Closely linked with the Divine Office is the monk's private prayer, when he speaks to God from his own heart, and God speaks to him. Private prayer, intimate converse with God, gives balance to a monk's prayer life. It keeps the Divine Office from being mere rote, and the Divine Office in turn nourishes private prayer, keeping it from being pious reverie. A monk must also spend certain times every day in what Saint Benedict calls lectio divina, holy, or spiritual, reading. Lectio divina is in monastic tradition slow, meditative reading.
Monks chiefly read the sacred scriptures and the holy fathers of the Christian East and West.
They may also read later spiritual writers, medieval or modern. Lectio divina provides needed nourishment for private prayer and for public prayer. It is an expression of a monk's love for God, and evidence of his being a part of his material creation. Work enables a community to give to persons in need and to worthy causes. Spring Bank regularly contributes to local, national and international causes, and the desire to increase such contributions is a major factor in the community's present programs, which are aimed at producing more revenue.