Reflection
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It is no use saying that we were born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts…today. He speaks with the voice of our contemporaries…He gazes with the eyes of store clerks…factory workers…and children. He gives with the hands of office workers, slum dwellers and suburban homemakers. He walks with the feet of soldiers and tramps…and He longs to shelter within His heart anyone in need…giving shelter or food to anyone who asks for it, or needs it, is giving to Christ.
Dorothy Day
Prayer
O God, strengthen my resolve to give witness to Jesus by the way I live. Empower all peopleto live within the spirit of Your love.
Action
Have confidence in the abiding presence of a compassionate God who suffers with the suffering and supports all your efforts to bring about justice and healing in our world. Reflect on the depth of God’s blessings for you.
Suggested Reading
I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did for me.
Matthew 25:40
Hospitality doesn’t exist unless we go out of ourselves for others…in a conscious and deliberate way, stretching our vision, and taking responsibility for our neighbor. Hospitality means that we take people into the space that is our lives,our minds, our hearts, our work and our efforts. Real hospitality lies in bending our efforts to change things, to make a haven for the helpless,to be a voice for the voiceless..
It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers of the world. It is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, even perhaps, one heart at a time…It is a way to be for others.
Joan Chittister,OSB, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily
Unlike the way we use the word today, in all the enduring religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, the concept of hospitality is considered a moral obligation. The scriptures of these religions are filled with stories where families were not only expected to care for their members in need, they were also expected to welcome the stranger, offering them food, shelter and protection, specifically the widow, the orphan and the foreigner.
Jean Amore, CSJ
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Anonymous
True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each and every person. Henri Nouwen has described it as receiving the stranger on his own terms, and asserts that it can be offered only by those who ‘have found the center of their lives in their own hearts.
Kathleen Norris
Hospitality is the practice of God’s welcome by reaching across difference to participate in God’s actions bringing justice and healing to our world in crisis.
Letty M. Russell
There is no hospitality like understanding.
Vanna Bonta