A thought for today, to complement what I have just posted: this is from Kathleen Norris, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993):
True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each person. . . . For the monk, even repentance is seen in terms of hospitality. . . . It means recognizing that we have not always seen grace where it exists in the world, and agreeing "to turn away from a stubborn and obdurate position that cannot accept what is new and different and therefore cannot entertain God’s mysterious ways." The word "entertain" is used advisedly here, as the monk goes on to speak of hospitality: "The classic sign of [our] acceptance of God’s mystery is welcoming and making room’ for the stranger, the other, the surprising, the unlooked-for and unwanted" (pp. 198-9).
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