In a little less than a month I'm going on a visit to St. Hildegard's Abbey, in Rüdesheim am Rhein in Germany (it's about an hour to the west of Frankfurt). The English section of their website can be found here: http://www.abtei-st-hildegard.de/english/ Having said that, if you can read German it's worth reading that part of the site too, because I think they have some material on there that they've not translated.
This has begun pretty early, mainly because I'm rather excited about it and need to have some kind of outlet. I only live a short distance from my cathedral here and beleive me, if I could get away with it I'd be in there about now (at 1am, tee hee!) blabbering to Christ how excited I was. But alas...you good people will have to put up with me instead
However, this does mean that I'll need some way of holding your interest until 29th April. I propose to post, each day, a portion of the Rule of St. Benedict and invite you all to discuss it. Such a portion is read out each day in each Benedictine House at the Chapter meeting (the portion is usually a chapter of the Rule, hence the name)
We won't get through it all by then, not by a long stretch, but it'll hopefully give you all some insight into Benedictine life.And to totally throw my English reserve out of the window for a few moments: SQUEEEEEE!!!!
Ahem.
Love and prayers,
PP
Squeeeeeee? 
so many people entering or discerning religious life 
So I'll try and include some stuff about St. Hildegard's in particular for the rest of this countdown.
When I was younger and began studying Benedict for the first time, I simply didn't understand why commentaries said that his Rule was more "humane" than many that had proceeded him - but then at that time I was a teenager prone to fits of giggles that would last about twenty minutes. 
Unfortunately Rüdesheim is too far away from me now (I have moved to Bavaria, which would be more than a six hours drive - and it´s after my easter holidays... 
)
I have some of the loveliest friends! Unfortunately she's also a little confused and deluded, giving me much higher praise than I deserve 
Oh well!
), isn't it blisteringly obvious that the church or chapel should be especially so? And just as you don't prepare food in the library or type up a letter in the chapter house, so should the oratory be especially dedicated to that task; this is after all where we do the Work of God, which is our real reason for being in a monastery - the Work that underpins and surpasses all other tasks.
but there are points in that Rule when the "Master" (by that I mean the author) seems to be almost paranoid that if he doesn't keep the strictest watch over his monks, they'll all go astray and All Hell Will Break Loose.
)
) attitude. But it's not a swank hotel either! Prayer is the order of the day, deep respect is shown, as the guest is Christ. So whilst the monastery is tending to a traveller's bodily needs, more attention is given to his spiritual needs. And why not? A monastery is surely a little like an icon - a window into Heaven.
and 
for instance.
It's been a long day; I think I'll do my chores and then head to bed like a good little puella.
] is written with this in mind. For the previous six years he has been novice-master at Ampleforth Abbey ad during that time has been responsible for introducing men to the Benedictine way. Each week the novices are given a conference on some aspect of the monastic life and these have been adapted by Father Cyprian for a wider audience: those who wish to accept the challenge of living to the full their Christian vocation.