“The Cross stands firm while the world turns.”
The monastic life, especially that of the Carthusians and the Capuchins, has taken hold of my imagination. No, I don’t have a desire for the specifics of the Carthusian life. I am a lay person — husband, father, pew-dweller. I do desire the happiness, the peace, and the apparent fulfillment in which these men live. I am puzzled about how I, as a layman and practicing lawyer (with phones, e-mail, deadlines, demands, all of it), reach what they seem to have. I think the key is not the specific practices. Instead, it is making room for God and opening oneself to God’s grace and allowing that grace to transform one’s soul. What follows is part I of a documentary of the Carthusian life. What can I, as a 21-st Century layman, take from a 12th-Century order? What do you think?
Filed under: Catholic Living, Video Tagged: | Capuchin, Carthusian, contemplation, lawyer, layman, monastery, monk, prayer
