The monastic life is patterned on the Holy Family, who lived together for 30 years in what we describe as the “hidden life of Christ.” The word “hidden” is why monasteries have walls. St. John Chrysostom has a treatise on how to live the monastic life, as he described it, within the family. Hans Urs von Balthasar described the early life of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the little flower, as monastic in its rigor and discipline.
There is nothing special about monastifc life. It was first instituted for Christians who wanted to live the Gospel seriously. It was not meant, only, for religious, priests or nuns. It was, in fact, first instituted for lay people. Charlemagne was described as to have imposed it on his kingdom.
And so, since monastic life is simply the life of the Gospel lived by laymen, it is a formula for the family and for the local church to attain maturity of faith.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton noted that the family is the only institution in the world that one enters into freely and out of love. No other human institution may be described thus. Well, the monastery is, also, a place where one enters freely and out of love for God and neighbor. Both are described as the pillars or foundation of any society. Both are the foundation of Christian civilization.