Into Great Silence

So I finally watched Into Great Silence, the acclaimed documentary about French monks who take vows of silence. I fell asleep during it. But not because it wasn’t beautiful, it was just, well, silent. The images were amazing, and they were that: just images, no music, narration, or accompaniment, just images and the sounds of shoes on the ancient stone of the monastery.

Their prayer was silent.

Their reading was silent.

Only their common worship, their chanting, was spoken.

Until Sunday came, when they spoke together and rejoiced in one another’s company as a "family."

At one point toward the end of the movie, I woke up from one of my intermittent cat naps (the movie is 160 mins and I slept through about 30 mins. of it, just a guess) to a sound—the wonderous sound!—of monks young and old sledding on a mountainside.

I was most touched by what the father of the abbey said to a novice just entering the monastery. He asked him, (I paraphrase) "are you ready to serve God in this way, through vows of silence and joyful penance?" He did not say, "this is the best way to serve God," or "this is the most spiritual way to know God," but instead "in this way." Though we idolize them as spiritual demi-gods, monks do not see themselves as superior to those outside the abbey walls. They desire that we serve God as best we can as they serve God as best they can.

May we all find ways to serve God with all our being!
For more information on the documentary, click here.

For more information on the Carthusian monastic order, click here.

For A.O. Scott’s review of the movie, click here.