Welcoming visitors, parishes show hospitality isn't a dying art

Published: 2006-01-30

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Churches are no exception to that rule. How members treat visitors often determines whether the visitors return to worship. But as parishes grow larger and people lead busier lives, is hospitality dying? In the Gospels, Jesus welcomed everyone into his fold. As an evangelizing people charged with making Jesus Christ known and loved, Catholics are called to do the same, according to Father Joel Cycenas, pastor at Holy Spirit in St. Paul. "If I'm able to welcome people, it opens my heart up to God as well," he said. The Second Vatican Council deepened the understanding of parishes as "Gospel communities," Carrie Kemp writes in "Catholics Can Come Home Again: A Guide for the Journey of Reconciliation With Inactive Catholics." "When the church was perceived solely as the means to salvation, very little attention was addressed to this welcoming concept of hospitality," Kemp writes. "People who identify themselves as a eucharistic people really haven't a choice when it comes to welcoming and hospitality. We are the body of Christ. How can we do less than open our hearts to Jesus in others?"

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