Quiet Monks and Pretty Places

I was lazily lying in bed yesterday morning, contemplating the quiet as the kids were intravenously plugged into whatever post Christmas electronic device they received, and I remembered a documentary I watched not too long ago, Into Great Silence. The film is a peek into the lives of Carthusian monks living in a beautiful, austere 11th Century monastery in France. Since these are the monks who have taken a vow of silence, I was interested to see how a movie with not a lot of chatter would work. And it’s about as exciting as you’d expect, slightly less lively than the Yule Log. But to it’s credit, watching these men quietly carry out the simple day to day tasks of monastic living can be strangely soothing. To a point. Until that same 6 yr old of mine who was so intrigued by that other documentary I watched, (see this post) sat down to watch this one, giggled uncontrollably and kept shouting out, “Mom, this is BOR-RING, why are you watching this!” Poof, no longer soothing.

The climax, be prepared, I’m going to be a spoiler, was when they sat around and DID talk. I’m not sure what the conditions of their vows include, but apparently they do get a little face to face from time to time. And you know what they did? They GOSSIPED! yes, a life of spiritual contemplation and they complained about other monks in other monasteries. I am comforted and a little disappointed to know that people are the same the world over.

My little suburban subdivision is built beside a monastery. These boys have an impressive piece of real estate. It’s so beautiful and peaceful to walk along the paths there that it almost has me wanting to pull a Catholic ‘Yentl’ just to wake up to this view every morning. This is a small oil painting I did, the dormitories look out onto the pond. The view is much more beautiful in person of course.

The brothers are kind enough to allow the public here as long as you’re well behaved and don’t dress like a tart. I come here often and this is some of what I see.