Visiting a Roman Catholic Cathusian monastery
movie
I was looking for a movie called "Into Great Silence" that is a
movie about some kind of monastery, where there are still monks who
does live a speechless live in every 6 days of the week.
This monastery I was looking for I was able to find a bit later and
is called Grance Charteuse but anyways just by accident I
came across to an youtube movie video presenting the life of some
Roman Catholic Cathursian Monastery located in the heart
somewhere in Italia.
The movie was quite an interesting one for me to see because I was
not having any idea about the Roman Catholic monastic life;
Just as I expected the severity of the monastery life in the Roman
Catholics monastery is a way less than the one in our Orthodox
monasteries.
The monks life there looks a bit artificial from what I've seen and
monks try to live in confort which in direct contradiction to the
teaching of the holy fathers, who said that those who is living in
confort is not a real monk.
Some of the Holy fathers in our Orthodox Church, many of whom by
the way are also holy fathers in the Roman Catholic Church has said
that even strive for confort kills the monk and makes the monk idle
sluggish in both his physical appearance and in his spiritual life
and also kills the monks spiritual fruits.
The veneration of to the patron saint of the monaster was quite
strange to me. Of course I realize that as an Orthodox Christian my
expectations are for a bit more raw, since the Orthodox Christinity
is quite more hard and I would say real one than the Roman
Catholicism.
Anyhow the videos were a good learning point for me on how Roman
Catholicism's monastic life goes so I decided to share it here on
my blog with the hope that somebody with profound interest into
Religion and Christianity might benefit of it, so enjoy:
What is really striking me is the monks dress, they're dressed in
white!
One major difference I've noticed between this Cathusian Roman
catholic monks order and the our Orthodox monks is that they wear
white and our monks in the Orthodox Church wear always black.
Also the altar in the Roman Catholics is open where everybody could
gaze straightly to the Holy Throne where the bloodless sacrificied
is offered by the priest, whether in our Orthodox temples the Altar
is enclosed by altar walls and there is a curtain which is being
pulled on and off throughout the Orthodox Holy Litirgy.
Apart from that I should admin the nature nearby the monastery is
really amazing!