{"id":40801,"date":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ancient-monasteries-practiced-radical-hospitality\/"},"modified":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","slug":"ancient-monasteries-practiced-radical-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ancient-monasteries-practiced-radical-hospitality\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Monasteries Practiced Radical Hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Rule of St. Benedict, written by Saint Benedict of Nursia 1,500 years ago, has instructions for a very specific role in the monastery&mdash;the porter in charge of answering the door. The porter&#39;s job is to open the door to the monastery when someone knocks. Not much of a role, you say? Ah, but there&#39;s so much to it. One contemporary Benedictine author notes, &quot;The way we answer doors is the way we deal with the world.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The porter is given very specific instructions. He is to sleep near the entrance to the monastery so he can hear and respond in a timely way when someone knocks. The porter is to offer a welcome, in Benedict&#39;s words, &quot;with all the gentleness that comes from reverence of God,&quot; and &quot;with the warmth of love.&quot; As soon as anyone knocks, the porter is to reply, &quot;Thanks be to God. Your blessing, please.&quot; He is to say this before he even knows who&#39;s on the other side of the door. And then the porter is to make sure that the other monks know of the presence of a visitor in their midst so that they can join in extending a welcome.<\/p>\n\n<p>In contrast, the 20th century writer Dorothy Parker used to answer her telephone with this greeting: &quot;What fresh hell is this?&quot; How do you respond when someone knocks on the door of your church or home or life? Is it closer to &quot;What fresh hell is this?&quot; or &quot;Thanks be to God&quot;?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3511,3593,3601,3645,3961,3982,4108,4170,4172,4321,4403],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40801","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-christian-love","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-community-impact","tax_ctp_tags-family-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship","tax_ctp_tags-guests","tax_ctp_tags-hospitality","tax_ctp_tags-house-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-kindness","tax_ctp_tags-loving-others"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ancient Monasteries Practiced Radical Hospitality - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ancient-monasteries-practiced-radical-hospitality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ancient Monasteries Practiced Radical Hospitality - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Rule of St. Benedict, written by Saint Benedict of Nursia 1,500 years ago, has instructions for a very specific role in the monastery&mdash;the porter in charge of answering the door. 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