I recently watched the documentary Into Great Silence, shown on Tricycle Magazine online, available for a short time to members. Philip Groening’s movie is a look into life at La Grande Chartreuse, a Roman Catholic monastery in the French Alps home to the monks and nuns of the Carthusian Order.

High in the mountains, these men and women live a life of enduring silence, contemplation, and solitude, supporting themselves by brewing the green liquor chartreuse.

In 1984, Groening approached the inhabitants of La Grande Chartreuse to ask if he could make a film documenting daily life there. Sixteen years later, they responded. Groening could film them, but with provisions: First, that he come alone. Second, that he must live by the rules of the monastery while filming. And third, that he must not add in artificial light, music, or commentary during the editing process.

The final result, Groening’s Into Great Silence, has almost no dialogue. Instead of words, it speaks through the natural sounds within and surrounding the monastery, the prayer rituals of those inside, and of course, silence itself.

I thought the movie was quite good, shot well and it immediately transported me to feeling like one of the monks, steadily, silently, at work or prayer. It reminded me a great deal of zen sesshin, only here the energies were focused on a relationship with God, a path to which was being formed in great earnest, of course. The monks showed quiet zeal and untiring devotion, which was admirable to me. Their egos seemed to fade in the background, in place of a more noble purpose.

I was also struck about watching the film via a Buddhist website; one of my favorite comments posted by viewers was this: “Wonderful! It helps us realize that enlightment, God, or whatever you call it, is just way too big and omnipresent to be restrict to only one spiritual tradition.” I concur: though not a faith I could pour myself into, I appreciate the contemplative, methodical liturgy of daily routine as faith-full practice.