Chapter 52: The oratory of the monastery

The oratory must be simply a place of prayer, as the name itself implies, and it must not be used for any other activities at all nor as a place for storage of any kind. (From Ch. 52 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

Jesus teaches me to pray contemplatively: "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret" (Matt 6:6). My inner room is my heart, the oratory of Jesus' prayer to the Father. Within this oratory, there is no room for egotism or psychological baggage of any kind.