Oct 6 – Memorial for St. Bruno, Priest
St. Bruno (1030–1101) was educated in Paris and Rheims, France. He was ordained in 1055. He taught theology, and one of his students later became Blessed Pope Urban II. He presided over the cathedral school at Rheims from 1057 to 1075. He criticised the worldliness he saw in his fellow clergy. He opposed Manasses, Archbishop of Rheims, because of his laxity and mismanagement. He was chancellor of the Archdiocese of Rheims.
Following a vision he received of a secluded hermitage where he could spend his life becoming closer to God, he retired to a mountain near Chartreuse in Dauphiny in 1084 and, with the help of St. Hugh of Grenoble, he founded what became the first house of the Carthusian Order. He and his brothers supported themselves as manuscript copyists.
He became assistant to Pope Urban in 1090, and supported his efforts at reform. Retiring from public life, he and his companions built a hermitage at Torre where the monastery of Saint Stephen was built in 1095. Bruno combined in the religious life living as a hermit and living in a community; his learning is apparent from his scriptural commentaries.
- Patron Saint Index
Bar 1:15-22
Lk 10:13-16
…but, each following the dictates of his evil heart, we have taken to serving alien gods, and doing what is displeasing to the Lord our God.
One of the unintended benefits from the Covid-19 pandemic was that it finally pushed employers to be convinced that working from home need not lead to a compromise in the quality of work submission. But for me, as an employee, what I valued the most was the absence of any distractions. There were no fitness classes to worry about, no meetups with friends to schedule and that allowed me to focus my attention on God. It was almost like I had an opportunity to have my “sabbath” rest after years of working.
The first reading of today speaks to me in a very in-depth way because it describes my spiritual life. There are times where I have wandered far from the promises which God has assured me to serve the ‘alien gods’. The modern day ‘alien gods’ would be the pursuit of recognition and power in our lives. This could come in the form of the desire for our work to be recognised in our lives, or the ability to possess the authority to lord over others. I have found the recitation of the Litany of the Humility at the start of the day to be helpful to keep me grounded. The link to the prayer can be found here:
Litany of humility: https://ascensionpress.com/pages/litany-of-humility
Another growing ‘sin’ I have noticed coming in my life is the sin of ‘acedia’ — which is Greek for ‘a lack of care’. I realised that there has been a growing nonchalant attitude towards everything. The lure of the bed to sleep on is so great, that I have had to go out of my house just to get work done. A brief write-up about acedia can be found below:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/desert-fathers-sins-acedia-sloth
I have found that the remedy towards overcoming acedia is practising the traditional Benedictine slogan of “pray and work.” Before the days of self-help books teaching us about how to form good habits, the Benedictines have already shown us the way. I have found it to be more effective in my life where work punctuates my day of prayer. I put prayer in the centre of my day by scheduling prayer using the timings of the Liturgy of the Hours as a guide and, in between each prayer interval, I put in some work. This has helped me to accomplish some major tasks in small chunks.
St Bruno, whose feast we celebrate today, can be our role-model in this aspect. St Bruno refused the offer of the episcopacy twice and chose instead to flee from the demands of church administration, to the safety of the forest. He was clear in cultivating a great spirit of prayer, extreme mortification, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_of_Cologne). Through these three actions, he managed to establish the Carthusian order. I was first introduced to the Carthusian order through the feature film ‘Into Great Silence’ in the cinema. It is absolutely fascinating, and I would strongly recommend everyone to watch it as it is now available on demand on Netflix. The movie demonstrated to the world the Catholic Church’s strong but quiet response to the ‘noisiness’ of the world.
As we enter into the end of the work week and a time of rest, maybe we could take time over the weekend to ask Jesus to enter into the darkest corners of our soul. Allow Him to melt away the coldness of our soul, so that we can revive the enthusiasm and fervour of preaching the Gospel one day at a time and one moment each day.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Nicholas Chia)
Prayer: From the desire of being honoured, deliver me O Jesus.
Thanksgiving: We give thanks for all who have chosen to live the monastic life.
OXYGEN 
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