A remarkably well made video on monastic life, precious, beautiful scenery and shots–wonderful content and presence.

Remigiusz Sowa video creator.  Chouette Films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni6PsZwSx40

St Bruno statue Calabria, Italy

Accordingly in His great kindness, God, Who is ever attentive to the needs and well-being of His Church, chose BRUNO, a man of eminent sanctity, for the work of bringing the contemplative life back to the glory of its original integrity. To that intent BRUNO founded the Carthusian Order, imbued it thoroughly with his own spirit and provided it with those laws which might efficaciously induce its members, freed from the demands of every sort of exterior ministry and office, to advance speedily along the way of inward sanctity and of the most rigorous penance; laws which would also impel them to persevere with steadfast hearts in the same austere and hard life. And it is a recognized fact that through nearly nine hundred years the Carthusians have so well retained the spirit of their founder, Father and lawgiver that unlike other religious institutes, their Order has never in so long a space of time needed any amendment, or, as they say, reform.  –The solemn teaching of Pope Pius XI on the Apostolic Value of Carthusian Life: Contemplatives in the Heart of the Church.

And so, one day we finally succeed in establishing silence within ourselves. But it is too early to proclaim victory, for we still find ourselves in the presence of that inexhaustible source that I spoke of earlier. We have to experience the painful reality of our impure hearts: even if our ímagination has fallen silent and our thoughts become stilled, we shall find in the depths of ourselves a kind of fundamental instability, an inexhaustible fount of anxiety, a seedbed of judgements, condemnations and fear. If we are truly to have a strong desire to purify this heart, we must first experience its impurity and feel the radical need to transform it, if we are one day to see God.  —Carthusians of North America, Vermont 

We know that it (silence) amounts to introducing a sword in ourselves: peace will come up only when those who were opposing it will be thrown out.  —Carthusians

First of all, we have the responsibility to observe silence towards others. “Love for our brothers should show itself firstly in respect for their solitude” (St 4.4) Each and every one of us is entrusted with the exterior and even interior silence of those he associates with. Silence is rarely a purely personal affair. Our role towards our brothers is firstly concerned with exterior silence; whether the places where we are help recollection or induce dissipation depends on a careful attitude on our part that radiates a genuine concern for peace and silence. “The places where they work, like those where they live, should be so arranged as to be conducive to interior recollection… it should be quite apparent that they are a home where God dwells and not mere secular buildings.” We can make a difference also by the number of words we utter, and first of all the quality of these words, so that these words coming from us contribute to recollection and not to dissipation. “if, by chance, we come to know something of events in the world, we must be careful not to pass it on to others; news of the world should rather be left where it is heard.”  Carthusians of North America–Vermont.