More Biblical Hospitality

April 10, 2008 | Filed Under hospitality |

alone_in_a_crowd.jpg“We always treat guests as angels — just in case.”     
– Brother Jeremiah

“Hospitality begins at the gate, in the doorway, on the bridges between public and private space. Finding and creating threshold places is important for contemporary expressions of hospitality.”
– Christine D. Pohl

“If there is room in the heart, there is room in the house.”         
– Danish Proverb

“If you have a hospitable disposition, you own the entire treasure chest of hospitality, even if you possess only a single coin. But if you are a hater of humanity and a hater of strangers, even if you are vested with every material possession, the house for you is cramped by the presence of guests.” — Chrysostom

“Fear is a thief. It will steal our peace of mind and that’s a lot to lose. But it also hijacks relationships, keeping us sealed up in our plastic world with a fragile sense of security.

Being a people who fear the stranger, we have drained the life juices out of hospitality. The hospitality we explore here is not the same kind you will learn about from Martha Stewart. Benedictine hospitality is not about sipping tea and making bland talk with people who live next door or work with you. Hospitality is a lively, courageous, and convivial way of living that challenges our compulsion either to turn away or to turn inward and disconnect ourselves from others.”
– Homan and Pratt in Radical Hospitality

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1 comment so far
  1. Ted Gossard April 13, 2008 3:40 am

    Yes. I love hospitality, the idea of entertaining or having guests regularly. Of course in our society it is more for friendship than for need, if you’re thinking about dinner. While at the same time there still is need out there.

    I think this is such a good and important gift that is easily underrated and lost in our society now. It can mirror the example of Jesus who though he didn’t have a home, made himself at home with his disciples and with all sorts of people, indeed tax-collectors and sinners.