Love Mischief Hospitality

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The poet Hafiz talks to God in great intimate poetry.  One of my favorite questions of his goes something like: God, what love mischief will we get into today?

Remember picnics in your back yard growing up or neighborhood friends walking in and out of your house being welcomed by your parents? Wow! Didn’t they teach us a lot about hospitality.  My dad used to say, “tack up a piece of salami and you’re ready for a get-together.”  That’s still true with our Penn Community in Atlanta.  More often than not we have more than our community of six at our table and for prayer.  Somehow, people keep coming to visit. Of course after 20 plus years of having volunteers in our community, we have a lot of alumni to embrace and be embraced.  Hospitality can even be a time of courage?  We don’t ask folks if they have legal papers when they join us or when we give them a ride.  In Georgia, this kind of hospitality could lead to arrest. Now that’s love mischief.

What love mischief will we do today for the sake of the Gospel?
Patty Caraher, OP
Atlanta, Georgia

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