Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for he is going to say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt. 25:35).
—Rule of St Benedict 53:1-2
For the month of October, we turn our attention to the principle of hospitality, as found in the Monk Manifesto:
2. I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others.
The Abbey will be hosting a monthly Photo Party and Poetry Party on this theme as well.
What are the ways you might begin to welcome the stranger you find within?
What would it mean to find the face of God in everything that was uncomfortable or foreign? What if each was treated as a guide from beyond?
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