“But first I want you to tell me this: do you know the power of love? Christ passed over all the marvelous works which were to be performed by the apostles and said, ‘By this shall men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’” --St John Chrysostom
The idea of hospitality has challenged me over the past few weeks and seems to have culminated in the latest Vesper and Liturgical Gospel readings both regarding how we treat one another, and how we rely on the Holy Spirit to work in us, God to provide for us, and Christ to show us the way to be holier hosts (Luke 14:7-15, Luke 9:10-17).
A word often used for hospitality in the New Testament, philoxenia, combines the idea of loving as if you would love someone bound to you by blood or faith (philo) and applies it to a stranger (xenos).
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