from Esther de Waal on the Rule of St. Benedict
from Pope Francis
“I love the tiny portraits in the Rule of St. Benedict, especially the portrait of the porter who is placed at the gate. It’s a great way for any of us to model ourselves because
metaphorically he has one foot in the enclosure, anchored in the life of prayer, and the
other on the threshold of the world outside. If anyone comes, he says ‘Deo gratias,
thank God that you have come,’ and he welcomes the stranger as Christ… This is so
counter cultural and so absolutely at the core of our Christian belief. You don’t see
social background, economic status, color, race: you see the true self, the risen self in
Christ. That is the heart of hospitality. Then of course, you welcome the guest in to
fee them. The food is an expression of shared love and enjoyment.”
"Let everyone that
comes be received as
Christ."
from the
Rule of St. Benedict
“For if we are really to receive everyone as Christ that means that we must respect
each as made in the image of God and not in the image of ourselves. And this particular piece of idolatry is all too easy. Unless I am careful, I am tempted to manipulate
the people in my life. … I find that I batter them with my demands, or force my own
expectations upon them or so influence them that they feel bound to act in a way that
they know will please me. I have in fact failed to accept them as they really are. I have
not been content simply to be alongside them in their littleness and their weakness,
their frustration and depression. Perhaps I have tried to improve them for their own
good. Perhaps I have really been much more concerned with where I am myself than
with seeing where they are and revealing their importance, to themselves and to me.
Hospitality Quotes
Words for Inspiration
“Who practices hospitality entertains God himself.”
—Proverb
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above
hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
from Blessed Mother Teresa
egins
b
e
c
a
e
P
"
ile."
with a sm
"I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like,
but I know that when we die and it comes time
for God to judge us, he will not ask, 'How many
good things have you done in your life?' rather
he will ask, 'How much love did you put into
what you did?'"
"If you judge people,
you have no time to love
them."
"Joy is a net of love by which you
can catch souls. A joyful heart is
the inevitable result of a heart
burning with love."
"Kind words can be short and
easy to speak, but their echoes
are truly endless."
"Do not think that love in order to be
genuine has to be extraordinary. What
we need is to love without getting
tired. Be faithful in small things because
it is in them that your strength lies."
"Let no one ever come to you without
leaving better and happier. Be the living
expression of God's kindness: kindness
in your face, kindness in your eyes,
kindness in your smile."
"I'm a little p
enci
who is sendin l in the hand of a writing
God,
g a love lette
r to the world
."
—Moth
er Teresa
― J.R.R. Tolkien
Novelist
“And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
“Do not neglect
to show hospitality to strangers,
for by this some
have entertained
angels without
knowing it.’”
Hebrews 13:2
On Flying a Kite as a Boy...
"There'd come the moment when the kite would begin
making a 'figure 8' and begin falling. In order to keep that
from happening, you mustn't pull the string. The kids who
knew more than us would scream, 'Give it some slack, it's
wobbling!” Flying a kite resembles the approach you need
to take regarding a person's growth: sometimes you need
to give them some slack because they are 'wavering.' In
other words, it is necessary to give them time. We have
to be able to set limits at the right moment, but other
times we need to know how to look the other way and be
like the father of the parable (the Prodigal Son) who lets
his son move out and squander his fortune so that he
learns from experience."
—
On Identifying with Sinners...
“Salvation from sin is like being saved from drowning: Being upfront and honest about one's sinful nature actually
helps create a more authentic encounter with God…
There are people who believe they are righteous, follow
the catechism well enough and abide by the Christian faith,
but they don't have the experience of having been saved.
... It's one thing to hear about a boy who was drowning in
a river and the person who jumped in to save him; it's
another to have personally been at the scene and lent a
hand; and even another for it to have actually been you
who was drowning while someone jumps in the water to
save you… Only we big sinners have this grace of knowing
what salvation really means.”
—
On Evangelization...
"A church that limits itself to just carrying out administrative duties, caring for its tiny flock, is a church that in the
long run will get sick. The pastor who isolates himself is
not a true pastor of sheep, but a 'hairdresser' for sheep
who spends his time putting curlers on them instead of
going to look for others…. Today we have one in the pen
and ninety-nine we need to go looking for."
from Pope Benedict XVI
from Archbishop Nienstedt
“Show hospitality to one another
without grumbling.”
1 Peter 4:9
“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns
with you as the native among you, and you
shall love him as yourself, for you were
strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord
your God.”
Leviticus 19:34
“In the saints one thing becomes clear: those who
draw close to God do not withdraw from men but
rather, become truly close to them.”
from
Henri Nouwen
--Pope Benedict XVI
from Deus Caritas Est
“Prayer is always praying with someone. No one can
pray to God as an isolated individual and with his
own strength. Isolation and the loss of a basic sense
of fellowship in prayer constitute a major reason for
the lack of prayer.”
--Pope Benedict XVI
From “On the Theological Basis of
Prayer and the Liturgy”
“Hospitality means primarily the creation of
free space where the stranger can enter and
become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them
space where change can take place. It is not to
bring men and women over to our side, but to
offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.”
From “Reaching Out”
“We cannot simply work with great formulas,
[although] truths, without putting them in the context of today’s world. Through study and what the
maters of theology and our personal experience
with God tell us, we must translate these great
words, so that they enter into the proclamation of
God to the man of today.”
--Pope Benedict XVI
“The first polarity deals with our relationship to
ourselves. It is the polarity between loneliness and
solitude. The second polarity forms the basis of
our relationship to others. This is the polarity
between hostility and hospitality. The third, final
and most important polarity structures our relationship with God. This is the polarity between
illusion and prayer.”
The only really effective apologia for Christianity
comes down to two arguments, namely the saints
the Church has produced and the art that has
grown in her womb. Better witness is borne to the
Lord by the splendor of holiness and art which have
arisen in the community of believers than by the
clever excuses which apologetics has come up with
to justify the dark sides, which, sadly, are so frequent in the Church’s human history.
—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
“The Ratzinger Report”
“We need to include more and more eyes. We
need to constantly be asking: Who else should
be here? Who else should be looking at this?
“The parish was, very much, the center of my universe
at that time… There at Saint Paul’s, I grew familiar with
the responses and became transfixed by the careful,
reverent actions that made up the ritual. Without being able to give voice to my feelings, I was enamored by
the Liturgy. Within it, I knew that the words of the
priest gave voice to the unspoken prayers of those
gathered in faith. I also knew that it provided us with
spiritual nourishment and strength by the power of the
Holy Spirit acting through the person of the priest.
And I further knew that it brought that small, yet ever
so important community of believers gathered at that
hour, into a gathering that had meaning well beyond a
head count of those assembled.”
—
“But sanctity for the Christian is not a solitary activity.
It is done in and through the Church, a Church which is
‘gathered’ as an assembly called by Jesus Christ to form
His Body, and that is seen most fully in the celebration
of the Sacred Liturgy.”
--Margaret Wheatley
Author / Organizational Theorist
"Everyone
who got
where he is had to
begin where he was"
—Pope
John Paul II
—
“In the community of believers, our own hearts’ hopes
and sorrows, joys and disappointments find reception,
affirmation, and transformation as they are offered as
one with Christ to the Father in prayer. Thus, we see
why it is profoundly true that no one can pray to God
as an isolated individual.”
from
“’Do This in Memory of Me’:
The Sacred Liturgy as the Splendor
of God’s Eternal Glory”
“Too often we underestimate the power of a
touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear,
an honest compliment, or the smallest act of
caring, all of which have the potential to turn
a life around.”
—Dr. Leo Buscaglia,
Author