Ah, I didn’t know about that book. I did have An Infinity of Little Hours, which was a factual account of several monks. Some didn’t make it through to final profession. The rigours of being a Carthusian affected one monk so much that an ambulance had to come and get him while they were praying communally, and the commotion didn’t disturb the order of the prayer.
I’ve seen Into Great Silence, but I didn’t feel like it really conveyed how harsh hermetic monastic life is. It looked very peaceful but I didn’t get the rigour of it out of the movie.
Would be nice to take a retreat there actually, but unfortunately as you know they’d never allow an outsider in like that.
If you read Halfway to Heaven, you will find that there is a Charterhouse (what the Carthusian monasteries are called) in England that did allow the author, Robin Bruce Lockhart, to do retreats with them. The book also speaks of a Charterhouse in, I believe, Vermont. It was a relatively new establishment as Charthusian monasteries go. I am not aware of any others in the US, but you could Google it and see if they would permit you to go on retreat. I understand that this will be a challenge for you as you live in Hawaii, but then any thing not located on your lovely island home would be, wouldn’t it?
I just checked
Amazon.com, and they have the book, if your local library doesn’t.
I also read An Infinity of Little Hours, but felt that it failed to convey the history and culture of the Carthusian Order the way Halfway to Heaven did. By focusing on individuals, the author of this book was placing emphasis on exactly what every aspirant to entry in the Order is trying to overcome, the self, in order to grow ever closer to God and His creation. This is the challenge that every committed Christian - Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Coptic - is called to undertake, but very few of us try to do it in such a daunting environment.
As for the film Into Great Silence not showing the rigors of Carthusian life, I would like to offer two thoughts. First, this is an Order that eschews any type of public attention. It took them 20 years to permit the filmmaker in at all. It is perhaps, then, not surprising that they didn’t bare their souls and agree to have every part of their daily routine captured on film for consumption by audiences that would, more likely than not, be unable to understand or appreciate what they were doing and why. It is amazing that the filmmaker was able to record as much as he did!
Second, and perhaps this is because I had done some reading on the Carthusians before ever seeing the film, I did feel the rigor was present, although not in any overt way, in what was captured. The scenes during the winter months especially conveyed this when the viewer realizes that the only heat available to the monks is from wood that they each chop for their own individual hermitage. A lazy monk would quickly freeze.
Throughout the week, and with the exception of their once-weekly afternoon, communal walk-and-talk, the only time the monks meet with their peers is in the midnight Office of Matins, and then their speech is confined to singing the Office. They live alone. Eat alone. Work alone. Study alone. Pray alone. And, most importantly, struggle to overcome their human weaknesses and grow closer to God alone. They live alone and in near perpetual silence. And contrary to the popular mindset, this doesn’t make them misanthropists or mentally ill. It is a reflection of their placing, as a community, their relationship with, and service to God as their top priority. Anyone familiar with the first step in spiritual formation, purgation, will recognize that the Carthusians embrace it, and all it requires, fully. Only after having overcome the self - having purged the desires and habits of the flesh to render oneself fully open to the will of God - is it possible to enter into deep communion with God, and this is their goal.
Each of us is gifted with certain graces and talents to enable us to pursue the vocation in life to which God has called us. That we are called to one vocation rather than another does not make the others any less worthy, or our own any more worthy. We will be of greater service to God and His creation if we focus on doing what is required for our own vocation to the very best of our ability, and recognizing that others are doing the same, even if we are unable to understand what they are called to do or why. We cannot be of service if we fail in charity.
Via con Dios!
Clare
).
