Preface
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Perhaps it is inevitable that cultures develop a narrowness of vision fostered especially by success in the area of activity most characteristic of their particular strengths, as is the case today of the astounding economic productivity throughout the contemporary world. Religion offers a comprehensive understanding of human life that provides, at the very least, a counterbalance to the one-sidedness that is typical of the strength of any particular culture. It is remarkable to observe that spiritual resources prove to have great potency even when they seem to have at their disposal a poverty of means and cultural visibility in the daily contests of social activity.
A startling example of this proposition is available in a new film titled Into Great Silence, depicting monastic life in the Grande Chartreuse, a Carthusian monastery in the French Alps near Grenoble.1 German filmmaker Philip Gröning, drawing upon an artistic restraint that seems in its own way to be beautifully informed by the deep ascetism of the monastic life exhibited by his camera and microphone, invites the viewer to enter into the silence and contemplative spirit of the monastery. It is difficult [End Page 5] to imagine a greater contrast than that between the driven pace and cacophonous energy of modern economic activity set against the responsive and gentle rhythm of a life of prayer following the eight Offices performed by the monks throughout the day. Gröning forgoes the use of a musical soundtrack—how tempting it must have been to set some of the world's great contemplative music to these beautiful images. Instead the Gregorian chant sung by the monks, the sound of bells summoning them to prayer, the sound of snow melting off the roof, and the sound of fire in the stove provide the auditory aspect that lets us know what it means to listen constantly for the presence of God. The film also intersperses biblical texts into the depiction of daily life in the monastery, bringing to appearance the scriptural foundation of monastic life in the call to renounce all of our possessions as a condition of becoming a disciple of Christ.
Paul Joseph Jean Cardinal Poupard, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture, provides an insightful commentary on the film:
To make contact with this astonishing film is to enter a separate space-time, whose pace is both solemn and very gentle. It is only in complete silence that listening can really begin, only when verbal communication disappears is it really possible to begin to see. This is the message expressed by this gentle contemplation of time, constructed on the trilogy "Repetition, Measure, Silence." Into Great Silence is in fact a meditation on monastic life in its purest form.2
It is well known that monastic life is lived not for the individual spiritual welfare of those called to such a life alone but for the good of all, even if the world seems hardly aware of the life shaped by prayer going on in its midst. A brief scene in the film depicts an airplane flying over the monastery, and we can suppose that many of its passengers are probably on their way to and from business meetings in the busy world and are oblivious to the profoundly different pattern [End Page 6] of life lived out in a daily practice of individual and communal prayer. The space and time of monastic life is separate, as Cardinal Poupard notes, but the abiding presence of God is sought for the spiritual well-being of all.
One of the most delightful scenes of the film unfolds as the camera and microphone follow the monks on one of their weekly walks into the beautiful mountain landscapes surrounding the monastery. Would the world be surprised to know that simple joy can be a part of the ascetic life? The monks converse freely on these outings, and in the scene captured by Gröning we see the monks sliding down a hill on makeshift skis, more often than not tumbling through the snow to the sound of gleeful laughter. Watching this scene, I was reminded of the episode in Bernanos's Diary of a...
