Our Ministries
30 Jun

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our Personal Reception Rooms and Hospitality

“All guests…are to be welcomed as Christ.” When I lived in community with my Benedictine aunts while studying in Illinois, I saw this sign everywhere! It was in the entrance to the monastery in plain view of everyone who walked through the door. It was in the dining room, hanging above the food service line. It was on a plaque in the elevator. Who could forget?

Hospitality is one of the core values of the Benedictine rule of life. And this week we read several Scriptures that teach us about being a guest and about hospitality. In the first reading, the woman of influence (but without a name) pays attention and notices a passer-by who begins to dine at her place often. She is attracted by his holiness and decides to ask her husband to build a room for him to stay in—a guest room. Elisha, in turn, asks if she needs anything—“Can something be done for her?” Her servant reveals that she is older now and that she has no children. Elisha foretells that within a year, she will have a son.

A passer-by becomes a frequent diner and a recipient of generous hospitality. The giver of hospitality receives a surprise and answer to a human longing. Have we experienced anything of this sort? When does a stranger become a guest in our homes or our hearts or our churches? When have we been surprised by what we receive from a guest? Have we experienced anything like this at St. Francis?

Focusing on the last part of the Gospel, reflect on and pray about all that it entails to “receive” someone or something. How do we grow not only in giving but also in receiving? And as we recognize that receiving is not a one-time action, how do we stay alert to and patient with the parts of us that cannot yet open as we wish they could?

What does my personal reception room look like? Who are the people that I can welcome into my life? I don’t know them yet, but in offering welcome and hospitality, I may just discover that I receive so much more than what I gave. That is discipleship! Initiating the welcome and extending the hospitality—this is the cost of that discipleship.

Welcome to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church