An acclaimed new movie shows that a monastery is "at once a refuge and a very integral part of the world," says Jesuit priest James Martin, and that "the life of faith is not without doubt."

The much-praised French film "Of Gods and Men" dramatizes the essence of universal Christian love, according to the author of the book on which the movie is based.

Photography, according to Abbot Barnabas Senecal of St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Kansas, is an exercise in monastic mindfulness, and he says his pictures express "being aware of the presence of God with you and in the world."

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, a Benedictine monk, reflects on the Psalms, prayer, photography, and the Benedictine desire "to seek God daily."

"Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?" Those stirring words come at the beginning of one of the most durable spiritual guides of all time, the Rule of St. Benedict.

"Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?" Those stirring words come at the beginning of one of the most durable spiritual guides of all time, the Rule of St. Benedict.

A community of entrepreneurial Cistercian monks in rural Wisconsin balance a life of prayer and work, charity and contemplation. They also run a multi-million-dollar ink-and-toner business.

There is a group of Benedictine nuns in Missouri who bake and sell millions of Communion wafers, small and large. But some would-be communicants complained that they are allergic to the gluten in the wheat in the nun's wafers. So they could not receive Communion. For the sisters that was a challenge.

Thailand's Prabhat Namphu Buddhist monastery is an unlikely combination of two things: AIDS hospice and tourist attraction. Amid a display of cadavers, visitors -- including many school kids -- observe what HIV does to the human body.