Some people thrive on routine; some people don't. Monastic life has a large element of routine built into it (fixed times for prayer and meals, for example) which are sometimes experienced as liberation, sometimes the opposite. But it also has an innate flexibility about some of the detail. Benedict is well aware that the demands of hospitality are unpredictable, and he sees such importance in the person of the guest that he allows the abbot to break his fast so that the guest may be properly entertained. We had a number of visitors to the monastery yesterday, and in each case we tried to be welcoming. For some, there was just coffee and biscuits and a few minutes' talk; for others, there were shared meals and a longer time spent answering questions and trying to explain those elements of our life which are particularly difficult for an outsider to understand; there was time spent answering emails and letters — all this on top of the normal round of prayer, work and study. But the point is, of course, that welcoming others to the monastery IS part of the normal round. It's what we try to do with this web site and blog. And we gain so much from those who come, even if, at times, we feel pressurized or convinced that we are making a hash of things. Perhaps we concentrate too much on giving answers instead of asking questions of those who come. Among our visitors yesterday were two delightful boys from the village with a rather portly bulldog in tow. They didn't ask any questions, but they shared their friendship and pride of ownership in the dog. The young have something to teach us all.