There is nothing in Benedictine life (i.e. spiritual, physical, intellectual or relational) that is not accessible to every Christian. It is not what monks do so much as why, and how they do it that gives Benedictine life its significance.

Monks praise God because their identity and joy in life lies in drinking from the fountain of the Church’s Liturgical life. They want to do now what will profit them for all eternity and they want their worship to train them for life with God.

“The Christian life consists in this

and nothing but this,

to be by grace what Jesus is by nature:

the Son of God.”

– Bl. Abbot Columba Marmion

Thus, the primary focus of Benedictine life, as it should be for every Christian, is the praise of God through the celebration of the Mass and the chanting of the Liturgy of the Hours, which is the common prayer of the Bride of Christ, the Church.

In this way, Benedictine monks have been praying with and for the Church for over 1500 years the psalms, Holy Scripture, the ancient Fathers, the holy Doctors and the Saints. By this path one may become holy. Individual prayer, meditation and holy reading flow from the church’s worship or prepare for it.