The vocation to contemplative life cannot be understood in the modern utilitarian calculus. It is an interior orientation, driven by a thirst that even the monk himself often doesn’t understand, the search for the immediate, personal encounter with God.We would like to share some insights on an article that was an interview between a secular journalist and Dom Gérard Calvet. We often get asked the same question that the journalist posed to Dom Gérard: what monastic life truly is and what is its “usefulness”….what is itssecret?