Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra | Monastery...a type of the City of God

This is why the Church has always understood the monastery as both a reference to the paradise that was lost, and the mystery of the paradise which is to come: the Kingdom of God. 

In the concentrated gathering of the Church that we see in the monastery, we experience the restoration of the communion that was lost in paradise. The monastery is thus a type of the City of God (Heb 12:22), which is both in heaven and here on earth. 

In the monastery, paradise is a living reality, and the monastery is nothing more than the intense living out of the life of the Church.

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra