Hospitality: The Work of the Catholic Home, by Emily Malloy 

Emily Malloy is the food and floral design editor for TheologyofHome.com. Her book, Theology of Home IV: Arranging the Seasons, came out in fall 2023. She and her husband live in Mississippi with their four children.

Laughter and music filled every inch of our house the weekend we moved in. It was a gathering for visiting missionaries during their two-week door-to-door ministry. The delightful sounds arose from 60 people, both parishioners and religious: the Sister Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará and seminarians from the Institute of the Incarnate Word. Prayer, song, food and friendship marked the evening. I am hard-pressed to conceive of a better way to have spent the first weekend in our new home. In retrospect, St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans comes to mind: “Contribute to the needs of the holy ones; exercise hospitality” (Romans 12:13). That night made a lasting impression of the home’s ability to foster Catholic culture. It is the work of the Catholic home to be a credible witness of faith in service of the Church through hospitality.

The word “hospitality” has its etymological beginnings in the Middle Ages, from the Latin hospitalitem (meaning “friendliness to guests”). This “friendliness” is evident throughout salvation history and especially within the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. Jesus’ ministry often depended upon the hospitality of others. ….