Project Hospitality’s new blog, “The Time of No Room” – whose name borrows a phrase from 20th Century visionary, Thomas Merton – will tell the stories of the most vulnerable among us. We hope it will serve as a call for hospitality, for compassion, and for action. May these words inspire us to share our precious time, to embrace without judgment, and to do the work of community building toward a better Staten Island, New York, and, indeed, a better world.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a student of theology, an American Catholic, a Trappist monk, a prolific writer,a captivating speaker and a world traveler — a mystic who embraced diverse spiritual traditions, questing for meaning and transcendence beyond the monastic walls.
Merton drew inspiration from the raw spaces of nature as well as the din of human creation.
He had a vision of dignity of all, of social justice and of civil rights. He understood that no matter where we are in time and space, we encounter the sacred.
His essay, “The Time of the End is the Time of No Room,” urges us to appreciate the divinity in every moment, and reminds us to avow the dignity of every person — especially the marginalized, the shucked-off, and those deemed insignificant. These are souls as mighty, and bodies as innocent, as that of newborn Christ, who, as it is told, arrived in the world in a pile of hay after Mary and Joseph were informed there was “no room” at the inn.
“Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, and yet He must be in it, His place is with those others for whom there is no room,” Merton wrote.
In the piece, written as a Christmas essay in 1965, Merton is prescient in his musings about the sacredness of time. No truer are his words than today, as we spend our hours grappling with the trappings of technology, and its capacity to foster inattention.
“Hence the great joy is announced in the silence, in the loneliness and darkness to shepherds. We live in a time of no room. The time when everyone is obsessed with lack of time, lack of space, saving time and conquering space…”
With the Project Hospitality blog, “The Time of No Room,” we hope to use technology to unite us in time, and to come together in one room.
Project Hospitality strives to create that space where all are welcome.
Our Vision Statement, from Father Henri Nouwen reads:
Henri Nouwen
“Hospitality is the creation of free space, where the stranger can meet and become friend. Hospitality does not change people, it creates the space where change can take place.”
Our 30 programs feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, offer hope to the addicted, solace to the ailing, and give a loving hand to those who work tirelessly to make ends meet, but still somehow land outside comfort’s reach.
This blog will serve to remind us of those for whom others may say there is no room. The 38,000 people a year who seek out Project Hospitality will always have space here, with us. They will be seen, heard, and served. Thank you for sharing your time.