My name is Dr. Robert Buder and as a doctor I am well aware that professional competence is the indispensable premise for anyone who works in a hospital, whatever the immediate context he or she works in. But to practice and experience Hospitality in one’s field doubtlessly represents an added bonus.

The daily commitment of any health worker, even back in the days of Saint John of God consisted in a great deal of routine and various obligations. It is made up of a variety of little gestures and small actions that seem to be obvious but which aren’t obvious at all. See the patient first, and only afterwards see his illness; be gentle, and read in the person’s eyes his or her need for help; treat the patient as an equal. These all seem to be little things, obvious things, but when they are taken all together they determine the atmosphere that reigns inside a hospital.

The wonderful thing is that all of this generally occurs in our hospitals in a totally spontaneous way: in other words, devotion to the patient is almost instinctive.  We take care of him or her, we take him on as a commitment. Hospitality for us means being aware at every moment that the patient is being followed by a human being, not by an anonymous institution. Hospitality is always an encounter between two people, each with his or her own uniqueness.

And the final result, as the Constitutions of the Fatebenefratelli Order tell us, is always a dual result. “In communion with those who suffer, in awareness that our merciful love for them is never a one-sided action, for when we serve the sick we too always benefit; the fruitfulness of our apostolate is increased in the measure in which we try to establish a relationship of mutual love with the people we help.”