PARADISE: this is the word most often on the lips of those who experienced the luminous day of April 5 at La Grande Chartreuse for the Jubilee 1925/2025 on the 1st Saturdays of the month.
With you, we give thanks that, after Lebanon and Italy, it is here that Our Lady of Fatima has chosen to remind us of her request!
To underline the importance, urgency and stakes involved, Dom Dysmas, Prior General of all the Carthusian monasteries (24 monasteries), after a long period of prayerful discernment, agreed to come out of his silent solitude – in the middle of Lent, no less! A truly exceptional event, which speaks volumes about the esteem in which he holds the 1st Saturdays of the month, and his confidence in their power!
His generosity enabled the material and logistical preparations to match the event.
As for the spiritual preparations, they culminated in the night of adoration and fasting that immediately preceded this extraordinary day – “out of time”, as some put it. This is undoubtedly what enabled all the preparations to proceed serenely, with enthusiasm and determination, in a unity signed “MARY”.
It was a real JOY to be able to organize an event that allowed us to blow on the embers of this salutary devotion and light up great fires of Hope…
Our Lady filled us with joy and seemed to have greased the wheels before and during this “great time of happiness in prayer” (Anne’s testimony).
As the museum barn had been arranged so that Holy Mass could be celebrated with dignity, it was here that the Jubilee pilgrims of all ages were welcomed. There were around 400 of them, just the number that the parking lot and barn could hold!
Thank you, Mary!
The Grenoble Boy Scouts were at the entrance, gracing everyone with a smile and a word of welcome.
Régis de Lassus welcomed the audience with a powerful plea, reminding everyone what the devotion of 1st Saturdays is all about, its origin, its purpose, and the reason for Jubilee 2025.
No sooner said than done:
Rosary/confession
The Rosary began in the barn-chapel, while outside, thanks to a sky that would remain Mary-blue all day, four priests were hearing confession from the many penitents eager to wash “their robes in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 14) at Our Lady’s invitation!
Thank you, Mary !
Communion of reparation
The Carthusian rite succeeded in uniting different liturgical sensibilities in a single, almost tangible fervor!
The prior of the Carthusian monastery didn’t speak… His silence spoke louder than words. (Henri’s testimony).
Gregorian chant and polyphonic rhythms lent solemnity to this exceptionally meditative Mass, facing the East.
Thank you, Mary !
Dom Dysmas’s Mass, served by Baptiste, allowed the crowd to enter into the monastic silence of a rite that offers the soul the chance to become an inner Carthusian monastery: a case of silence fit to receive the Word of God!
« A great moment of grace! Great fervor from the pilgrims. Great meditation during Mass. Joy and peace in the Lord » (Bruno’s testimony).
Meditation
As Dom Dysmas remained prostrate on the floor before the altar in thanksgiving, the faithful joined in his silence during the quarter-hour meditation. Carrying the Cross with Our Lady: this was the mystery chosen on the eve of Passion Week, inviting us to contrition and mercy. Many were moved by the quality of the silence, despite the number of people present. Only the birds could be heard singing in harmony.
Afterwards, the sunshine and spring-like temperatures allowed everyone to enjoy a picnic on the museum lawns. Spiritual joys were followed by the joys of warm reunions and encounters.
Thank you, Mary !
“Servus Mariae nunquam peribit” *
It was then time to climb up to the sanctuary of NOTRE-DAME de CASALIBUS. Régis told the story:
« While Saint Bruno was on his way to Italy at the Pope’s request, the Carthusian monks became discouraged without their Father and were planning to disperse. When, on that very spot, an old man (St. Peter?) appeared to them and asked them to build an altar to Our Lady and pray to her that the Order might live and endure!
Since that day, the Carthusian monks have recited the Office of the Blessed Virgin every Saturday! And despite countless avalanches, from the mountains to revolutions and other expulsions… the Order, under the mantle of Our Lady, has never interrupted its prayer, which ceaselessly rises to God like incense pleasing to him… »
Thank you, Mary !
A beautiful procession began, with Our Lady in bloom at the head, carried by boy scouts. She led several swarms of pilgrims towards the monastery, Rosary saying! The meadows were the color of hope, studded with golden cuckoos. The light of this early April gave them all their radiance. It was a time for thanksgiving!
The smiling, attentive Roverscouts help those who would otherwise not have dared or been able to climb up to the calvary overlooking the monastery.
« The Roverscouts were very happy and came out of the day feeling great » (leader of the Clan’s testimony).
Thank you, Mary!
Onwards to Notre-Dame de Casalibus, 3rd rosary!
The monks had kindly lent their 4×4 so that anyone who wished could climb up to the chapel, and join the walkers, to experience together the high point of this in every way luminous day:
THE CONSECRATION TO MARY and the commitment to persevere in fulfilling the requests made by Our Lady of Fatima to Sister Lucy in 1925. This chapel, witness to so many Carthusian graces, invited us, through the paintings that illustrate it, to sing the litanies of the Blessed Virgin and to praise her with a resounding “Laudate Mariam”, bringing this blessed pilgrimage to a close.
Thank you, Mary!
The descent was fast and talkative! And yet, it was difficult for some to return to the valley when Saint Bruno’s mountain had offered them a glimpse of PARADISE… with a taste of eternity!
A foretaste of what Our Lady is preparing for us in the JOY of unity of hearts!
A ray of the Fatima sun shone down on this corner of the world, where the Carthusian monks have been praying for over 900 years, making it a holy place, a Sanctuary where God dwells. Thank you to them for offering their lives in the shadow of these high walls, bulwarks of our sinful humanity, which the monks’ offering and prayer unwittingly redeem!
AFTER THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE…
In May, the Jubilee will be celebrated at a Marian Shrine in Burundi, followed by the United States (Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI), Lourdes, India, Germany…
Let us pray for the radiance and fruitfulness of these jubilee days: the one we have had the grace to experience, as well as those that have and will gather Catholics from all over the world around Our Lady to console her Immaculate Heart so outraged, and to obey what her maternal tenderness commands us for our eternal salvation and to obtain the peace compromised by the pride of men.
Pope Benedict XVI used to say that the Church was living its Holy Saturday.
Watching with Our Lady in the silence, penance and prayer of Holy Saturday, we confidently await the victory of the Resurrection that Christ won for us through his Passion.
For a GLORIOUS SUNDAY to shine over the world, let us faithfully stand by Our Lady on these 1st Saturdays!
… a day out of time…
Our grown-ups were literally blown away!
At the end of Mass the next day, everyone said that it was Heaven and that it would surely do a lot of good for our diocese, for France and for the world.
Prayerful, silent, heavenly…
We felt that God was truly loved.
Time went by too fast!
We were “divinized”.
* Mary’s servant will never perish.