" 'Contribute to the needs of the saints,' writes St. Paul, 'extend hospitality to strangers' (Romans 12:13). This desire to extend hospitality has continued to inspire many small Christian communities, including, for example, Jean Vanier's L'Arche communities and the Catholic Worker Houses founded by Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day, to name but two examples. The goodness and beauty of hospitality remains a difficulty for us, and often requires us to form bonds with others whose communal commitments are marginal to prevailing understandings of power, stratus and possessions. 'Welcome is one of the signs that a community is alive,' writes Jean Vanier.
" 'To invite others, whether strangers or visitors, is a sign that we are not afraid, that we have a treasure of truth and of peace to share. If a community is closing its doors, that is a sign that hearts are closing as well . . . a community which refuses welcome — whether through fear, weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is fed up — is dying spiritually.' "
