Radical Hospitality

5”x 7”

2022

Hand carved on linoleum block and hand printed, commissioned as the program cover for the wedding to two dear friends.

This piece was created to celebrate the wedding of two friends, during the season of advent. They are both so hospitable, and wanted to portray their union as an extension of their table. Breaking bread with new folks and old, sharing mugs of tea and cheeseboards: hospitality is always enough. An Irish proverb quoted in the book “In the Shelter” by Pádraig Ó Tuama states that “it is in the shelter of each other that people live.” You never grow old around a table - and the table will be wide.

The quote, “your labor is your contribution to the miracle,” was a quote one of them found on a bathroom wall once, and to them it signifies the beautiful labor that marriage is, the tiny everyday works that contribute to making miracles possible. The Gospel at their wedding was the feeding of the 5,000, and the presider explained how the story only mentioned 5,000 men, not any women or children. The work of those women’s hands, preparing bread and weaving baskets, made possible the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. We see the miracles of Jesus as amazing and effortless and spontaneous; yet another way to look deeper at these things that appear effortless and miraculous from the outside, is that a lot of of hard, joyful, and humble work goes into them. Our ordinary work contributes to everyday miracles.