The Benedictine Value of Hospitality
This year at St Patrick’s we celebrate the Benedictine Value of Hospitality. In his Rule, Benedict defines hospitality as offering warmth, acceptance and joy when welcoming another. He says let all be received as Christ [RB 53]. This understanding of hospitality is based on relating to another as guest, on cultivating an openness to others.
Verna Holyhead sgs writes of hospitality in The Life of St Benedict: the hospitality Benedict teaches is not a social event but a holy event. It is costly, not in terms of money, but in the demands it makes on our hearts, our time, and our personal resources. Benedictine hospitality does not ask what can I get? Rather, it asks what can I give? That is the challenge for our community in 2019. What can you give? How will you be Christ to another?
Petah Foran - Religious Studies Coordinator