The work might be anything that wanted doing, so long as the hours of prayer were not infringed.

Agriculture, scholarship, education, handicrafts and art have all been done perfectly by St.Benedict's sons, working and willing in quiet love.

This is what one of the greatest constructive minds of Christendom regarded as a reasonable way of life; a frame within which the loftiest human faculties could grow, and man's spirit achieve that harmony with God which is its goal.

Moreover, this life was to be social.

It was in the beginning just the busy useful life of an Italian farm, lived in groups--in monastic families, under the rule and inspiration not of a Master but of an Abbot; a Father who really was the spiritual parent of his monks, and sought to train them in the humility, obedience, self-denial and gentle suppleness of character which are the authentic fruits of the Spirit.