A Two-Sided Coin

The Founder of the Oblates of St. Joseph, St. Joseph Marello, gave his first spiritual sons the instruction to "Be Carthusians indoors and Apostles outdoors." In this command, St. Joseph Marello outlined the kind of life that the Oblates would have so succinctly and with such wisdom that many Oblates to this day find in that one sentence a constant source of reflection and meditation. But what does it mean?

Carthusians Indoors
In the history of the Catholic Church, one religious order to date stands out as being the strictest, most withdrawn monastic order yet. That order is known as the Carthusians, and was founded by St. Bruno in 1089. The life of the Carthusians is characterized by profound silence and seclusion. Carthusians live their entire day alone in a cell, gathering only three times a day to chant the Liturgy of the Hours, and once a week for a community meeting. Other than those encounters, the Carthusians live lives of prayer in solitude.

Early in his priesthood, St. Joseph Marello contemplated entering the monastery, feeling that that might be his vocation. At the direction of his bishop, he chose not to enter. When he eventually founded the Oblates of St. Joseph, though, he made sure to instruct them to be "Carthusians indoors." In other words, the Founder wanted the Oblates to have a deep, rich prayer life, characterized by interior silence and devotion to God. While the Oblates are by no means monks, it is clear the Marello saw in the monastic style of life something of great value, great enough, indeed, that he wanted his Oblates to imitate the monastic spirit of detachment from the world and singular devotion to God.

Apostles Outdoors
If imitating the Carthusians were all there were to Oblate life, though, then the Oblates would in fact be monks. Rather, Marello wanted the Oblates to cultivate the seed of a deep spiritual life by imitating the Carthusians, but then he wanted them to plant that seed throughout the entire world by imitating the example of the Apostles, the first missionaries. Deeply rooted in God by their profound prayer life, St. Joseph Marello then wanted the Oblates to go out into the world and preach the Good News that is Jesus Christ with all the zeal of the Apostles.

The Apostles, as tradition tells us, wandered to the farthest bounds of what was then the known world preaching Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. As their reward, they met with martyrdom, and did so courageously, even embracing it as a way to imitate Christ. Marello wanted the Oblates to be no less committed to the truth of the faith than were the Apostles. Enriched by prayer, Marello wanted his Oblates to go out into the world and show them the source of the profound joy that they themselves had experienced, and to be willing to give up their earthly lives to do it.

In the synthesis of these two great ideals, one encounters the heart of the Oblate life. It is not enough to be prayerful without action. At the same time, it is not enough to do great works without profound prayer to support them. St. Joseph Marello wanted his spiritual sons to have a proper balance between these two ideals, and, by combining them into a single way of life, to be "all things to all men" (1 Cor 9:22).