Daily Meditation for November 5, 2025

The bench along the side of the dinner table can always seat one more person. Hospitality says there is room for additions. Guests are welcome. Extra prepared food makes the welcome gracious. This type of hospitality serves as an apt image for Saint Benedict’s urging to run with expanding heart [Rule of Benedict, Prologue 49]. Run with a sense of both relaxed alertness and urgency. Do it now. Develop an athletic heart that can expand to accept “guests.” Receive and respect an opinion you disagree with or a person with whom you sense friction. Open your heart to the green grass after a lavish rain, a neighbor’s pet golden retriever, the intricate design and texture of the bark on a birch tree, the sogginess of a foggy morning. Such expansive engagement with the world can strengthen our hearts and help us know there is room for one more guest on the bench, in our hearts.

By Mary Reuter, OSB