Human frailty exposed. But alas, there is no healing love, no love of Christ, of one another. And it is love that makes the monastery, not the structure. And the monastic life is honest. Sinners all and no one adverts to that.
Paint hides all that.
Actors all, surrounded by stage scenery. Remote from reality. All are sinners, and to admit it, submit ourselves to healing love and respond to that love in Christ and one another. In the face of utter reality. This is not to say a Cistercian style is a must, that there is no other way.