Hospitalitas – Hospitality

The final hallmark is hospitalitas. Benedict says that guests should be received as Christ Himself. It would be easy for a monastic community to turn in on itself, but this demand for hospitality keeps a monastery open to those who come looking for food and shelter – whether physical or spiritual.

However, the guests also bring something. They bring the outside world; they bring a different experience and perspective. They bring critique. Such inward-looking communities as monasteries can insulate themselves from critique, yet this is the gift of the guests. They bring the possibility of newness. The Rule, in various ways, calls the monk and the community to openness and vulnerability—openness to Christ who was nailed to a cross.

Conclusion

Those who begin do not possess all of these hallmarks but, little by little, those who give themselves to this way of life grow into them. Monasticism is a way of conversatio, a way of turning day by day, a way of seeking God in the unfolding of life. To begin, one must only commit to the project as part of a particular community. Still, to commit is to give yourself, day by day.

As Br. James once told a novitiate class as they began, “We don’t expect you to turn thorns into roses in just one year. We’re just looking for a little better grade of thistle.”

So ends the 20-Minute Novitiate.

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