Saint Bruno, preached on October 6, 2026

And I think for St. Bruno, the lesson was his catechismic confrontation with a very, very corrupt archbishop.

And there was exile and papal intervention and so on.

And eventually, he realized this was not for him.

And I think his significance lies in the fact that he refused to engage the world on the world's terms.

He did not fight fire with fire.

He did not confront the worldly and the powerful by becoming more worldly and more powerful, but rather he fought with a very severe counterexample He was the embodiment of the advice of Saint Ignatius Loyola, who said, act directly against the temptation or the distortion.

And we see this summarized in the Carthusian motto, which is usually translated, while the world revolves, the cross stands firm.

I prefer the translation while the world spins.

Something revolves seems orderly and teleological and under control and on a leash and a choker collar, where spins, we have things like, you know, spin into chaos and spin out of control.

And I think the world physically might be revolving, but metaphorically, I think there's a lot of spinning going on.

So St. Bruno says it is an act of great wisdom to flee the turbulent agitations of the world where the soul is so easily wounded and so rarely healed.

Well, that kind of gives one pause, doesn't it? It makes one disinclined to play with fire or make one wonder how close one can get to the hot stove without being burned.