I had been doing this privately and hadn't shared it with the community, but this was the opportunity. Things just came together in a totally ecumenical way. It's been a wild ride, I can tell you that. It helped me to discover and value communal prayer and communal worship, but right up there, too, is the appreciation for the Bible. Benedictines hear more Bible read aloud on a daily basis than any Protestant church member who goes on Sunday.
Benedictine life is a total immersion in scripture.
That was a revelation to me. Even your average Catholic parish hears more scripture now than most Protestant churches. In some Protestant churches, you only hear the scripture that the pastor is preaching on. So that means if he's not preaching on the gospel, you are not going to hear the gospel on Sunday. You may go for a month of Sundays never hearing the gospel.