In a September 15 address to the Fifth International Congress of Benedictine Oblates, Pope Francis recalled that St. Benedict, in his Rule, says that Benedictines should seek to have a “heart expanded by the unspeakable sweetness of love.”
The Pope went on to say that the heart is enlarged, in Benedictine spirituality, by “the search for God, enthusiasm for the Gospel, and hospitality.” In speaking of hospitality, he said that “even a Christian culture, one of the ways of closing ourselves off from others is through gossip.”