Leo Campos is a co-founder of the Community of Solitude, a non-residential network of contemplatives rooted in Benedictine-Camaldolese spirituality. In an essay appearing in Episcopal Cafe, he has some interesting insights into what monasticism is all about.

...all I "do" as a contemplative monk is to live out my baptismal covenant. In other words, I do exactly, no more or less, than what every other Christian does. Or, better, I try to do exactly what everyone else tries to do. And I fail just as badly at it. But perhaps here's the point where being a monk can be a service--my struggles can become an object lesson for others. Hopefully not a risible case study in failure, but rather a visible reminder of what we are all going through together. It is a communal experience, where my robes and my public profession become a mirror for others.

When someone realizes that I am trying to be a mirror to them it usually leads tgo their adoption of various defensive postures and gestures. "Oh I don't think so, I am not a monk! I am not this or that". It is unfortunate that we in the Episcopal Church do not live more openly the theology of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, where the life of the laity and that of the monk are much more closely aligned.