Into Great Silence: A 3-Hour Meditation on Monastic Life

Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it's a peek into the contemplative world (again), Into Great Silence.

I must confess my fondness for contemplative movies of this sort. The less frenetic onscreen activity you are forced to endure, the more you're able to notice. The form of "Into Great Silence" is ideally suited to its subject. The monks lead a regimented existence (you can see a typical weekday schedule, and learn about their history, at their official Web site, www.chartreux.org). Time is allotted for the introspection and reflection that are essential to their devotion. You're given the opportunity to contemplate details, including ones you may overlook in the rush and routine of your own everyday life.

"Into Great Silence" fully immerses those experiencing the film into the monastic order of Grande Chartreuse. While one may not be enduring this order's everyday rigors, one is experiencing a nearly complete sensory deprivation for the film's nearly 3-hour running time. An inner silence, a stillness and an uncommon simplicity to which Americans are seldom exposed.

The result is more than a documentary of monastic life. It is a transcendent meditation on the human pursuit of meaning. On man as a religious and social creature. On the form and function of symbols and ritual and tradition. On the rhythm of work and prayer, day and night, winter and spring.

The silence is not total. The monks must speak to celebrate the liturgy and other special functions, to accomplish certain necessary tasks, and on weekly outings from the monastery to socialize and discuss their life together. The silence is still the point of reference. It gives meaning to the words, not the other way around. "The symbols are not to be questioned – we are," says one monk during one of those weekly outings. The monks don't question the silence. It questions them – and us, if we let it.