All the monastery's utensils and goods you should regard as if they were sacred altar vessels.

In all things may God be glorified.

Prayer ought to always be short and pure, unless prolonged by the inspiration of God's grace.

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say, 'I was a stranger and you welcomed me.' Once a guest has been announced, the superior and the brothers are to meet him with all courtesy and love. First of all, they are to pray together and thus be united in peace.

Quotations from the Rule of Benedict

Benedict, who lived some 500 years after Christ, is known more for his Rule of Life than the events of his life.

This Rule has been influential in the patterns of different monastic traditions.

Many Christians will baulk at the idea of a rule of life. For them it will smack of restriction and convention. Those who live by a Rule would beg to differ.

They would say that their rule reveals the inspiration of God's grace in their life. It is a life-path created by and prepared for an encounter with God.

Some years ago, a group of my friends and I tried to create our own rule. It was hard work! We had to talk about our own life and the place of faith in that life.

Some of us were already living a rule that was an abbreviated version of Benedict's. I recall one of us saying, 'We don't need to invent a rule; we are our rule of life. It is how we are living already.'

He was challenging us to become aware of what God was already giving us, and how we were responding.

But eventually it was written, and we preferred to call it a Covenant.

We no longer meet, but I still read it and reflect on the convictions and hopes that the words embrace.

It was a good thing to do because it took me out of myself. It reminded me to make room for others on the pathway of Christ. In those days we didn't use the word 'accountability', but that was what it was about.

So imagine trying to get a whole church to follow a Rule. I can already hear the cry in our church meeting: 'But I am a Nonconformist; what are you going to do with me?'

To which I reply, 'But that does not give you the privilege to exercise a personal preference or assert your independence of your fellow Nonconformists. Nonconformity first described communities of faith, not single-minded individualists.'

So what about making our churches more like monasteries? Of course there is much that would need to be questioned.

But I wonder whether there is a spiritual connection between the gathered church and the monastery.

For instance, the Benedictine way places a strong emphasis on hospitality. It is based on the expectation that Christ is present in the stranger. They are ready for this. The welcome is offered with a prayer.

Think about this: when the deacons or leaders gather for prayer at the beginning of the Lord's Day, as well as praying for the speaker and music players, I wonder whether they pray for the guests and strangers that will arrive that Sunday morning?

Recently, our congregation was led in prayer by one of us. His prayers were brief, straightforward and uncluttered. They were fresh air on a stuffy morning.

He is no Benedictine, but he had discovered the art of making prayer - short and pure.

This is the way to think of a rule of life and the nature of being church. Clear-cut , devoid of a thousand elaborations and simply simple.

As one Benedictine monk once said, 'You can tell how a person prays by the way they sweep the cloister.'