Drawing on a wide range of sources, this text explores the practice and perception of monastic hospitality in England c. 1070-c.1250, an important and illuminating time in a European and an Anglo-Norman context.

Interreligious Hospitality is an enlightening account of one Catholic monk's search for God through dialogue with another religious tradition. Interreligious dialogue will sometimes involve discussions about doctrine, sometimes promote joint action for the common good. But ultimately it is about hospitality: accepting the invitation of others to experience their spiritual practices and welcoming others to experience ours. Pierre de Bethune's engaging description of learning the way of tea" and of living in a Japanese Zen monastery, along with his probing reflections on the meaning of those experiences, shows how the dialogue of religious experience can lead Christians to a deepened faith and a more intense and rewarding spiritual life. Pierre-François de Bethune, OSB, served as Secretary General of al the regional commissions of Dialogue Interreligious Monastique/Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIM/MID) from 1992 to 2007 and continues as editor of the International Bulletin. He is a monk of the monastery of Saint-Andre de Clerlande in Belgium. His previous books include By Faith and Hospitality: The Monastic Tradition as a Model for Interreligious Encounter. "

This book deals with the issue of how travel and tourism, if developed in a proper form, can contribute to human transformation, growth and development, and change human behaviour and our relationship with the world. The volume investigates the experiences offered by travel and tourism that can change travellers as human beings and their relationships and interactions with natural, socio-cultural, economic, political and technological environments. The book has been published in two volumes. This first volume focuses on the tourist perspective and the tourist self. It consists of 16 chapters covering different types of tourism, including: wellness, retreat, religious and spiritual tourism; extreme sports, backpacking and cultural tourism; WWOOFing and ecotourism; and volunteer and educational tourism. This book is primarily intended for tourism students and tourism programmes in business and non-business schools. However, it could also appeal to students, academics and professionals from disciplines that deal with human development and behavioural changes.

Commitment to a life of prayer and community can prove to be a great help for those involved in politics. Rather than being distracted away from action, Evan B. Howard argues that committed Christians often find both freedom and empowerment to contribute to the greater good of the world. A review of the history of committed Christian life (monasticism) shows that devout communities have engaged in a wide range of socio-political arenas. We can explore today what nuns and monks have accomplished in the past. We can speak into political conversations. We can care for those in need. We can model new ways of ordering life together. We can take concrete political action in governmental process. We can pray. This book blends examination of history with musings about the Christian life and politics generally. It also offers a collection of monastic practices to equip communities and individuals to embody an appropriate blend of “deep” and “wide” for themselves.

There is nothing more central to the publishing mission of Paraclete Press than Christian hospitality. This book of monastic wisdom, practices, and reflection should inspire you to find new ways to respond to the world around you. Chapters include: Welcoming the stranger The realness of caring for people Food and table Opening your heart

The activist, nun, and esteemed spiritual voice who has twice appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday sounds the call to create a monastery within ourselves—to cultivate wisdom and resilience so that we may join God in the work of renewal, restoration, and justice right where we are. “Essential reading for anyone wishing to find the compass of their heart and the wellspring from which to live fully.”—Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries and New York Times bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart “In every beating heart is a silent undercurrent that calls each of us to a place unknown, to the vision of a wiser life, to become what I feel I must be—but cannot name.” So begins Sister Joan Chittister’s words on monasticism, offering a way of living and seeing life that brings deep human satisfaction. Amid the astounding disruptions of normalcy that have unfolded in our world, Sister Joan calls all of us to cultivate the spiritual seeker within, however that may look across our diverse journeys: “We can depend only on the depth of the spiritual well in us. The well is the only thing that can save us from the fear of our own frailty.” This book carries the weight and wisdom of the monastic spiritual tradition into the twenty-first century. Sister Joan leans into Saint Benedict, who, as a young man in the sixth century, sought moral integrity in the face of an empire not by conquering or overpowering the empire but by simply living an ordinary life extraordinarily well. This same monastic mindset can help us grow in wisdom, equanimity, and strength of soul as we seek restoration and renewal both at home and in the world. At a time when people around the world are bearing witness to human frailty—and, simultaneously, the endurance of the human spirit—The Monastic Heart invites readers of all walks to welcome this end of certainty and embrace a new beginning of our faith. Without stepping foot in a monastery, we can become, like those before us, a deeper, freer self, a richer soul—and, as a result, a true monastic, so “that in all things God may be glorified.”

This volume is the first to examine the commercial home from an international perspective, paying attention to the frequently occurring but often neglected forms of commercial accommodation including farmstays, historic houses, and self-catering accommodation. Conceptually, it helps to explain a range of behaviours and practices, for example the importance of setting and the nature of the host/guest exchange. The idea of home provides a conceptual bridge to related themes, for example identity, gender, emotional management and cultural mobilities whose investigation in a commercial home context offers fascinating insights into hospitality, tourism and society. This book is structured around three themes. The first is dimensions of the commercial home and includes discussion of issues pertaining to forms and characteristics and female entrepreneurship. The second theme considers the commercial home as an investigative lens to examine wider issues of society, hospitality and tourism such as the commercial home as a tool for rural economic development. The third theme, extending the commercial home paradigm, looks at new areas of development, including the Malaysian Muslim home as a site for economic and political action and the use of the home in marketing regional localities. Commercial Homes in Tourism is the first book to give recognition to this distinct, economically important and expanding form of tourism business by bringing together recent, international research on this common form of commercial tourism accommodation. Given the global nature of the commercial home phenomenon, and owing to the originality of its theoretical contributions and practical insights, this book will be of interest across a broad range of subjects and disciplines interested in the examination of the home phenomenon, including students, academics and business practitioners.