So how about we become more intentional about our hospitality?

The word “hospitality” comes from the Latin word which means “guest,” and it also can mean “host.” Hospitality is both something a host does and a guest receives because you need two to make hospitality work.  Just consider today’s First reading and the encounter between the prophet Elisha and the woman of Shunem.  Consider, too, Jesus’ words about receiving each other and the promised rewards in the Gospel.

I remember as a child my mother was an expert in hospitality because she made people feel so much at home, that they no longer felt like they were guests but part of the family. I think that’s been an important part of my Polish heritage – to be hospitable people, welcoming guests but welcoming them so well they are part of the family.

Here at Saint Francis, we have a unique opportunity for hospitality. Since so many people are moving to our area, and with so many visitors just coming by, they may come to join us because they feel like my friends and neighbors felt at my mother’s house. I can’t tell you the number of people who have told me how welcomed they feel when they enter the doors of Saint Francis, and that makes me very happy.

So how about we become more intentional about our hospitality?

I would like you to consider these three suggestions: one, if you see someone come in the door that you don’t recognize, go up to them, tell them your name and ask them theirs and tell them how welcome they are;  two, introduce them to someone else that may be standing around – to your husband, wife, a friend or one of the regulars and start networking that way;  and three, if they are alone and have no one to sit with, you might even ask them to sit with you at Mass.

I think these three things could actually keep on making us a place of great warmth and hospitality where people can come and know the presence of God, be welcomed, and for an a least an hour a week, know they belong here together in the Kingdom of God.  As Saint Paul reminded us in the Second Reading, we are “dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”

Fr. Mark Zacker

Pastor