A Charterhouse couples in a quite inseparable manner both the heady prescriptions for union with God and a brutal rupture from what in traditional monastic language is called `the world’. Despite certain misrepresentations, there is nothing in this of Manichaeism, pessimism or contempt for those who are part of `the world’. The world is the whole of humanity engaged in the splendid enterprise of co-operating with the action of the Creator. It is man tending towards God across the whole spectrum of his creation. It is religious man who reflects the face of God in Christ through a thousand forms of apostolate.

All of this is good and all reflects God; but none of it is God. Choosing God consequently implies a separation from every-thing that is not God without even considering all that is involved, and we would not dream of compromising on its exigencies. Even the most wonderful of his creations is nothing compared with him and he it is whom we seek.

http://transfiguration.chartreux.org