'Why Not Save Time and Not Wash Our Hands?'

'Our entire life, the whole liturgy, and everything ceremonial are symbols. If you abolish the symbols, then you tear down the walls of your own house.'

'. . .When we abolish the signs, we lose our orientation. Instead, we should search for their meaning. The signs are not to be questioned. We are.'


-A Carthusian monk outside the Grande Chartreuse, in a Sunday afternoon conversation, as documented in Into Great Silence