Are You Practicing Hospitality?

Elizabeth Reardon examines the ways God calls us to practice hospitality — and not just at holidays.

Whether you want to consider it a subset of charity or joy, there is no getting around scripturally the essentialness of hospitality. And still, we may often do our best to avoid going the extra mile or do so with a grumbling spirit inside. Maybe we are overextended already, or maybe we know it’s the right thing to do but are holding back our charity for a particular reason. Regardless, we see time and time again throughout the Bible God’s call to a more intentional and meaningful practice of hospitality.

Hospitality as a Practice

As we approach Easter, I am reminded of just how often I find myself at the forefront of hosting a luncheon where the guest list and location is changing by the minute. This past Christmas was no exception, but interiorly something was different. The details to be completed seemed endless and normally I would’ve had more help. While on the outside, I seemed to handle it all in stride, inside I was frustrated and anything but hospitable. Would I have enough food? Would it fit everyone’s needs? These were just some of the questions that rolled around in my head and heart in the days preceding.

While in conversation at the luncheon, I pulled up the Word of the Year Generator by Jen Fulweiler and to my surprise, my word was hospitality. I smiled and gestured at the spread of food and tables as if I had already mastered the quality. Yet, inside, I knew that my grumbling spirit was requiring prayer to match my outer acts of charity. In doing so, God reminds us of the quality of inner intentionality when seeking to practice hospitality. As I stood there that day to my delight, God had worked it all out. Much like the 5 loaves and two fish, there was enough for the guests to even have seconds and all left satisfied.

Yet now it was time to prayerfully invite God to work within me, to reveal the ways I needed to have a greater love for serving others without assistance or repayment. The next morning, I resolved to go to confession if I had the opportunity and, in working for a church, the odds were definitely in my favor. What I did not expect that day was God’s added generous outpouring of hospitality by way of an unexpected gift.

A Glimpse of God’s Hospitality

As I sat at my desk, and keeping an eye out for the hopeful arrival of the parochial vicar, my phone rang. “I was wondering if you might could use my help in decorating the indoor trees at the churches this year?” She was certainly a talented decorator and had lent her help to decorate the trees of some of the most beautiful mansions in Newport.

“Yes, of course, we would love your help if you are available!”

As she spoke of her ideas to add beauty and warmth to each tree I was reminded of a simple crystal ornament that my husband and I had acquired one year at the mansions. It was the year that my husband was activated to be deployed to Afghanistan and was to be our ornament for that Christmas should he not be able to come home for the holidays. Unfortunately, as I had told her, it had broken a few years prior, but it would hold a special place in my heart. As we said our goodbyes, I thanked God for the memory and for bringing my husband home safely.

Sure enough, not long after, I heard the cheery voice of the priest down the hall and jumping up asked if he had a moment. “Yes, happy to, would you want to meet me downstairs in a few minutes?” Quickly I gathered myself and made my way down to the small living room. As I did, I noticed that there was a small package in my mailbox.

Since I had a minute to spare, I opened the box only to discover the ornament that had been broken now lay before me perfect and new. After reconciliation, I could not wait to share with the priest the additional unexpected gift that God had given me that day. “Look, he joyfully exclaimed, it has been made new ... just like you!”

The Heart of Christ

Hospitality is at its root to desire the very heart of Christ. It is a reminder that the person in front of you is loved and graciously invited into His heart too. Perhaps you feel that you are lacking in hospitality today. Just remember our Lord’s encouragement for you to borrow from His. It is given freely and He gives it to all who ask.

Oh, and if you might be wondering what was the ornament that was given? Nothing else but a crystal pineapple, the internationally known symbol of hospitality.

A Few Scripture Passages on Hospitality:

• 1 Peter 4:9: "Be hospitable to one another without complaining."
• Hebrews 13:2: "Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. "
• Romans 12:13: "Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality"
• Luke 14:12-14: Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
• Titus 1:7-8: "As God’s steward (you) must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled."

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Copyright 2026 Elizabeth Reardon
Images: Canva