The Benedictine nuns of St Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde, have started their own website.

When visitors arrive, they hear the first line of the Introit Sitientes ("Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters"). Another page is dedicated to a piece of plain chant, with musical notation on the screen and an explanation which can be read while listening to the singing of the nuns.

Currently the Chant Page features a comparison between the antiphon Hosanna from the Palm Sunday procession and Puer natus est nobis, the introit for the Mass of Christmas Day.

The site has rich graphics with many photos of the nuns at work and prayer. Visitors can even take a virtual tour of the strictly enclosed monastery.

There is also a section dedicated to questions about monastic life: How do you know what's going on in the outside world? How can you give up so many things? If you have withdrawn from the world, what value can your life have for others? Isn't your life a terrible waste?

"This is a serious question," said Sr Eustochium. "If there is no God, if the revelation of Jesus Christ is not true, then our life is a terrible waste. We believe, however, that every person was made for the love and praise of God and that God is indeed worthy of our love and praise. In the Divine Office and throughout our monastic day we are doing what we hope we shall be doing for all eternity - gazing at him who is all beauty, truth and goodness - although here we do it 'as in a mirror' and there we shall do it 'face to face'. Any baptised person, when he or she prays or does what is right, raises up the whole world because the prayer or action is done 'in Christ'. The enclosure of the monastery enables us to do this with special concentration. In our prayer and especially in the psalms of the Divine Office we express to God the joy and hope, the fear and sorrow of all mankind. The deeper our prayer-life becomes, the greater is our capacity to share with all mankind God's mercy and love."

Sr Mary David, said: "We created the site because we wanted to communicate something of the hidden beauty, mystery, and joy of a life given wholly to God. Every month the site will display the text of one of the talks given by the Abbess or one of the other nuns to the community. We love our way of life and want to share it."