Daily Schedule

A Normal Day

The Carthusian goes to bed very early, between 7:30 and 8:00 in the evening. Four hours later, at 11:30 p.m., he gets up and starts his day.

After washing up and praying for a while in the oratory of his hermitage, at 0.15 am, the bell of the tower summons the monks to the night prayer in the church. They are Matins and Lauds, sung prayers, composed of psalms, readings from Sacred Scripture and from the Holy Fathers, intercessions and prayers for the needs of the world and the Church. This long liturgical office of the night is much appreciated by the monks, when the silence of the night invites a more fervent prayer . It lasts until 2.15 and 3.00 in the morning.

Back at his hermitage, the Carthusian makes a brief prayer to the Virgin Mary in his oratory and goes to bed without delay. At 6:30 in the morning he gets up and spends those first hours in prayer. At 8:00 the community gathers in the church for Mass, which is always sung.

The morning is spent in the hermitage dedicated to study, meditative reading of the Holy Scripture, manual work. Lunch is at 11:30 and the afternoon is only interrupted to sing the liturgical office of Vespers in the church.

12:00pm

Rise

 

12:15am

To Church

Night Office : Matins

 

On return to cell

Prayers (Option : Maternal; Paters & Aves; Psalms) – return to sleep

6:00am

Rise

Prime – Prayer time – Lectio divina

7:00am

Brother’s Chapel

Brother’s mass – (optional)

7:45am

To Church

Angelus

7:45am

In Church

Conventual mass

 

On return to cell

Bread and tea for those who want

 

In cell

Terce

9:30am

Work

 

11:45am

Angélus

 

11:45am

In cell

Sext

 

Meal- Recreation

The time of recreation may be employed freely.

 

In cell

Recitation of the Office of None before going to work

1:30pm

Manual Work

until 4pm

4:00pm

Return to cell

Free time

5:00pm

To Church

Vespers

 

On return to cell

Free time – light evening meal

7:00pm

Angélus – Compline

Recitation of Complines before going to bed

8:00pm

Bedtime

Advisable before 8:15pm.

RELATED READING

Carthusians in America: The Foundation

The first actors of the story of how Carthusians came to the United States are three : Fr. Thomas Verner Moore, an American psychiatrist, educator and Benedictine monk, who had strong "founder" instincts and who became a Carthusian monk in the late forties, and his...

Early Times: The Sixties

The paragraphs below are transcribed and edited from the "Early Times" section of the Equinox Mountain website, specifically from a page on Joseph George Davidson and his wife Madeleine, the generous donors who bequeathed the land now established as the American...

Testimonies

The following texts written by friends of the monastery, show how Saint Bruno's charism & spirituality can also touch and transform God seekers who live amidst the challenges and agitations of today's world. I consider the Carthusians of both past and present to...