Brother Paul Quenon has been a monk at Gethsemane Abbey since 1959 - where he went aged 17 directly inspired by the writings of Thomas Merton.

On this video he says (Douglas at the group quoted it in full)

"Well, I think the purpose of the monastic life in the modern world is to show that we don't need a purpose. The purpose of life is life, and you are to be just to be. Everybody measures their importance by how useful they are, so you need to shatter that. You know, somebody has to come along now and then just say listen, you know, that's not it. That's not what life is."