religious sightings TALKING IS OVERRATED
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HAT DO YOU call a three-hour, nearly silent film about the lives of Carthusian monks in the remote monastery of Grand Chartreuse in the French Alps? A hit, that’s what. The documentary Into Great Silence played to packed houses in Germany and received rave reviews in 2005. “The film,” according to its website, www.diegrossestille. de/english/, “is an austere, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form. No music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews, no commentaries, no extra material.” Philip Groening, a German who directed the film, lived in the community for several months and took part in all aspects of the monks’ lives, leaving him with only two to three hours each day to work on the documentary. “When I left the monastery, I was thinking about what exactly had I lived through, and I was realizing that I had had the privilege of living with a community of people who live practically without any
fears,” Groening told the BBC. “They have the feeling that if something goes wrong, then it’s OK because it’s something that God wanted, and this is something that changed me.” Asked about the monks’ simple, prayercentered, and mostly silent daily routine, Groening says, “I think they simply do it because they choose to become close to God. It’s a very simple concept, the concept is God himself is pure happiness; the closer you move to God, the happier you are.”
College students value spiritual quest
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IGHTY PERCENT of college students say they are “very interested in spirituality,” concluded a major study in 2005 by the University of California (see www.spirituality.ucla.edu/). Among the findings: 76% 74%
are searching for meaning/ purpose in life have discussions with friends about the meaning of life
81% 79% 69%
attend religious services believe in God pray
MORE PRIEST PREPARATION INCLUDES CEO TRAINING
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OME SEMINARIES, such as St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore, place great importance on getting priests ready to lead parishes, reports Associated Press writer Joe Milicia, because some become pastors within a year of ordination. Sister Christine Schenk, C.S.J. executive director of FutureChurch, a Cleveland based group dedicated to parish reform, would like to see every seminary require courses in human resources, management, and community organizing. “Most priests want to be a VISION 2007
VocationGuide.org
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priest because they want to be ministering to people,” says Schenk, “not because they want to be a manager.” Father Brandan McGuire, 39, of Holy Spirit Parish in San Jose, California, was the executive director of an association in the computer industry before becoming a priest. “Fundamentally, it’s exactly what I do now,” McGuire says. “You deal with lots of different people who have their own agendas, and you have to keep everyone unified on the same standard. And this standard is Jesus Christ.”
SILENT PARTNERS— The monks of the remote Grand Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps are the stars of the film Into Great Silence.
“IT’S NOT a very popular idea, but if you believe in God and you believe God made you, then God made you for a reason. At the end of the day it has to do with how you serve others. But you can’t serve others if you don’t know who you are.” –Billy Corgan of rock band Smashing Pumpkins on discerning one’s vocation in The God Factor (FSG, 2006) by Cathleen Falsani.
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