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Chapter 56 – The Abbot’s Table

The abbot’s role is that of a loving father, a servant leader, an icon of hospitality and way of living that inspires the community to grow more and more into the image of Christ. This image of the abbot is the backdrop of the description of the abbot’s table. While some may view a table set apart for the superior of the community, that is not the place described in this chapter. 

The abbot’s table is a place of perpetual hospitality, filled with guests and travelers. A place where visitors are made to fill welcomed as Christ (RB 53). Unlike contemporary benevolence programs, the Benedictine community provides more than food, clothes, and shelter to those who need a helping hand. Benedictine hospitality provides comfort and care, conversation and respect. Satisfying the need to be seen, heard, and valued are the most rudimentary needs yearning to be fulfilled.

Each of us do well in imitating the abbot’s compassion as hospitable servants of Christ who invite others to dine with us, to listen to them, and value them as Christ. “For I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matthew 25:35).

Danny Nobles

email: dan@christmission.us. I grew up in rural Alabama, the youngest of six boys. Inheriting values of faith and service to others from my parents. Connie and I met in Kansas. We married and raised two daughters. Today, 43 years later, we live in North Carolina and enjoy 7 grandchildren. Retired from the Army, I entered seminary and earned a PhD, studying the stresses faced by Christian leaders and ways of promoting their wellbeing. Seeking a different path of spiritual growth, I discovered the Order of St. Benedict, and found a community of faithful disciples who seek to be with our Lord more than trying to do Christianity. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? As I learned to pray contemplatively, it was as if my second lung began to breath. My life became less hectic and my soul found peace. To me, monastic spirituality is being with God in community. As we serve others, we realize that God is serving through us. My advice to others - seek to be with God rather than insisting on doing for God. As He fills you with Himself, He will do mighty things around (and sometimes through) you.