Hospitality

2016-02-01

Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring [people] over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.

From Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, published by Doubleday in 1975.