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Holy Ground as Hospitality |
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I thought I knew a lot about hospitality from the Rule of Benedict as a Benedictine Oblate, from friend Leslie Hay's book Hospitality: the Heart of Spiritual Direction as a Spiritual Director, and from valuable life experiences in a Southern family where there might be 2 or 20 who would "drop in" for dinner but there'd always be enough. While writing this reflection, my curiosity led me to Wikipedia (gasp!) and Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament only to find global concepts of hospitality vary greatly in histories, cultures, and customs. The NT Greek rendering of hospitality in Kittel's text largely implied the sense of alien or foreigner with accompanying tension, fear, and hostility.
 | | Hospitality in Einsiedeln, Switzerland |
Now, putting these two concepts of hospitality together... Visiting Europe earlier this month (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) unfolded yet another concept of hospitality, that of being welcomed by holy ground. Just as in the 4th century, inns grew up in the shadows of temples and were open to pilgrims, we found hospitality in monastic guest houses and centuries-old B&B's with religious art and morals. One of our guides mentioned that the great cathedrals were built on holy ground because that's where people gathered to worship even before the construction began.
The land, also as holy ground, welcomed us and other travelers. The Swiss Alps offered her natural beauty for hiking, cycling, skiing, and numerous outdoor activities - a gratuitous offering. Her bowled valleys held small, close communities like children in a mother's lap. Although we were guests on the lands we visited, we were warmly welcomed with respect, kindness, and love. As Leslie Hay writes in Hospitality, "I have come to understand that the wellspring of hospitality is love, that innate energy that emanates from the Mystery we call God and forms our center, our hearts." It seemed as if the people and the land were offering gratitude to us for our presence.
--by Jan |
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Alpine Hospitality
--by Bill
The Alps are majestic, dramatic, truly awe-inspiring. One thing they are not, at least at first glance, is hospitable.
Nearly all the terrain in Switzerland is mountainous. Only about 10% of the land can be farmed. Traveling across those rugged mountains in the days before motorized transit would have been an incredible challenge. In winter especially, nearly every valley would be isolated.
And yet, for all the roughness of the terrain, I always feel Switzerland is a welcoming, hospitable place. Over the centuries, people in the mountain villages have learned to live in harmony with their harsh surroundings. Every year, the cattle are driven up to summer pastures clinging to steep mountainsides, so that the valley meadows can be cut for hay. Traditional architecture provides both snug shelter for winter and opportunity to enjoy the outdoors when the weather is good.
I grew up in another harsh terrain, the high desert of interior Oregon, little more than 100 years after the first American settlers came to the state. In school, we celebrated the pioneers who came to "conquer" the land.
I am struck by that contrast: the American pioneer sense of conquest vs. the obvious efforts of the Swiss to live in harmony with nature. I think I find the Swiss Alps hospitable and welcoming because the Swiss have, by and large, learned to live in harmony with nature rather than trying to conquer it.
O Lord, how lovely it is to be your guest....
You have brought me into life as if into an enchanted paradise....
We can live very well on your earth.
-Gregory Petrov
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