"Solitariness" illustrated: a few recommended video "retreats"

The seventh of St. John Cassian’s Conferences is an important one for several reasons, and, in fact, in my estimation, it’s important enough for it to be a main focus in my next post. The latter will extend some of the thoughts expressed in the former post and address the topic of how we can protect, in practical ways, our inner, inviolable “heart.” The key to understanding how each person’s essential “solitariness” is a good thing, and shouldn’t be confused with loneliness or even “alone-ness,” lies precisely in the truth articulated by St. Augustine at the beginning of The Confessions: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” Cassian — or, rather, Abba Serenus to Cassian and his friend, Germanus — explains in Conference Seven why and how the very core of each self can find interpenetrative union with God and with no other. Even the “unclean spirits” cannot fully invade our spiritual intellects. Still, we are susceptible to feeling the pressure and power they exert on us. There are, as I will suggest, various quite concrete ways (a “fence” or “barrier” of actual practices) and instruments (including some physical tools) to help the heart “find its rest” in Christ. I will offer that forthcoming post gratis (i.e., “free”).

(Praying monk. 1864, by Jacob Maris)

In the meantime, having likened our individual solitariness to the monastic vocation, insisting that we are all “monks” in the deepest layer of our souls, and having said that what it is that professed monks and nuns do for us ideally is to show us “iconographically” what we all must discover to be true about our individual inner lives, regardless of who we are, where we live, or what we do, I thought it might be interesting to view (or at least, have access to) a few of the best “monastic documentaries” available online. Some of the recommendations I include below I’ve made before. I make no bones of the fact that I believe the monastic vocation is integral to full-orbed Christianity for the reasons I’ve indicated above. I don’t believe monasticism is the “highest” vocation or superior to family life or marriage (to think that, actually, is un-Orthodox, as well as unorthodox). But monks are “signs of contradiction” and — again — “icons” of an interior truth about our selves.

The gold standard of “monk movies” is, of course, Into Great Silence (Die große Stille), Philip Gröning’s magnificent 2005 award-winning film chronicalling the lives of the Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse. It isn’t available online in its totality (apart from this version on YouTube). Here is, however, a taste of what one will find in it:

The next video is also a stunning film. This is how I described it in an earlier post:

It is an award-winning 2022 Russian film about the Solovetsky Monastery, entitled The Holy Archipelago. The monastery was appropriated and converted into a gulag during the Soviet era, but today it thrives as a revitalized center of Orthodox faith. Stunningly beautiful, directed with artistic sensitivity and skill by Sergey Debizhev, the motion picture’s cinematography alone is worth savoring. The documentary also puts forth, along with a harrowing description of the years that Solovetsky (Solovki) housed political prisoners, a cultural commentary and a theological/philosophical perspective in contrast to that of the contemporary world (the description on the website below describes it this way: “The film explores the profound meanings of existence, faith, hope, and love. This is a large-scale story about the life of the Solovetsky monastery.”). Although there may be a version on YouTube in the U.S. where it can be viewed (there isn’t here in Norway), it can be found online here, with full English dubbing:

https://fawesome.tv/movies/10742601/the-holy-archipelago

Here is the trailer for the film that does appear on YouTube:

And here is a conversation with the director:

I won’t go into great detail about the next three films. They speak for themselves:

The introduction on YouTube to this beautiful film states: “The abbey of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux is a Benedictine Abbey located at Le Barroux in Vaucluse (France). It was founded in 1978 by Dom Gerard Calvet. This documentary shows the transformation of different monks in their lives from being ordinary men to extraordinary men of faith who chose to live a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience.” Incidentally, the website for the Abbaye du Barroux can be found here, and it’s worth the visit: https://www.barroux.org/en/.

I didn’t wish to end this post without presenting something about a women’s monastery. I found this fine, short introduction to the life of the Sisters of Mary Morning Star gently captivating: