Well, it's 320, and we are getting up and going to the first office inquire in the chapel and we're going to pray matins.

Is it difficult getting up at 3.30 every morning to pray?

Yes, certainly yes, but it's the thing we can offer up to God.

What's the idea of praying so early in the morning?

In the silence of the night, we can offer up our whole day, you know is no noise you see and we are not disturbed.

So in the still of the night while others here in France are in bed you are up and

you are praying.

Because we pray for them. Allelujah.

Oh. It's

Abbey in Leberu in the south of France, around 50 monks are standing in their

chapel and singing praise to God.

They're Benedictine monks who have been following the same, silent and solitude way of life for 1500 years giving up all their worldly

possessions in the hope of something otherworldly.

The setting for this program is stunning, an old stone monastery surrounded by hills and valleys, but it's also silent.

The monks live in strict silence and the bells you hear now are calling them to lunch.

All 50 sit together but with only one permitted to pray out loud.

My name is

my name is Colin and you're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service

and for this episode of Heart and Soul which explores personal approaches to faith, the Father Abbott, the man in charge at the Abbey, has given some of the monks special permission to break the rules of silence and talk to me so we can learn

what would make someone choose a life like this that's so opposite to the loud

fast-paced lives we all live, a life that's so

countercultural. And also we'll hear why they feel it's their God-given duty to produce wine in their vineyard.

...