6 October 2020 - St Bruno of Cologne - Tuesday of the 27th week in Ordinary Time - Galatians 1:13-24

      God calls different people to different missions.  He gives us different gifts to use on our journey of faith.  Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord called different prophets to bring particular messages to his people.  As we hear from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians in our readings this week, we think of the particular calling that Paul received.   Paul recounts how although he once very zealously persecuted the followers of the way of Jesus, he was converted and traveled long distance as a missionary to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles in far off lands. 

      Today, we celebrate a very interesting saint who was born almost 1,000 years ago, St Bruno of Cologne.  Ordained a priest as a young man, he became the head of a prestigious school of philosophy and theology in Reims, in northern France, and later chancellor of the archdiocese there.  Refusing an appointment to be ordained a Bishop, he withdrew to a solitary life, which eventually led to the establishment of a monastery in the Chartreuse mountains near Grenoble in France. To this day, this religious order, called the Carthusians, follows the strict rule that Bruno established.  The motto of the Carthusians is Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, meaning, "The cross is steady while the world is turning.”  Currently, there are 23 charter houses of the Carthusians throughout the world, with one in the United States in the state of Maine.  The Carthusians are noted for their strict observance of silence.  In fact, there was a documentary made about the Carthusians about 12 years ago that is entitled INTO GREAT SILENCE.  Indeed, there is very little talking in that film.  I have been recently reading a book entitled The Power of Silence by Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, West Africa.  In that book, he quotes St Bruno of Cologne quite often.  Cardinal Sarah quotes St Bruno, as he states, “what benefits and divine exaltation the silence and solitude of the desert hold in store for those who love it, only those who have experienced it can know.”  Bruno asserted in this quote from this letter that the desire to see God and to experience him is what urges us human beings to seek him out in silence and solitude, for it is in silence that God dwells for God drapes himself in silence.   St Bruno is one of the patron saints of Germany and of the region of Calabria in Italy.  As we honor St Bruno today, may we lift up the members of the Carthusians in prayer, and thank them for the witness of faith that they bring to the world.