There is a part of each of us that is a monk or a mystic, in that we yearn for perfect peace. But yet our lives are far removed from traditional monasteries. Most of us would not want to give up our personal and spiritual freedom to join the monastic life.

We seek wholeness but realise that wholeness is not possible without sacredness. Sacred life takes root in solutide, in the time we take to develop a relationship with our inner life - in the kind of setting a monastery would offer.

The modern Christian is called to speak to the monk or the mystic within himself. He needs to find his place in the sacred silence of solitude and inner reflection. He needs to live his everyday life as if the world were a holy monastery.

The monastic life, the sacred life, is no accidental incident. It is something we need to seek, to cultivate, to grow into. It is something that costs us something dear: it costs us ourselves.