Carthusian Nun

Carthusian Nun – Sister Marguerite Béatrice of the Immaculate Conception, O. Cart.

A full hermitic vocation rooted in the spirituality of St. Bruno – a radical contemplative calling that is centered on solitude, silence, unceasing prayer, penance, and fasting to seek intimate union with God . . . . . and it all started with a little seed at her Baptism

Stat Crux Dum Volvitur Orbis – “The Cross stands firm as the world turns”

This motto reflects the stability of Christ and the eternal nature of God amid the changing chaotic nature of human history and the passing world.

Founder: Saint Bruno Hartenfaust of Cologne and the nuns welcomed by Saint. Anselm

Place: Prébayon Abbey, Provence, France

Year: 1145 A.D.

Her Charism: “To love ever deeper.”. . . an inner journey and adventure in search for the true, the good, and the beautiful. – which are the fruits of contemplation . . . . In the retreat of her monastery and in the solitude of her cell (her hermitage), this Carthusian nun, with body and soul, spins the Holy Church’s wedding garments. She sings her praise to God several times a day, returning love for Love in solitude and silence. The beauty of silence and its sacredness in her life allows God to speak to her. The Holy Spirit drives her into the wilderness and speaks to her heart. She is called by God to live in communion with His Son, Jesus Christ, imitating His hidden life in Nazareth and praying with Him on the mountain. This orientation expands the heart, which is a living altar, and makes it capable of carrying in God the aspirations and sufferings of the entire world. It is God’s love that fills her life. Her mission in the Church is praise, intercession, and representation. She is part of a communion of hermits which allows herself to be invaded by Christ’s love. Solitary life in her “cell” (a place of purification and grace) ignites and nourishes in her heart the fire of divine love. There she prays, studies, eats (abstaining from meat), and sleeps. Separated from all, she is united to all. Her prayer and her silence announce the Good News. It is a continuous and tireless journey – and she is God’s athlete! Strict exterior silence creates an inner space which is required to live constantly in God’s Divine Presence. Nourished by the Eucharistic Bread (true food), she is a Bride, and at the same time a Mother, who gives birth to new life – and all the banalities of her existence are transfigured. In the light of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, this Bride of Christ meditates on the Beatitude of the pure of heart. Through the Liturgy, work, study, and community, and by standing before God in deep isolation, she willingly and lovingly carries the struggles of the wider world in her heart from which pure prayer rises to the Lord and permeates all her actions. ☩ A Carthusian vocation is a work of God. It is what God does in her – not her accomplishments. ☩