"A monastery is above all this: a place of spiritual power.” Pope Benedict, as ever, got to the heart of the thing when he addressed these words to Benedictine monks at Heiligenkreuz, outside Vienna. Monasteries serve all sorts of functions – repositories of tradition, places of architectural and cultural interest, sometimes social hubs.
But unless they are living communities where the rule of their founder shapes their life; if they’re not ordered by the cycle of the divine office; if they’re not places impregnated with prayer, then nothing else much matters. If you go to a former monastery turned into a luxury hotel – and there are many of these, alas, around Europe – you’ll see what I mean.
