Can true ‘hospitality’ heal our national soul?

		THE INTERVIEW a regular feature of The Catholic New World, is an in-depth conversation with a person whose words, actions or ideas affect today’s Catholic. It may be affirming of faith or confrontational. But it will always be stimulating.

Catholic New World staff writer Michelle Martin talks with writers Lonnie Collins Pratt and Benedictine Father Daniel Homan.

The word “hospitality” conjures up images of quaint bed-and-breakfasts, elegant dinner parties or visits with friends. That presents a problem for Lonni Collins Pratt and Benedictine Father Daniel Homan, whose new book, due from Paraclete Press later this year, is tentatively titled “The Way of Hospitality: Lessons in Loving from the Monastery.” The Benedictine principle of hospitality has nothing to with whether the fork goes to the left or right of the plate and everything to do with developing a welcoming heart.



The Catholic New World: How did you get the idea to write a book about Benedictine hospitality?

Lonni Collins Pratt: It was my idea, and when I mentioned it to Father Dan, he looked at me oddly and said people should just be nice to each other.

Father Daniel Homan: We had already collaborated on “Benedict’s Way” (Loyola Press, 2000), which takes the way of Benedict and tries to make it applicable outside the monastery, and after last September, it seemed very timely.

LCP: It came from my own experience with the monks here (at St. Benedict Monastery in Oxford, Mich.) at a very difficult time in my life. I’ve been a friend of the monastery for about nine years, and that was about the same time I returned to Catholicism. When I first came here, I had a lot of baggage, and I wasn’t the easiest person to welcome, but the monks did. They just accepted me. At the time, I didn’t know that’s what Benedictines do—they get past all the junk and get to the heart of the person.



TCNW: How did your experience collaborating on “Benedict’s Way” contribute to your decision to do this book?

LCP: We wrote a small section for “Benedict’s Way” on hospitality, and when we were doing it, we talked a long time about it. Father Dan had a lot to say. It occurred to me that this might be another book.



TCNW: Had you started the writing process before Sept. 11? How did that change things?

FDH: We were in the midst of the writing, maybe three-quarters of the way through. It didn’t really change anything. We just felt that people would need this more after the shock we all went through. I think we could have used it before then, as well.



TCNW: How does the Benedictine concept of hospitality compare with what most people think of when they hear the word?

FDH: If we could find another word in the English language to use, we would. When you say “hospitality,” everybody thinks of what color napkins you use and Martha Stewart. But for Benedictines, that’s not what hospitality means. Hospitality means that every guest should be treated like Christ. We should humbly welcome them and accept them as they are.

LCP: When you of think of hospitality as dinner parties and things like that, those are things that we do, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. But what we’re talking about is what we become.

FDH: It is really a way of being.



TCNW: Has the writing of this book changed the way you understand or practice hospitality?

FDH: I’ve been a monk for 42 years, so it really hasn’t changed anything, but it certainly helped me to spell it out.

LCP: To put it down on paper helped me to look at my life and see where there’s been growth and where there needs to be more growth. …

Father Dan and the monks don’t see what they do as extraordinary. They welcome people—even difficult people—and accept them as they are, and they all get rather confused when somebody makes a fuss over that. But in our world, that is extraordinary. This is one example of that. I don’t think he realizes that this ordinary thing is extraordinary.



TCNW: Do you think most people want to open their hearts to strangers? Or are we happy living in our own little worlds?

FDH: I’m not a psychologist or a sociologist, but I do talk to a lot of people. Thousands of young people come here for retreats and other things. From what they tell me, I think deep down inside, everybody would like to be a kind, openhearted, open-minded person.

LCP: It’s not only about embracing the stranger and giving that person a chance. It’s also about embracing the stranger in each one of us. None of us can ever fully know another person, and that creates difficulties. … It’s about fear. We are a nation living in fear, and that’s crippling us.



TCNW: Fear of what? How do you mean?

LCP: We go into our houses and lock our doors and turn on our security systems. We’re afraid strangers will challenge our ideas, challenge our way of life. Particularly now, we are afraid of violence.

There are two monks here, Father Damien, who is from Albania, and Brother Antony, who is from Puerto Rico. They are the gentlest people you could meet, but they clearly don’t look like the white people next door. If either of them sat next to you on an airplane, I guarantee your heart would sink to your toes. That has to change.



TCNW: You haven’t finalized the book’s title. What are your ideas?

FDH: I like Lonni’s idea, “Strangers in the Light,” because it’s all about holding strangers in the light of Christ. But that’s a play on an old Frank Sinatra song, “Strangers in the Night,” and the publisher isn’t sure people would get it. Another idea is “Relationships After the Terror.”

LCP: We’re very concerned about the word “hospitality.” We don’t want people to think it’s 12 months of soup recipes from the monastery.

To pre-order Pratt and Homan’s book, call Paraclete Press at (800) 451-5006. It is expected to be available later this year.

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