which allows them at the same time to provide by their work for the needs of the house, which have been especially entrusted to their care.

In this way the cloister nuns can devote their time more freely to the silence of the cell where, in prayer and work, they accept the austerity that such silence demands.

Cloister and converse nuns express in two complementary ways the richness of our life totally dedicated to God in solitude.

The day in the Charterhouse

This clock indicates how a converse sister, after the novitiate, consecrates to God the time that he gives her.

MATINS AND LAUDS, REST, WAKING UP, PRIME, SILENT PRAYER, CONVENTUAL MASS, TERCE, LECTIO DIVINA, WORK, SEXT, DINNER, FREE TIME, NONE, WORK, VESPERS, WORK, SPIRITUAL READING, SUPPER, PRAYER, COMPLINE, REST.

The time-schedule of a nun of the cloister after the novitiate.

MATINS AND LAUDS, REST, WAKING UP, PRIME, SILENT PRAYER, CONVENTUAL MASS, TERCE, LECTIO DIVINA, WORK, SEXT, DINNER, FREE TIME, NONE, WORK, VESPERS, SPIRITUAL READING, SUPPER, PRAYER, COMPLINE, REST.

At the heart of the night

Our monastic days begins at 1.00 a.m. with a prayer to Our Lady, who never ceases to engender spiritually the life of Christ in us.

At 1.15 a.m., we hasten to church for the night office. A time of singular importance in the Carthusian liturgy, the night vigils are a clear sign of the orientation of our life: for through them is expressed the watchful expectation for the Savior, and the prayer that a dawn of resurrection may rise over the darkness of the world.

When the celebrate the divine office, the nuns are the voice and heart of the Church which, through them, presents to the Father in Jesus, praise, supplication, adoration and humble request for pardon. In order to allow each one to respond to her own grace, the converse sisters have the freedom to choose among the diverse forms of liturgical prayer.

During the Eucharist and the offices in church, they may participate completely in the chant and psalmody, or partially, or pray silently.

The vigils which include the morning praise (Lauds) last two hours on the average. Then the nun returns to her cell. As she does each time she enters her cell, she entrusts to Our Lady the time of solitude which is given to her, then she sleeps until 6.30.

Morning Praise in the secret of the cell

At 7.00 a.m. we are called to prayer. A prayer of thanksgiving for the wonders of creation and for the resurrection of Our Lord who takes us with him, the office of Prime is recited by each nun in her cell. At the sound of the bell, all pray together at the same time, thereby making the monastery one single praise to the glory of God.

According to their orientation, the converse sisters can recite the same office of psalms as the cloister nuns, or an office composed of Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s, and Glory be’s, which sums up, in itself, all prayer and links her to a long monastic tradition. Whatever the formula, this liturgical prayer is an office of the Church. Through the Carthusian Order, the Church entrusts the nun with a true ministry.

Next, a time of silent prayer follows. The Carthusian nun tries to offer to God a simple heart and purified spirit, and to fix her thoughts and affections on Him. If she is faithful to this day after day, there will be born in her, from that very silence, something that will draw her to more silence. And in this silence she will be graced not just with serving God, but with cleaving to Him.

Celebration of the Eucharist

This cleaving of the nun to Christ is re-enforced in the celebration of the Eucharist to which the sound of the bell invites us at 8.15.

The conventual liturgy is chanted for the most part. Our own rendition of Gregorian chant is one element of the patrimony of our Order which we have kept from the beginning because it fosters interiority and spiritual sobriety. The rite of our liturgy was adapted to the directives of the Second Vatican Council.

The Eucharist sacrifice is the center and high point of our life, the manna for our spiritual journey in the desert, which brings us through Christ to the Father. The desert is the cell to which we return after Mass.

Alone with God

From the office of Terce until Vespers at 4.00 p.m. the nuns of the cloister usually do not leave their cells. And the converse sisters, when their duties do not call them to be outside the cell, always return to it ‘as to a very sure and tranquil haven.’ Both, once within, the door being closed and all care and preoccupations left without, abide peacefully under the gaze of God and pray to the Father in secret.

Our Lord made himself the foremost and most vivid example of our vocation when He retired alone to the desert and gave himself to prayer. In the same way, just as His Passion was approaching, He left even his Apostles to pray alone. The road is long, however, and the paths parched and barren that lead back to the Source.

Our solitude, like Jesus’, is not only that of the body and heart, but also of all that could be an obstacle to our face to face encounter with God. That is why we seek to content ourselves with what is strictly necessary, preferring to follow Christ in his poverty, and by this poverty to be enriched. We keep abstinence once a week, on Fridays or on the eve of liturgical feasts to prepare ourselves for the coming of Our Lord.

Alone with God, alone for God, the longer the nun has lived in her cell, the more gladly she dwells there. She can say with St. Bruno: ‘What benefits and divine exultation the silence and solitude of the desert hold in store for those who love it, only those who have experienced it can know.’

For the nun has formed the habit of a tranquil listening of the heart, which allows God to enter through all its doors and passages.

The heart and the mind search for the Lord

• Lectio Divina

God speaks to us in the Bible, and that is why the nun meditates assiduously on sacred Scripture until it becomes part of her very being. By lectio divina, or reading prayerfully the Word of God in Scripture, she enters into communion with Christ, and Christ in turn reveals to her the Father.

"If anyone loves me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him." John 14:23

Like Mary who carefully preserved in her heart all her memories and constantly reflected on them, the nun immerses herself in the Word of God to listen to what the Spirit wants her at that moment.

The converse nun dedicates a half hour to lectio divina in cell after Terce; this enables her to be able to live on the Word of God throughout the whole day.

• Study

The cloister nun spends an hour in lectio divina, after which she devotes herself either to study or to manual work, inside her cell.

For a year and a half novices study biblical and monastic writings; doctrinal and moral theology come after. These studies proceed at a rate adapted to the needs of each one. They lay the foundations for a fruitful reading of the Word of God. The solitary does not read to keep pace with all the latest trends, but to nourish her faith in tranquillity and to sustain her life of prayer. Wisely ordered reading gives the mind greater steadiness, and is a support to contemplation.

The body also participates

The converse sister works in an obedience. We call ‘obedience’ the duty entrusted to a nun and, by extension, the place where she accomplishes it. For example, if a sister has the responsibility of cooking, both cooking and the kitchen where she cooks are her obedience. In order to allow them to better live their vocation, the work of the converse sisters is distributed in such a way that each one works alone, as far as this is possible. Whether it is washing the dishes or peeling vegetables, picking fruit or tending the garden, this work becomes an expression of their union with the Son of God in his love for the Father and for all men.

At 11.45 the office of Sext ends the morning and makes it a praise to God. The converse nun returns to the cell where she recites Sext, takes her meal, enjoys a period of relaxation, and then recites None, all within the recollection of the cell.

We find our meal in the food-hatch, which is an opening in the wall near the door which opens onto the cloister. The food-hatch or ‘guichet’ allows each solitary some link with her community without her having to leave the cell or interrupt silence.

The sisterly bonds in the Charterhouse are thoroughly imbued with the silence of God. Actually, these ties of love are all the stronger to the degree to which the aspiration of each nun to recollection is more fully respected. For my sister as for myself, solitude is a sacrament of the encounter with God. Accordingly, the more I love my sister in God, the more I respect her life of solitude and silence.

The rest-time which follows the meal we almost always spend in cell: either outside in the garden (tending to it, or walking and watching nature), or inside (doing some light work). As St. Bruno and the early monks state: ‘If the bow is kept continually taut, it looses its resilience and becomes less fit for its works’.

1.45 p.m.: The bell invites us anew to psalmody with reverence for God. It is the office of None, a prayer we usually recite alone in cell, yet in solidarity: since Our Lord has called us to represent all of creation when we come before Him, in our prayer we intercede and give thanks for all.

The work-time that follows can also be lived in thanksgiving if we accompany Jesus in his humble and hidden life in Nazareth, where He performed His duties in interrupted union with the Father.

Those who have made a definitive commitment in the Charterhouse generally work until Vespers.

The converse sisters leave cell to resume working in their obedience and so praise God in his works and consecrate the world to the glory of its Creator.

The cloister nuns work in cell in a variety of occupations: bookbinding, sewing, weaving, typing, small-scale woodworking, making icons, etc.; all their talents can find expression.

Work, which is a service uniting us to the Christ who came not to be served but to serve, has always been regarded in the monastic tradition as a very efficacious means of progressing towards perfect charity.

Evening Praise

4.00 p.m.: The bell summons us to Vespers. On passing through the door of the church, we enter into the dwelling place of God, and also into a time of prayer which marks the end of the day. The evening prayers of praise are celebrated as the decline of the day invites the soul to a ‘spiritual sabbath’, because ‘a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God.’ (Heb. 4:9)

Conscious of our responsibility, we put ourselves at peace, in openness to God alone.

The converse sister can participate in the praises in the church or she can let them rise from her heart in the silence of cell. Any work that follows remains imbued with that spirit of praise. Once her work is finished, the nun returns to cell where she consecrates herself to silent prayer like her sister in the choir.

After the meal (or collation if it is a day on which we are observing a fast) we have a period of free time at our disposal. Spiritual reading precedes Compline.

The day ends with a vocal or silent prayer to Mary. The filial love of the Carthusian for the Virgin can be expressed by the recitation of her office. This office is a participation in the Virgin’s thanksgiving for redemption.

Stages of Formation

There is a guest house for young women who want to consider in prayer the question of a Carthusian vocation. If, during their stay at the guest house, they feel a harmony between God’s call in their heart and what they have begun to experience of our life, we allow them to share our life for about ten days, or to make a longer trial called the ‘Postulancy’.

Postulancy lasts anywhere from six months to a year. It permits the aspirant to acquaint herself more with our customs. The postulant does not, however, assume the whole austerity of our life at once, but only little by little, according to her capacity. During this period she continues to reflect on her vocation before God.

If it turns out that she wishes to continue in our Order, and if the community is favourable to it, she then begins the novitiate and receives the Carthusian habit.

If, at the end of two years, it seems to the community and to the Novice herself that her calling from God is being confirmed, then, after mature reflection and in full freedom, she binds herself more strongly to God and to the Carthusian Order. She expresses this offering of herself, united to that of Christ, by making a profession of stability, obedience, and conversion. She promises this for three years.

After this stage, she is able to renew these vows for two more years. If it is indeed Jesus who has engendered this vocation in her, He will see this work of His through to its fulfilment, i.e. to final commitment or solemn profession.

In the house of God there are many dwellings-places: among us, there are not only nuns of the cloister and converse sisters, but also donate sisters. These latter have joined the solitude of the Charterhouse in order to consecrate their whole life to God but without taking vows, and in a manner best adapted to the needs of each one.

The donate sister becomes a member of the Order by a commitment called donation. After five years of temporary donation, she can make either a perpetual donation or renew her donation every three years.

After solemn profession or perpetual donation, the nuns may receive virginal consecration. It is a solemn rite by which the Church establishes the virgin in a special state of belonging to God. The Carthusian nuns have kept this rite as a concrete sign of the call which the Lord addresses to the Carthusian Order, to lead a life totally consecrated to Him. The offering that the nun makes to God of her virginity within this consecration opens her to a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Virginity for the Kingdom is a gift from God, in its most intimate dimension, it is the purity of a heart totally given to its God. Jesus, in His redemptive love, creates this pure heart in all the nuns who truly commit themselves to Him.

A Communion

Solitary life, whether in cell or in the obedience, protects and nourishes in our hearts the fire of divine love. This love unites us as the members of the same body.

This is a permanent reality; but we express it more visibly on Sundays and Solemnities, when gatherings are more frequent: the offices of Terce, Sext, and None are sung in church; we have a meal together in our refectory after Sext.

In addition, we come together for a colloquium. This latter is a friendly meeting in which, beginning with a text of Scripture, we have rather deep exchanges and we try to incorporate the fruit of these discussions into our lives.

Once a week we have another sisterly exchange in the form of a walk called ‘spatiamentum’ lasting about three hours, during the course of which each one is able to talk in turn with the others. Through these walks, souls are knitted together, the interior life flourishes, mutual affection is bolstered, and life in solitude is fortified.

200 meters from the monastery is a hermitage sheltering a few Carthusian monks who share in our liturgical life. The priests (or priest) celebrate the Eucharist and administer the other Sacraments. Like the converse sisters, the brothers fulfil their vocation of prayer while guaranteeing that the needs of the house will be met. The communion we share does not embrace merely the members of the same Charterhouse, but all the sons and daughters of St. Bruno. It even extends to the Church visible and invisible.

"Choosing a life of solitude does not mean deserting the human family. Union with God, if authentic, does not shut us on ourselves; rather it opens our spirit and expands our heart to embrace the entire world and the mystery of Christ’s redemption. Separated from all, we are united to all; and it is in the name of all that we remain in the presence of the living God."(From the Carthusian Statutes, and the Council Vatican II; a number of expression, in this booklet, are borrowed from the Carthusian Statutes.)

Solitary prayer is the part that God and the Church have entrusted to us; it is our co-operation in the unceasing work of Christ: ‘My Father always works and I myself also work.’ (John 5:17)

Because we are members of his body, our prayer is His; our silence announces the Good News, our watch, His coming.

Bibliography

To be turned exclusively to the One Who is expands the heart and makes it capable of bearing in God the aspirations of the world.