Live Words: Paradox of Hospitality

"Once we have found the center of our life in our own heart and have accepted our aloneness, not as a fate but as a vocation, we are able to offer freedom to others. Once we have given up our desire to be fully fulfilled, we can offer emptiness to others. Once we have become poor, we can be a good host. It is indeed the paradox of hospitality that poverty makes a good host. Poverty is the inner disposition that allows us to take away our defenses and convert our enemies into friends. We can only perceive the stranger as an enemy as long as we have something to defend."

                                                         ~ by Henry Nouwen

Comments

[Sam]

Thank you for the words. It is so difficult to deny what we want for ourselves in our lives. Its just as difficult to deny ourselves what other people want for our lives.