In April, I did a one week retreat at the Chartreuse de Selignac, a former Carthusian monastery, about 800 years old, located between Lyon and Geneva. The Carthusian Order is recognised as being the strictest of monastic orders. They are hermit monks, who spend almost their entire lives in solitude and silence, in their hermitages. It was in one of these hermitages that I was to spend my one week retreat at Selignac.
For some time, the Carthusian Order had been wanting to offer Carthusian style retreats to the lay public, but would not allow such retreats at an active
Carthusian monastery. This would interfere with the monks intense desire for solitude and silence. So in 2001, the monks at Selignac were dispersed to other nearby Carthusian monasteries, and in 2003, Selignac became a retreat centre, running retreats under the direction of the Carthusian Order. The monastery is still owned by the Carthusian Order.
At Selignac; it feels like the monks just left the other day. The church notices, written in Latin, are still on the notice board. The Carthusian hymn books, in Latin, are still in the church. The monks work tools are still hanging on the walls. Selignac is now managed by a lay husband and wife team. Among their many tasks, they lead the singing in the church – and in this they do an excellent job. There is an ordained priest who comes to,the monastery twice weekly in order to administer the Eucharist.
Selignac is very much a place of prayer. The paving slabs in the cloister are shiny and smooth, worn down over centuries, with the footsteps of monks walking from their hermitages to the church to say their prayers. You can almost feel the presence of the monks, especially in the church, when sitting in the choir stalls. In my hermitage, I kept thinking of the monk who lived there, and what became of him. At Selignac, there is a ‘presence’ almost everywhere, in the workshops and hermitages but especially in the church.
As well as a place of prayer, Selignac is a place of silence. The only time you can break the silence is to sing the psalms in church – three times each day – for Laudes, Vespers and Compline. This was beautiful in itself, but perhaps the most beautiful was the silence in between each psalm. After the Gospel reading we sat down for five minutes of golden silence. The silence is profound, especially in the church. The only things you can hear are the birds in the nearby woods, and a stream that runs through the monastery. I would often get to the church before the start of the each office, so as to sit in the silence. I much enjoyed Compline at night. We asked God to protect the monastery during the night and to watch over us as we slept. In the darkness, a monastery bell would ring out to mark the end of the day. Then we went back to our hermitages – in silence.
The meals at Selignac were pretty good. They are prepared for the retreatants in the kitchen. Retreatants pick up their meals from a kitchen area, and take them back to their hermitages. The meals are taken at a table looking out the window, in solitude and in silence. The hermitages are quite spacious, more like a four roomed apartment. Two rooms for living in and two rooms, now unused, where formerly the monks did manual work. The hermitages are warm, as each has its own log fire. Each hermitage has its own toilet and shower facility. As for the Wifi password – do not even think about it!
My parting thoughts. I came away with the impression that I had just had a great and profound experience. Something I might do each year.
