Cultivate a Life of Hospitality that Flows from your Heart and Spirit

God’s love for me is beyond comprehension. This same love flows from God to everyone. As we become more like Jesus, we will grow in our love and service for others. May our lives be marked by a spirit and works of hospitality.

From their earliest days, monastic communities were known for hospitality. Our ancestors saw everyone they met as worthy of love and compassion. Even with walls around most monasteries, their doors were open to those beyond their community. As the transforming love of God works its way ever deeper into our hearts, it changes us. We become marked and changed by the gentle, kind, and gracious love of God. We start noticing that we are naturally extending this same kind of love to others. One of the ways we do this is through our hospitality.

Jesus entered into life. In the midst of others, Jesus welcomed all to Himself. Jesus welcomes you to be with Him. Find your way into the presence of Jesus, which is the Fruit of the Spirit perfected. Come, be with our God, who reminds us that we do not have because we have not asked. Let us make it a habit of asking our God to let us share in His divine love for others.

To live in the city is to meet all kinds of people. Each person you see is a recipient of divine love. You are a recipient of divine love. Let us expect that we will see the very person of Jesus in others and within ourselves. Notice that the love and presence of Jesus finds us as we are in this moment. In every moment, we are loved. We are loved even when we cannot love ourselves. This love is the foundation of every expression of Christian hospitality. Each and every time hospitality is expressed, it is a gift.

Each day, let us accept and embody this gift. With time, our wells of love, compassion, and grace within ourselves will deepen. God then invites us to extend hospitality to others from our deep reserves. Within our capacity, context, and resources, let us develop a love for hospitality. We find ourselves invited into aA love that starts with being hospitable towards those we meet. Love then extends into greater service to one another. The practice of hospitality is a profound gift to others and ourselves. It is a gift we want to flow outward from the deepest parts of ourselves.

Cultivate a life of hospitality that grows with time. You will extend love and service to others from the depths of your heart and soul. Each of our lives and contexts are different. Let the gift of hospitality grow both inward and outward. Pray and expect God to show you ways to share this gift. Expect that God will also invite you to accept this gift from others. As we practice being hospitable, we practice welcoming one another as if they are Christ Himself.

• Reflect on the ways that you have experienced God’s hospitality for you.
• Pray that God would give you greater capacity to be loving and hospitable with others and yourself.
• Meditate on why it is more difficult for you to extend hospitality to specific people or groups?
• What capacity for hospitality currently exists within your life and resources?
• How can your heart and soul be freed to express hospitality to others in your daily life?
• What are ways that you can establish rhythms for hospitality in your life?
• Who in your life do you admire for their hospitality? Set time aside to share this appreciation with them.
• How can you allow your heart and soul to express their hospitality in small daily interactions with others?
• What ways do you struggle to enjoy the gift of hospitality given to you from others, and from God?
• Meditate on the expansive ways you have and can express hospitality in your life and context.
• What boundaries do you need in your life to allow your hospitality to come from love and not obligation? Are there specific people that need unique boundaries?
• In what ways do you extend hospitality to yourself?