(34) Francis Jean

"In this culture, is it possible to recover the gentle art of hospitality?
Is there a way to enliven it, a way to recreate it so that personal safety
is not at risk, but still the stranger is welcomed and honored?"
[Fr. Daniel Homan, O.S.B., and Loni Collins Prat, RADICAL
HOSPITALITY: BENEDICT'S WAY OF LOVE, Paraclete Press, 2002,
p. 15.]

Comment: Fr. Daniel has served as the prior of a Benedictine
monastery in Michigan, and Lonni Prat is a journalist who lives in
Michigan. Both lead retreats and workshops.

As for radical hospitality, I fully understand the question above
when it refers to a "personal safety" that might be involved. Years
ago when I lived on the East Coast I had a close friend, probably
close to 20 years older than me. She was a Benedictine Oblate
and we shared a lot, whether ideas, whether events, etc. Francis
Jean was a little bird of a woman, seeming always frail in some
way. But her eyes were luminous, her mind exciting. And upon
occasion, as we walked in different parts of the city we would
predictably encounter the homeless.

Me? Well I oft falter in many ways--and one is encountering
homeless men, who seem to threaten. They usually are begging;
and I have to say it straight, but sometimes they get in your face
and make demands. That kind of behavior frightens me, and I
usually have tried to avoid such situations.

But Francis Jean never budged. Rather she would pull out some
money from her pocketbook and hand it to the homeless beggar.
Maybe the lady was a saint, because the recipient somehow
changed his countenance, somehow understanding that what she
was doing was very special. I witnessed this situation many times
and always walked away incredulous.

Francis Jean is now long gone, but she had to be one of the most
beautiful Benedictine souls I ever knew. In today's world, being civil,
being hospitable might not really be very easy. But my good friend
just instinctively reacted, practicing one of the great traits of the
Benedictine Tradition. She had honed her soul in such a way
that her nature had become Benedictine without ever preaching,
but rather just doing.