I first began to understand how different monasteries were from any places I'd known when the monk who was training me as an oblate said one day, "It's time for your to meet the rest of the community." We walked to the cemetery, and through it, and as we passed each grave, the monk told me stories about the deceased. Having been at the monastery for over sixty years, he'd known nearly everyone buried there.
— Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk