Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaning.
1 Peter 4:8-9
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Resources For Creative Faith Formation's Blog 
October 15, 2010 at 9:19 am
October 18, 2010 at 12:19 pm
The basic reason Catholic Christians are called to extend hospitality is that it is an expression of love.
Hospitality is first an attitude, the attitude of servant, the attitude of foot washer.
Hospitality is also an environment. It involves creating a warm, welcoming space for people.
Hospitality is an action. It is a willingness to be open, receptive and responsive to people, to reach beyond ourselves, beyond our fears and stereotypes.
October 25, 2010 at 10:50 am
Want to see the results of the survey taken prior to the Catechetical Leadership Conference with Jim Schellman on Octoberr 21, 2010? Click link below.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=12I23oPEOwMXz9Lh95ccX_8i5NcsZDKBbmn3XDYgftIU
October 27, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Check out the Nov/Dec 2010 edition of Today’s Parish. In the article “Good Hospitality is Good Steawadship”, Scott Bader offers a hospitality checklist for Advent and Christmas.
He asks:
Is it easy to find the entrances to the Church?
Can newcomers easily figure out where to park?
October 28, 2010 at 8:19 am
Hospitality is the outward expression of an inner attitude, a virtue that erupts from the heart, spilling out toward others.
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 11.)
How do you cultivate a welcoming heart?
October 29, 2010 at 9:55 am
Father Mychal Judge’s prayer of hospitality
Lord, take me where you want me to go:
Let me meet who you want me to meet;
tell me what you want me to say,
And keep me out of your way.
November 2, 2010 at 9:28 am
Five simple steps to growth in hospitality:
1. cultiviate a hospitable heart
2. emulate hospitality in others
3. embrace the hospitable moment
4. enjoy solitude
5. seek the grace of hospitality
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, pp. 69-88)
November 3, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Hospitality is part of our tradtion. It’s found in our families and our churches, in communities that embrace hospitality as a mission and a goal. How we integrate hospitality into our lives is a matter of personal choice. It’s up to us to make our own traditions.
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 115)
November 4, 2010 at 8:23 am
Sometimes hospitality flows like water from a tap, with a graceful gush and happy gurgle. At other times, hospitality sputters and fizzles like a dampened sparkler on the Fourth of July. It’s a tough workout, an exercise I’d prefer to avoid. I have to treat hospitality like any other virtue. I have to put some though into it, get my hands dirty. I have to do my part so God can do God’s part.
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 121-122)
November 5, 2010 at 9:32 am
How do I practice hospitality in my everyday life?
What opportunities to practice hospitality have I had over the past year? The past week? Today?
What holds me back from offering hospitality to others? to myself?
Have I asked God to grant me a hospitable heart?
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 122)
November 8, 2010 at 8:18 am
more hospitality practices….
How has the hospitality I’ve received from others made a difference in my life?
What gifts of hospitality do I possess?
Do I offer as much hospitality to those I live with as I do to others?
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 122)
November 9, 2010 at 1:04 pm
A resource worth check out. http://www.janetschaeffler.com/Gems__3.pdf
November 10, 2010 at 3:01 pm
more about hospitality practices …
Do I bring a spirit of hospitality to my workplace?
Does a tradition of hospitality pervade my home?
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 122)
November 11, 2010 at 3:02 pm
How can I return God’s hospitality by making room for God in my life?
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 122)
November 12, 2010 at 8:45 am
Hospitality is a seed planted deep within us that awaits our attention and care. Nurtured by willingness, watered by prayer, hospitality reflects the face of a loving, accepting, compassionate God. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we can pray that a spirit of hospitality will permeate our thoughts and animate our actions.
(taken from Everyday Hospitality, simple steps to cultiviating a welcoming heart by Thea Jarvis, Ave Maria Press, 2007, p. 124)
November 16, 2010 at 8:51 am
Hospitality is about mutual reverence and relationships. Every person bears the presence of God.
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. xviii.
Paraclete Press, 2002.
November 23, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Hospitality has an inescapable moral dimension to it. It is not a mere social grace; it is a spirtual and ethical issue. It is an issue involving what it means to be human.
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. 5
Paraclete Press, 2002.
November 24, 2010 at 10:51 am
Please check out the Center for Parish Hospitality. Find out what services and resources they have to offer to help become a more welcoming parish.
http://www.catholichospitality.com/
December 2, 2010 at 3:33 pm
The biggest obstacle to hospitality is not the state of the world. It is the state of our minds and hearts.
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. 16
Paraclete Press, 2002.
December 3, 2010 at 11:39 am
Hospitality is the overflowing of a heart that has to share what it has received.
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. 20
Paraclete Press, 2002
December 6, 2010 at 8:40 am
Because hospitality always involves giving something of ourselves to others, it is a spiritual practice. Spirituality is about relationship.
We are caught up in what is probalby the most immature attempt at spirtiuality humanity has ever seen. It is tragically and poignantly adolescent, with the deep emotion and angst that goes with adolescence. It is a spirituality that seeks improvement for life – a better me, a better relationship – but it does not seek God and it does not move us toward others.
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. 33-34
Paraclete Press, 2002
December 10, 2010 at 3:42 pm
“May I know you better? is the core of hospitality.
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. 36
Paraclete Press, 2002
December 14, 2010 at 10:00 am
Choosisng against hospitality means you will eventually lock your heart away from others and grow cold and hard inside.
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. 37
Paraclete Press, 2002
December 15, 2010 at 8:55 am
Hospitality is about priorities as well as the state of your heart. How much do people matter? How important is it to make room for others?
Radical Hospitality: Benedicts’s Way of Love, p. 43
Paraclete Press, 2002
December 21, 2010 at 10:29 am
Great article in the JanuaryFebruary 2011 edition of Today’s Parish. “The most important people on your parish staff” by James N. Reinhardt (p. 16) looks at the “first contact” employees of your parish and how their dealings with visitors are crucial to the success of your mission. He asks questions about proper attire, friendly greetings, appropriate behavior, training, etc.
December 28, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Do you have any hospitality success stories to share – especially during this Christmas season?
January 13, 2011 at 9:00 am
I just returned from the diocese of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Hospitality and welcoming were foremost wherever we went. People were always gracious, always extending a welcoming smile or hand. I ask myself, what is it we can learn from them and how to we take on that same Spirit in our parishes and our lives?
January 25, 2011 at 1:33 pm
I just read about a comment a priest made in his homily. the average Catholic invites someone to attend church with him/her once every fourteen years.
What does that say about our evangelizing efforts?
January 28, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Father Robert Hater tells many stories of people who left the Catholic Church and found a home in a Protestant Church. He explores the reasons in his book, What can Catholics learn from Evangelicals?
What do you think are some of the reasons he found?
February 9, 2011 at 10:20 am
Evangelical churches do not wait for people to show up at church.
(What can Catholics learn from Evangelicals? Robert Hater, p. 46)
What implications does that have for the Catholic Church?
February 14, 2011 at 11:49 am
When changes occur in the Church and parishes try different ways to be effective, it becomes evident that no magic formula exists to create a welcoming community. …. no better formula exists for community and hospitality than the one Jesus gave us, namely, to love God and one another. When parishes center their ministry on this commandment, community happens …… To put flesh on these words involves a painstaking effort to get along with one another, serve the poor, and create effective ministries to share, live, and celebrate God’s Word.
(What can Catholics learn from Evangelicals? Robert Hater, p. 53)
February 24, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Many evangelical churches preach a simple message: The Bible is God’s Word. Live by it and be saved!”
Fr. Hater critiques that statement. What do you suppose he has to say about it? What do you think about this simplistic approach to Christianity and life?
(What can Catholics learn from Evangelicals? Robert Hater, p. 62)
March 4, 2011 at 3:50 pm
PNCEA is now Paulist Evangelization Ministries. Great resources avaialble! http://www.pncea.org/
In a recent e-mail from Fr. Frank DeSiano, he names some assets of the Catholic Church. How often do we think about – and celebrate who we are?
Herre are a few …
An unbroken two-thousand year witness to the Gospel
The Eucharist as unity with God through Jesus, our fundamental worship
A consistent call to holiness and heroic sacrifice
A world-wide community of faith and values
March 21, 2011 at 1:10 pm
http://marccardaronella.com/evangelization-2/
Here is a great web site for stimulating your parish evangelization efforts!
March 30, 2011 at 2:40 pm
A sign of a parish’s effectiveness in welcoming and supporting people and preaching the Gospel is found in the staying power of some converts to Catholicism.
(What can Catholics learn from Evangelicals? Robert Hater, p. 71)
March 31, 2011 at 12:42 pm
What does it mean to put Jesus at the center of parish ministry?
See what Fr. Hater has to say in his book, What can Catholics learn from Evangelicals? on page 83.
April 5, 2011 at 1:20 pm
The present condition of the U.S. offers the Church a rich opportunity to reach out to hurting people suffering from the economic downturn. )What can Catholics learn from Evangelicals? Robert Hater, p. 88)
How is that playing out in your parish? What are you doing to reach out to people?
May 26, 2011 at 1:17 pm
http://www.christlife.org/resources/articles/newineskin.html
This article is worth the read. It helps understand the meaning of new evangelization.
June 21, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Donal Harrington in The Welcoming Parish says:
It is vital to remember that welcome orginates in Go’s heart……. We, the faith community, do not bring God’s welcome to people. We follow after it. Sometimes we trail far behind it and we try to catch up and to appreciate that God’s welcoming heart is bigger than our imagination.
(p. 33)