"The monk should not imagine that in a chaotic age like ours his only funcion is to preserve the ancient attitudes and customs of his Order. These are necessary and valuable indeed in so far as they are vital and fruitful, and help us to live more freely and more consciously in the mystery of Christ... the monastery should be something more than a museum. If a monk merely keeps in existence monuments of literature and art and thought that would otherwise decay, he is not what he ought to be, He will decay with what is decaying all around him.

The monk does not... exist to preseve anything, be it even contemplation or religion itself. Heis function is not to keep alive in the world the memory of God... the function of the monk in our time is to keep himself alive by contact with God."

There we go.
I want to be a monk. (might as well. I've already got the hair.)

"But in its essentials - solitude, poverty, obedience, silence, humility, manual labour, prayer and contemplation - monastic spiritual does not change."

~ Thomas Merton:

Basic Principle of Monastic Spirituality