Long ago I mentioned there was a point to monasteries centuries ago. Before the printing press, bibles were copied and that is good.
What do you think is the necessity for monasteries today (since this discussion began with the contemporary, Mother Teresa?)
Monastics did more than copying.
In the discussion about Mother Teresa, I referenced monastic writers whom she was very familiar with as necessary to understanding Mother Teresa’s writing. That was their relevance to that discussion. Monastics have been among the greatest influences in Christian theology and on practice and on other’s conversion to Christianity - as I mentioned in the case of St. Augustine.
The necessity for monasteries today is the same as it was in the past. There’s a variety of functions. Priests come out of monasteries, lay people go on retreats at monasteries. A life of prayer has value, and monastics pray for us and for the world. Different monastic communities have different functions, different rules, are organized differently, interact differently, provide different services. Some are schools. Some monastics are renowned scholars, theologians, writers… They are a place of prayer and study and practice and devotion and these have real effect on others outside their sphere. Some have produced well-known recordings of Christian music.
This is a short list of the value of monasticism, things that you might, I stress might, approve of.