Today is the Feast Day of Saint Bruno. I have always found him very relevant as it pertains to saying yes to God in the midst of trying to follow God’s will in all things, especially when desire is missing.
Bruno was the founder of a contemplative order called the Carthusians. He entered the solitude of prayer and contemplation near Grenoble around 1084. In 1090, Pope Urban II, his former pupil, called him to Rome for counsel. Bruno did not want to leave the silence of monastic life. The pope wanted to make Bruno a bishop. Bruno resisted. He was permitted to return to monastic life but not to Chartreuse, where Bruno desired to go. Providence returned Bruno to solitude but not on the terms he wanted.
I always thought of Bruno as a sort of Moses figure. Moses was called away from total obscurity. Moses did not desire what God called him to do. He felt inadequate and resisted God’s call. But nevertheless, God called him. Moses went. We know the rest of the story. The stuttering patriarch understood that the mission rests solely upon God.
The same pattern can be seen in the life of Bruno. He was called away from solitude. He did not desire to go to Rome. He resisted. He had an attachment to contemplative solitude. Yet ecclesial authority summoned him, and Bruno went out of obedience.
The lesson here, I think, is that obedience rests upon providence. Desire may disclose a vocation, but desire is not identical with vocation. I know that in my own life, God often leads through desire. But it seems more often than not that He leads us against our immediate desire in order to purify that desire, which itself is the vocation. There is always a natural reluctance, as if I am stomping my feet like an addled toddler whining, “I DO NOT WANT THIS...” Grace takes over, and somehow a supernatural consent comes over me, and I realize that I want what God wants more than anything else. Let’s be real. It’s all God, because in my brokenness, there is no way, left on my own, I could say yes. The will is enlightened by faith and moved by charity.
May we pray with Saint Bruno today. May God take away every excuse we hold in reserve. Of course, we are not ready. We are not adequate. We may not have the faintest idea of what He is asking of us. That is the point. So, if you are asking Lord, just help us say yes. Please.
What can you say yes to today?
© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.