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There is very little different between the Charterhouses. The cuisine, of course, has a cultural flavor based on the
country the Charterhouse is located in. Other then that, the Carthusian Life is the Carthusian Life, and it is basically the
same everywhere it goes. Quite often, Carthusian communities are composed of monks from other Charterhouses of
diverse nationalities, united together in living the one Carthusian Life, so the internal customs of a community just cannot
have room for large variations. As mentioned at the beginning in a charterhouse in France you will get the French Bread
and watered "Vin Ordinaire" wine with your meals for a drink, and in the American, your going to get a Loaf of Whole Wheat
Bread and Apple Cider or Milk with your meals, and whatever are the local foodstuffs and supplies. Beyond things of
that nature, there are not going to be large differences.
The Order has very deliberately maintained
itself to be international and ready to accommodate any Carthusian from whatever charterhouse anywhere else he or she needs
to be sent. Maintaining the Choral Office and Mass in Latin facilitates this international flexibility. Since the vow of Stability
is to the Order, theoretically one can be sent under Obedience at a moment's notice anywhere the Order needs you to go. There
cannot be large variations of the basic life and observance from place to place because of this. They are fixed by the
Statutes, and carefully monitored and regulated by the Canonical Visitors and the General Chapters, and need to be maintained
by a certain uniformity to preserve the integrity of the of the Carthusian Life and observance.
While each culture has
its own unique mentality and orientation that slightly colors the life of a charterhouse, Carthusian Life itself is a
type of eremitical monastic culture or counter culture and takes precedence over being French, American, English, Croat, Korean,
Spanish, etc. A Carthusian has to become and be a Carthusian, leaving his/her secular cultural baggage behind, become
re-acculturated to the eremitic Carthusian culture, and largely sacrifices her/his secular and ethnic culture for the sake
of following Christ in the Desert as a Carthusian. This is also why specifically monastic hermits differ from just devout
religious solitaries. The sacrifice of ones secularity and secular culture is a demand of monastic and eremitic conversion
of life. A devout religious solitary doesn't necessarily have to embrace that. One who embraces monasticism must and
necessarily does. The more radical the form of monastic or eremitic life, the more radical the conversion of life to
that monastic or eremitic culture.
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