Next weekend I will celebrate Easter and host a family brunch at a rather fancy venue if I do say so. I’m concerned about the guest list. Is it enough to just invite my family, those I’m close to, those I’m comfortable with or should I be stretching my sense of family and invite the stranger?
This question arose after watching the TED Talk above, making me wonder if I don’t need to expand my guest list. It tells an amazing story regarding who we invite into our homes. Joe Gebbia the founder of Airbnb shares a great story of how he changed his initial fear into fun eventually arriving upon the idea for Airbnb. It didn’t happen overnight.
The following quote is taken from redbooks, a Benedictine Blog. It tells of the Benedictine ideal of monastic hospitality.
Everyone—everyone—is received as Christ. Everyone receives a warm answer—on the phone, at the door, in the office. Sarcasm has no room here. Put-downs have no room here. One-upmanship has no room here. Classism has no room here. The Benedictine heart is to be a place without boundaries, a place where truth of the oneness of all things shatters all barriers, a point where all the differences of the world meet and melt, where Jew and Gentile, slave and free, woman and man all come together as equals.
Think I’ll try to make this 2016 Holy Week, holier, opening myself to “the stranger” by:
- Smiling as I pass people on the street
- Listening more to my friends to find out what’s happening in their world
- Being more open to try doing it your way.
We are a community of laymen and laywomen who, with vowed Passionists, seek to share in the charism of St. Paul of the Cross through prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and proclamation of the message of Christ Crucified.
