Immediately before my conversion and long afterward, I thought that leading a religious life meant distancing oneself from all earthly things and living only with thoughts of divine matters. Gradually, I learned to see that something different is expected of us in this world. That even a contemplative life must not disrupt our connection to the world. (…) I even believe that the deeper a person is drawn into God, the more they must, in this sense, go out into the world and bring the divine life there.
(Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, text from 1928)
