Among those of us who admire the Carthusian Order, several of us have had the honor and privilege of having lived for a few days in one of its monasteries. Having made several retreats at “Cartuja San José”, in Argentina, I'm writing this in order to share this gift with those who haven’t been able to stay in a Carthusian monastery.
There are three biblical quotations that come to my mind when I think of my experience there. The first is Lk 4:1-2: “Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit (…) was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days (...)”. As it is well known, with few exceptions, one can make a retreat in a Charterhouse only if one aspires to embrace that way of life. For 16 years I was a “chronic” aspirant. For various reasons, sometimes I felt I had the vocation and sometimes I didn’t. In those 16 years I made several retreats, 8 more exactly, which lasted 5 days each. That brings the total to about 40 days. Maybe it was more (there were retreats of 6 days I think), but I like …More