Cead Mile Failte!

 

Céad Míle Fáilte!

 

I suspect it was no accident that I was assigned the blog for today, St. Patrick’s Day. A name doesn’t get more Irish than Eileen O’Connell! Today, I am not writing about Patrick, but one of my favorite expressions from the Emerald Isle, céad míle fáilte! Gaelic in origin, its literal translation is "one hundred thousand welcomes", or "you are welcome, a thousand times, wherever you come from, whosoever you be." 

 

While Benedictines are welcoming guests, this past year has virtually brought that to a grinding halt. We cannot physically welcome our friends, families, strangers, or guests. It has felt like a hospitality desert. Relief will come. I believe that. Welcoming others into our lives has taken many other forms: phone calls, zoom meetings, emails, or outside staying masked and six feet apart. It is a start, but feels, well, more like fifty thousand welcomes, not one hundred thousand. 

 

And I wonder about other times pre-Covid, if my welcomes were only half of what they could have been. Do I really mean it when I say, “Make yourself at home?” What if  guests really took that to heart? Helped themself to whatever was in the fridge? Opened my cabinets? Offended my dogs? Or what if they stayed past their “welcome?” Egads! Perhaps more is meant by a welcome than just being gladly received. Do I put a person at ease? Do they feel safe and understood? Do I really listen? Are my smiles genuine? Benedict said to welcome all guests as Christ. Or to put it biblically, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you (Matt 7:12). Easier some days than others.

 

Tonight, as I eat my Irish soda bread and enjoy an Irish coffee, I will toast my family, my friends, and all who have received me into their lives. The privilege has been mine. And know if we have not met yet, someday you will be welcomed a thousand times, wherever you come from, whosoever you be. Until then, I leave you with this Irish blessing:

 

"Walls for the wind,

And a roof for the rain,

And drinks beside the fire -

Laughter to cheer you

And those you love near you,

And all that your heart may desire!"

Sister Eileen O'Connell