Since I first came as a guest to St. John’s Convent on Botham Road, more the 50 years ago, I experienced a depth of hospitality I had never experienced before, even though I came from a close extended family where we were always welcome in each others’ homes. At the Convent, I discovered a spiritual hospitality. In the simplicity of being welcomed at the Guest Wing door by Sr. Faith or Sr. Beryl or Sr. Anitra – all those beautiful women who seemed to live their lives for the rest of us – I knew a love and care which went beyond family love and loyalty into a place where I could “be still and know” that God was God, that the sisters’ welcome was Jesus’ welcome. When I joined the Sisterhood as a Postulant, years later, and was assigned to help Sr. Nonah in the Guest House, I found myself a host, one of the sisters who shared Jesus’ welcome with others. It was the deepest joy of my religious life to be able to share with guests the perfect love of God through my own imperfect welcome and hospitality. The surprising thing was that when I was a guest, I found myself welcomed into the lives of the sisters. But when I became a sister and a host, I still felt myself being welcomed – now into the lives of our guests, who honored us with their stories, their joys, their pain, and their healing. Who is the host and who is the guest? In Luke’s gospel, he shares the story of Jesus’ meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday afternoon. At first Jesus seems to the disciples to be a stranger who doesn’t know about the crucifixion, much less about the Resurrection. The disciples become his host, inviting him to walk with them and sharing the story of the last few days. Then Jesus becomes the host, the teacher, as he opens the scriptures to them, sharing the true meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection. Soon after that the disciples become the host again, inviting Jesus to stay for supper when they reach their destination. Quickly, however, Jesus changes roles again. He breaks open the bread, as he just broke open the Word on the road, and the disciples finally recognize who he is. The Sisterhood has tried for more than 140 years to share this kind of hospitality. As in the Emmaus story, guests become the host, and as I have learned over and over again in my life as a religious, a priest and a sister, every time I think I am welcoming someone, teaching them, sharing the bread and wine of Christ’s love with them, they are the ones who are welcoming me. When I pray with someone, they always pray for me. When I offer support in their journeys, they always offer their prayers for me own journey. The great miracle of God’s love is that we all are both host and guest, just as Jesus is. Even though our current Guest House has been closed for some time, first due to COVID and then due to renovations, we continue to welcome guests who come to us for day retreats or simply to share worship with us. We long for the time when we can open the Guest House again, so that our ministry of hospitality can be shared with many more. We can see the finish line now, but still a long way off. We have learned that a complete replacement of our heating system is necessary – something we had not anticipated at the beginning of our Guest House renovation. We have learned that it is going to cost us $800,000 and delay the opening of the Guest House until October. We have been able to get as far as we have because of the incredible generosity of you – our guests, volunteers, Associates, Oblates, and friends who helped us raise $4,500,000 over the past two years. You have welcomed us into your hearts with your gifts, and our guests have become our hosts. And now we need to return once again to invite your participation in raising that additional $800,000. We have a lot of details we would be happy to share with any who ask – financial information as well as detail about the physical project itself. There are no words that can describe how deeply grateful we are to you, and please know that any further gift you can spare will help to make the Guest House much more comfortable in the winter. In one of the Iona liturgies for Holy Community, there is this beautiful reference to Jesus as both guest and host, and I trust that it may help you realize how deeply we are all entwined – with one another as well as with Jesus, with our Creator, and with the Holy Spirit: He was always the guest. In the homes of Peter and Jairus, Martha and Mary, Joanna and Susanna, he was always the guest. At the meal tables of the wealthy where he pled the case of the poor, he was always the guest. But here, at this table, he is the host. Those who wish to serve him must first be served by him, those who want to follow him must first be fed by him, those who would wash his feet must first let him make them clean. For this is the table where God intends us to be nourished; this is the time when Christ can make us new. So come, you who hunger and thirst for a deeper faith, for a better life, for a fairer world. Jesus Christ, who has sat at our tables, now invites us to be guests at his. Article written by Sr. Constance Joanna, SSJD. | 
