At his weekly General Audience on April 26, 2023, Pope Francis began by asking what contribution those who live in a monastery can make to the Church’s mission of announcing the Gospel. “Wouldn’t it be better,” he asked, “if they dedicated their energies to mission?” He said” “Monks and nuns are the “beating heart of the Church’s proclamation [of the Gospel]: their prayer is oxygen for all the members of the Body of Christ, the invisible force that sustains the mission.”