Learning to be a Community of Hospitality (1)

 

"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."

                                                                                                    --Hebrews 13:2

I. Required readings

 

Genesis 18:1-15

Deuteronomy 10:17-19

            Psalm 121

            Isaiah 58:6-9

            Luke 14:12-14

            Hebrews 13:2

 

Christian Biography for the Day: John Chrysostom

 

            Chittister, Chapter 10 (“Hospitality: The Unboundaried Heart”), 121-132

 

            Christine Pohl, “Offering Hospitality”

 

            Ethel Jenkins, “My Prayer”

             

                    

            (Click here to explore the icon to the right,
                 including its connection to today’s readings.)

           

 

 

 

II. Quotations for the day

"'I was a stranger," Christ says, "and you welcomed me' (Mt 25:35). And again, 'In so far as the did this to one of the least of these, you did it to me' (Mt 25:40). In every believer and brother, though they be the least of all, Christ comes to you.  Open your house, take them in. . . . These are the qualities that ought to be in those who welcome strangers: readiness, cheerfulness, liberality.  For strangers feel abashed and ashamed, and unless their host shows real joy, they feel slighted and go away, and their being received in this way makes it worse than not to have received them."                    John Chrysostom  (349-407 AD)

III. Journal prompts

1. How is the biblical practice of hospitality connected to the larger narrative of scripture?  In other words, what is there about the story that Christians tell about the God revealed to Israel and in Jesus Christ that makes hospitality a fitting practice?

2. In light of the readings for today, would you agree with Chittister that many of us have domesticated the biblical virtue of hospitality, substituting in its place something rather “antiseptic"?  Do you think she is right that most Christians today view hospitality "more as one of the social graces than as a spiritual act and a holy event"?  Why might this be so?

3. What do you think Chittister means by "hospitality of the mind"?  Who do you know that practices this?

4. Set aside some time to reflect on the following quotation:          

  "Hospitality doesn’t exist unless we go out of ourselves for someone else at least once a day. There is no hospitality where I can't think a new thought and see a new perspective and talk to a new person and give part of myself away day after day.  Hospitality is one of those things that has to be constantly practiced or it won't be there for the rare occasion” (p. 132).

        Where in your daily life do you already practice hospitality?  How might you open yourself up to having hospitality cultivated in other areas of your everyday life?

IV. Links of possible interest

 

           Peter Maurin, “The Duty of Hospitality”   Maurin was a powerful influence on Dorothy Day and together they began “houses of hospitality” for the poor and marginalized.  Here, in one of his famous “Easy Essays,” he reflects on hospitality.