“Monasteries are not out of touch. When a man enters a monastery he takes his heart with him. In coming to know and understand his own heart, in opening it to the Lord to reveal its ills, its poverty, its needs so that the Lord might heal it with his love, the monk is opening the heart of the world. What ails the monk ails everyone else. What ails man, ails him. Why is he any different? He comes from the same place. All the cloister does is open his heart to the mercy of God. And in coming to know his own heart, the monk comes to know the human heart of every man. If a monk is any kind of a monk at all, he will be in touch with his times, not by virtue of [TV, radio, newspapers and magazines], but by his prayer.” ~Fr. Matthew Kelty, OCSO, The Call of Wild Geese
