Hospitality The Sacred Art or Sticks and Stones

Hospitality-The Sacred Art: Discovering the Hidden Power of Invitation and Welcome

Author: Nanette Sawyer

"The practice of deep hospitality can help us step into a more vital, vibrant embrace of this great adventure we call life-which includes our relationship with God, however you might define God. ... It is an invitation to walk through life with a liberating posture of receptivity, reverence, and generosity."

We may think of hospitality as merely being polite to guests, but the ancients understood the profound potential hospitality holds for building and transforming lasting relationships-for binding families together, making strangers into friends, even turning enemies into neighbors. This practical book provides you with the tools you need to cultivate the spiritual power of invitation and welcome in your life. Guided by Rev. Nanette Sawyer, you will discover the qualities of hospitality-receptivity, reverence, and generosity-and how these qualities can significantly deepen your self-understanding as well as your relationships with others and with God. Drawing from sacred texts and spiritual practitioners from all faiths, this book also addresses the major stumbling blocks that prevent you from becoming truly hospitable.

Publishers Weekly

In the insightful latest installment of the Art of Spiritual Living series, Presbyterian pastor Sawyer suggests that practicing hospitality can be "transformative." Sawyer's notion of her subject is capacious: though she writes about extending hospitality to grandparents, neighbors and friends, she is also interested in hospitable relationships with God, oneself and even with creation. Ultimately, she calls for readers to do more than simply have people over for a meal (though sharing food is one hospitable practice she encourages); rather, she wants people to invite others into deep, real relationships. Thus, intentionality and attentiveness underpin her conception of hospitality. We should pay attention to "what is really going on inside of us" and listen carefully when in conversation with other people. Sawyer moves from the theoretical and theological ("hospitality to God is circular . . . because when we welcome God we find that we ourselves are deeply welcomed into God") to the practical (centering prayer can foster a hospitable relationship with God; making museum or picnic dates with yourself is a way to practice hospitality to self). She writes with a deeply ecumenical bent, drawing on Thich Nhat Hahn, Swami Anantananda, Gandhi and Lao Tsu. This small book will be a blessing to many people. (Feb.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Table of Contents:

Foreword     ix
Introduction: Hospitality as Transformation     1
Hospitality to God: Welcoming God's Welcome     10
Hospitality to Self: Inviting the Authentic Self     30
Hospitality to Family: Offering Full Presence to Those Closest to Us     52
Hospitality to Neighbors: Becoming the Merciful Neighbor     72
Hospitality to Strangers: Pursuing Kinship Rather than Estrangement     94
Hospitality to Enemies: Extending Generosity through Non-Retaliation     118
Hospitality to Creation: Knowing Creation Relationally     142
Acknowledgments     167
Notes     169
Suggestions for Further Reading     176
Index of Exercises and Practices     180

See also: El Guía de Supervivencia del Gerente de Enfermera:Respuestas Prácticas a Problemas Diarios

Sticks and Stones (Game and Fish Mastery Library Series): The Art of Grilling on Plank, Vine and Stone

Author: Ted Reader

Cooking over an open fire imbues plain food with rich, smoky flavor. Modern barbecues and ovens have not been able to transform foods in quite the same way...until now. With Sticks and Stones, Ted Reader and Kathleen Sloan bring the exotic flavors of wood-fire cooking back to us, on the barbecue or in the oven.

The process is so easy: take a piece of untreated, aromatic wood, soak it, pop it on a hot grill, put the food on top and wait for the magic to happen. Master this, and a whole new world of cooking-not just on wood, but stone and vine too-opens up to you.

Our Game and Fish Mastery Library is enriched by the addition of Sticks and Stones; the cooking techniques it showcases derive from original methods used by Pacific Northwest Natives when fish and game were essentially the only foods available, and were treated with the utmost respect. Once you've tasted planked salmon, you may never prepare it any other way!