Hospitality involves welcoming people into your space, listening, paying attention and providing, often over a meal.
“All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say:
‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’” -St. Benedict
“All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say:
‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’” -St. Benedict
Congregational Application of the Practice
Invite a person or family (ies) who you’ve never had in your home, one night/afternoon this month. Cook if you like but tea or drinks count!
Hospitality Resources
The Art of Neighboring: What if Jesus meant that we should love our actual neighbors? When Jesus was asked to sum up everything into one command, he said to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Most of us have turned this simple idea of loving our neighbors into a nice saying, putting it on bumper stickers and refrigerator magnets and then going on with our lives without actually putting it into practice.
Although hospitality was central to Christian identity and practice in earlier centuries, our generation knows little about its life-giving character. Making Room revisits the Christian foundations of welcoming strangers and explores the necessity, difficulty, and blessing of hospitality today.