Into Great Silence

“Into Great Silence” is a movie about a group of Carthusian monks in the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps. This monastery is considered to be one of the most ascetic in the world. There is very little talking. Mostly, it is the monks praying in Latin. There are very few subtitles. They are not needed as no one is talking much.. It is as if they don’t know we are there to see them at the work they do. Simple. Silent. Very moving.


It’s what a monk does. He prays. All day long. But, also the chopping of wood. The sewing of robes. The growing of vegetables.

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One of my favorite scenes was one of the monks visiting with the cats in the barn. He sang to them, he played with them. There were times when they had free time together and I was astounded to hear them talking and laughing after having had so much silence with the rest of the movie. They even went sliding down a hill side in the snow. The monks range in age from young men, to middle aged men, to very old men. It almost brought me to tears to see the love and care they give to each other.

But, mostly it was the silence. It was interesting to me that I fidgeted about in the beginning just as I had when I first learned to meditate and everything seemed to itch at once. But, as with my practice of meditation the figeting I experienced eased. Shortly, I settled into the silence as well. Their way of life opened to me and I was able to experience the silence of God with them in a small way. It took me 3 days to see the entire movie. It is four hours long. I’m glad I spent the time.

I watched it as a streaming download from Netflix. The DVD has additional information about the making of the film.

Spiritual Cinema Circle

I’m always on the lookout for neato products or services to promote. It’s always a little nicer if there is a bit of reciprocal linking involved or some sort of payoff. I signed up for Spiritual Cinema Circle the other day. It’s sort of like book of the month club only with movies that would appeal to me on my trip through life. I’ve moved away from your everyday slasher films to want something more. I think I might have found it. Anyway, I’ve been peppering my blogs with their adverts. And, a few links here too. A good product and one that I really believe in.

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Dancing at Lughnasa

SALLY GARDEN

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

An Old Irish Folk Song

I just finished watching, “Dancing at Lughnasa” with Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, and a host of other wonderful actors and actresses. Streep and Gambon are the ones I recognized, but others; Kathy McCormick, Sophie Thompson, Kathy Burke, Rhys Ifans and Brid Brennan were fabulous.

This is Ireland in the mid 1930’s and what a small boy remembered of his mother, his aunts, his uncle and his father from a short time one summer. I always gauge a book or a movie by how much I cry and I did cry buckets with this story. How Meryl Streep, the eldest sister fought to hold the family together and grieved so as times wore upon them and they were forced to move away from each other. All the sisters unmarried with the youngest one having a son. The boy’s father stopped by on his way to fight in Spain and renewed the love that had never died with the boy’s mother. And, how their eldest brother, Michael Gambon, a priest in Africa came home to die. This is how the times were rough, how they scrabbled a life from poverty and how through the love they had for each other clung to that and celebrated life together.

In a memorable scene towards the end of the movie the 5 sisters came together and danced with a wild and wonderful abandon totally at odds with the staid and proper behavior they generally held to. It was as if the passion they each held in their hearts could no longer be contained in just one human body each and they laughed and howled and were so very, very glad to dance and be with each other. Until the music stopped and they stood in a circle, panting with the exertion of the dance and just stood, arms limp at their sides staring at each other in disbelief and wonder that they had just come together in that dance.

I thought it was mind blowing.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

I just finished watching, “The Notebook” based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. I’d read the novel some years ago, but had mostly forgotten it. Actually, that’s sort of morbidly humorous because this is the story of a man and wife, so deeply in love, that the man follows his wife into a nursing facility when she loses herself to Alzheimer’s. This is the story of their life together which he reads to her every day with the hope that she will remember, just for a few moments that he is her husband and not some man who wandered into her life just that morning to read to her from a book. And, she does remember, usually at the end of the day, the love she has for him and that he has for her. She asks about their children and asks him to tell them that she loves them too.

It sounds a simple story, but I cried. I always cry when I read love stories.