I like to use the word hospitality, not only because it has such deep roots in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, but, also, and primarily, because it gives us more insight into the nature of response to the human condition of loneliness. Hospitality is the virtue which allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears and to open our houses to the stranger, with the intuition that salvation comes to us in the form of a tired traveller. Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes close-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights.

Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Dance of Life by Henri J. M. Nouwen, Michael Ford