Carthusians Abounding

Amy Welborn directs us to this trailer of the great documentary, Into the Great Silence, a look at La Grande Chartreuse, the great motherhouse of the Carthusian order – the most world-renouncing and, some would say, severe of monastic orders within the Roman Catholic Church. The three hour, mostly silent film has taken much of Europe by storm, but there is no word yet on when we might see it here in the US. I can’t wait. The trailer is hypnotic.

Meanwhile, I’ve been lucky enough to be sent an advance copy of Nancy Klein Maguire’s incredible book, An Infinity of Little Hours, in which she looks at the journey of five young men who entered St. Hugh’s (Carthusian) Charterhouse in England between 1960 and 1961 – before the Second Vatican Council, during the time in which the monks of that house were still living almost precisely as they had since the 11th century. These five men were, essentially, the last to experience that particular sort of life. I will review it more fully another time, but Maguire’s research is astounding and she does a riveting job of bringing you right into these intensely quiet lives.

It reads like a novel, and you can’t put it down.

Oh, a little off-topic, but fun, check out Amy’s Amazon blog. I don’t know how she keeps up!