Into Great Silence

My first week of eating like a monk came to a close Saturday night. I thought I would be ready for new inspiration on Sunday, but instead, I settled in to my weekend picking mode and ate like a bachelorette all day. The morning started out fine with tea and toast, and then lunch was forgotten and I ate potatoes and cheese for supper. This is what happens without at least one other person around, not necessarily to eat with; but to ask what you’re having for lunch or to suggest a salad. When Matt came home from fishing late Sunday night, he showed up with three trout which was very connected-to-the-earth of him. That will be a treat to eat!

When I think of monks I’ll admit, the first things I think about are the Middle Ages and asceticism. I mean monks were their heyday around the 11th, 12th, 13th centuries right? Most people I talk to think monks ate basically nothing, but as we saw last week, some modern monks like Brother Victor-Antoine acknowledge the need for healthy bodies. As I was preparing for this project I knew the topic of asceticism (extreme abstinence, an austerely simple life, rigorous self-denial), would come up. The question is how can I eat like a medieval monk and still be healthy? Before I answer that I will back up to say that my inspiration for this week is based on the film Into Great Silence, as well as some research I have done on the life of medieval monks.

Into Great Silence is a film by Philip Groning in which he observes the highly secluded lives of the Carthusian monks at their monastery, The Grande Chartruse in France. It is known as one of the most ascetic monasteries in the world. It is related to the monks of the middles ages because that is when this monastery was founded, 1084 CE, and little has changed for Carthusian monastic life in the past nine hundred years. When Philip Groning asked the monks' permission to film their way of life, they got back to him sixteen years later to say yes. To see the trailer or for more information go to: http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/intogreatsilence/

As I watched the film I became mesmerized and forgot the outside world. It helped that my house was completely silent as I watched. As far as I can tell, they ate fruit, bread, salad, and a stew or soup of some kind with what looked like potatoes. They eat twice a day in their "cells." Don't think of it as a place with bars where you can't get out, but a space for voluntary penitence and prayer. There is a table, a bed, and a special place to pray. There are few words spoken in the film. When new monks enter the order they are told: "You are at God's disposal alone, in solitude and stillness, in an everlasting prayer and a joyful penitence."

As far as I can tell, monks from the middle ages generally ate what they were given or could raise themselves. According to Christopher Brooke in The Age of Cloister: The Story of Monastic life in the Middle Ages, "Eggs, fish and cheese, beans, milk and honey provided the basic fare, with many variations in different times and places" p 71. I think of the current "slow food movement" and I am sure we could be reminded of the simple way in which monks have eaten for hundreds, if not thousands of years. As for myself this week, I will eat three times a day, and try to stick to the foods I have mentioned above. I will continue to read Blessings of the Daily by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourette. Reading these daily entries has set the tone of my day and keeps me in touch with a monastic way of life.