Into Great Silence

Posted in What I'm Watching on March 31st, 2010 by Raymond Gleason

Be pre­pared for a deeply spir­i­tual film that will touch your soul in a way that you have not expe­ri­enced. The require­ments to par­take in this kind of expe­ri­ence are twofold: time and patience.

This movie tells the story of the Carthu­sian monks, whose monastery is located in the French Alps. “Into Great Silence” refers to the silence that many con­tem­pla­tive orders prac­tice in order to con­cen­trate on their most impor­tant tasks: liv­ing in the present moment, offer­ing up their work as prayer, and offer­ing up their lives as a gift to God.

The Carthu­sians lead a fun­da­men­tally soli­tary and con­tem­pla­tive life. The movie is long, clock­ing in at about 2.5 hours. About 80% of it has no dia­logue whatsoever.

At this point you are prob­a­bly say­ing, “Wow, Glea­son. This sounds like such a great movie.”

Sus­pend your judge­ment for a moment. Think contrarian.

I rec­om­mend you watch this movie by your­self, with­out any dis­trac­tions. Take in the images, the peo­ple, the pace, the beauty of these monks.

The silence will speak vol­umes to your soul.

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One Response to “Into Great Silence”

  • ray­mond, i actu­ally saw this film in the the­ater. 150 of us sit­ting, side by side, in silence. the only sound for much of the time, in fact, was the crunch­ing of pop­corn. it was a truly pro­found expe­ri­ence to share this kind of sacred and quiet space with a room full of strangers. i am so glad that you are bring­ing it to the atten­tion of oth­ers! i’m so glad our kids are con­nected so that we can be so too!

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