Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love

“The Rule of St. Benedict has brought wisdom and comfort to believers for over 1,500 years. One of its main practices is listening, being really present for other human beings. This leads naturally into hospitality, which in monasteries has meant giving guests the space to pray and to rest, to enter silence or to speak in intimate terms about their journey of faith. Homan and Pratt show how this can become a part of anyone's daily life.” —Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice: Resources for Spiritual Journeys

“At its most basic, hospitality means saying ‘welcome in’ to the friend and the stranger alike. This doesn’t mean you share the same intimacy with a stranger as with a friend. It only means you’re open to and grateful for the gift of discovering what any person has to offer no matter who they are. Father Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt unpack the virtue of hospitality and what it means today in Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love. Their interpretation flows from the monastic spirituality of St. Benedict, who in his Rule of St. Benedict set the expectation that monks extend hospitality to others...I am grateful to Homan and Pratt for the depth of their study of hospitality and the accessible way in which they communicate it in Radical Hospitality. At its most basic, hospitality means saying ‘welcome in’—easier to say about your house than about your heart.” —Brian St. Clair, bookreadinglife.com

"A powerful and thought provoking book that can enable the reader to embrace and to grow in the true meaning of love for others. Living the Rule of St Benedict is not easy task for either monastics or those attempting to live it in non monastic settings, however striving to embrace it can be extremely rewarding. Lonni Collins Pratt and Fr Daniel Homan OSB illustrate beautifully through the pages of this book, examples and stories peppered with various aspects of monastic wisdom, how various aspects of radical hospitality linked in with Benedictine teaching can enable our hearts to become more open to others and in turn bring us closer to God. This marvelous book is one that can be read at any pace, it is certainly one that a church or community book group could consider making use of and it is certainly one that could enrich anyone's spiritual reading." -- Donato Tallo, Independent Catholic News