CHAPTER 53 of the Rule

"Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, "I came as a guest, and you received Me" (Matt. 25:35). And to all let due honor be shown,especially to the domestics of the faith and to pilgrims."

Before I'd read the selection of the Rule of Benedict assigned to today, I'd already had my walking tour of the center of Dublin. On a sunny day, much warmer than I had any reason to hope, I hopped a train from the airport into the city. What caught my attenion all along the way, and then in the city proper was the way the Irish decorate their front doors in a way that shouts both welcome and invitation.

Most homes along my route were what we'd call a brick Georgian style; a square box shape, usually two stories, with a door flat against the front of the house. I began to notice right away that many folks had painted their door a bright primary red, yellow or blue with a white trim. Whether or not the door was painted, others had hung long trailing petunia planters-lush in all their pink and purple glory on either side of their door. While stopped at a red light along the way, I was amused to see that an attorney had come out of his office (in his suit and tie) and was trimming the brown bits from the hanging planters which graced his office entry.

By then, I'd added to my attention those folks who'd built a little roof, or a clear glass entry way-the shape of a bay window-over and around their door to keep people dry as they approached. I'm sure both are very welcome in a country that gets more than 150 days of rain each year. And though I didn't approach to see if I'd be welcome... it felt like I would and it made me smile.

With thoughts of these graced doors still clear in my mind, when I arrived back at my hotel I opened the reading from THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT, that appears in my email each day. And though Benedict never visited the Emerald Isle, I found that they practice in a most charming way his admonition of welcome to strangers and pilgrims. Though I've read this part of the Rule dozens of times before...today it made me smile in a new way and was again confirmed in my soul as a way pleasing to God.

In my meditation on this reading, I wondered about the welcome without words my home extends. And more personally, do people who approach me feel welcomed into my presence? Are there ways that I can do a better job of extending a reception to people around me? Or, who are the strangers and pilgrims I can be more intentional to include?

When I get home, I'm going to take a good hard look at that door to see if I can't do something to help people experience grace even as they approach. But I don't have to wait to get home to be gracious to strangers and pilgrims. They are all around me, even now. BLESSINGS AND JOY, KATHLEEN BRONAGH

P.S. Don't forget to join me for prayer on the webcam of Holy Cross Monastery, Rostrevor County Down, on Saturday and Sunday. (Noon and 3:30 Eastern Daylight Savings Time)