Lent 13 - words

                                                          

You might have guessed by now but I'm quite a fan of words.  😊

I love it when words surprise me, and this week I've been surprised by two words.

HOSPITAL

and

DISGRACEFUL

Now if I were being really mean I'd set you the challenge to find the link between these two...... but as the link is so obscure it's almost invisible, I will spare you that ordeal  😁

You probably knew this all along, but I only found out last week that the word HOSPITAL comes from the same root as the word HOSPITABLE.   A hospital was, back in the 1400s, a place where travellers and strangers would receive hospitality.  It was a hostel or hotel, usually attached to a monastery where people on pilgrimage could stay, usually free of charge.  If they had any physical needs the monks would do their best to meet those needs.  People were fed and watered and given a bed.   I found all this fascinating - because of course now we don't associate hospitals with hospitality.  They are solely there for healing purposes.  Equally we don't associate hotels with meeting any other need than that of a bed and breakfast.
But back in the day hospitality included looking after people's sore feet, twisted ankles, broken bones, aching teeth, coughs and colds, whatever travellers brought in with them.  And that was church.  In offering hospitality to pilgrims the church was also offering healing.  Over time the healing that monks became skilled in overtook the accommodating and feeding role and became the major part.
I think the church today should still be a place of hospitality where people are welcomed in no matter who they are and their needs are met in every which way possible.  Church should be a hospital in the best sense of that word. 

Words are good aren't they?  😉   

The second word revelation of the week came as I heard my Mum saying to the boys ( we have been staying with Mum in England over St Patrick's weekend)  '  Boys, tidy your bedroom please - it is a disgrace'      For some reason, when she said it, the word DISGRACE suddenly revealed it's meaning to me.  DIS- GRACE.   A state of being without grace.   Im not sure you can attribute the messiness of a teenage boy's room to the presence or absence of grace..... the word has clearly changed its meaning over the centuries.  What we mean when we say something is disgraceful is that it is shocking or terrible or without merit.  I suspect that several hundred years ago something that was a disgrace was something that was outwith the favour of God and man. Or something/one from which God had removed His favour.   So if something was a disgrace back then it was more than just reprehensible - it was something on which God had turned His back.  The worst of all imaginable situations.    The only thing on which God could conceivably turn His back is sin and the devil. The devil being the ultimate disgrace.

The other meaning of dis-grace could be something or someone who is without beauty.  Grace being a word often associated with fairness of face and movement.  In other words something or someone ugly.   Which I suppose is a good definition of sin and the devil.

I wonder how may other of the gazillion words we hear and use every day might have hidden and deeper God meanings?   Maybe we could all be listening out for them this Lent.  If you have any of your own word revelations please do share them. 

And there you have it - the late night musings of a middle aged housewife.  No idea if any of that will be of interest to any of you.  But it's what I was chewing on yesterday.  And Monday I fly home to Ireland and its my 19th wedding anniversary.  So tomorrows blog might be about marriage.   Hold onto your hats.  😧😉