Any building can become a monastery if it is consecrated to God as such.
The following is, I think, a perfect prayer for those of us who want to go through the world as 'walking monasteries,' living for the glory of God.
'Dear Lord,
The indwelling in me of the Holy Spirit
implies that like the Church, the Altar, the Tabernacle,
I am consecrated to be the temple,
the house, the home of God Himself.
My body is set apart,
dedicated to God's use as something holy,
never to be profaned by worldliness,
by selfishness, or by sin.
My body is the Spirit's chosen dwelling place,
a privileged altar.
It must then not be looked upon
as a market place for the transaction of business,
or a school for study, or a playground for amusement.
It is none of these. Indeed, it is not really my property at all, but Your very own...
I must never dare to bring the God dwelling within me
into contact with things which He abhors.
O God, hidden within me,
forgotten and neglected on so many days, during so many years,
I ask You to forgive my carelessness, my irreverence, my infidelity....
Joyfully I consecrate to You my body,
with all its members and all its senses,
my hands and feet, my eyes and ears and tongue,
my powers of seeing and hearing and speaking,
my impulses and instincts and appetites and desires.
I make them over to You by deed of gift;
to be absolutely and forever Yours,
to be employed always in Your service,
never to be used against Your will.
O God, take this body of mine,
consecrate it,
let it never be defiled by sin.
Let it never become the abode of evil,
nor be used against the best interests of any of Your children.'
(from "Listening to the Indwelling Presence," compiled by a Religious, Pellegrini, Australia, 1940, pp. 24-26)
Painting: Thomas Jones Barker. Margaritte in the Cathedral
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