The word hospitality implies that a high level of generosity and friendliness is extended toward visitors. But for Sister Rita Rathburn, who has embraced the ministries of prayer and hospitality in her retirement, the word means even more. Perhaps in the simplest terms, for Sister Rita, offering hospitality is about extending hope.

Sister Rita answered the call to a ministry of hospitality decades ago, as an essential companion to her ministry of teaching -though she may not have known it at the time. As a teacher, she says she strove to touch the hearts of students and accept their individuality. And while great literature and poetry can help students find meaning in their challenges, sometimes Sister Rita would offer something more; something they really needed: a compassionate, listening ear. "It's about being a patient listener to their joys and sorrows," she explains.

For more than 60 years, Sister Rita was able to extend hospitality and hope to her students and coworkers. These days, she is enjoying retirement, and for the past seven years she has called St. Rose Convent in La Crosse her home. Her thumbprint on education is still felt today, particularly in the women's studies program which she founded at Viterbo University in La Crosse, and through a scholarship and accompanying endowment fund established there in her name.

Though she is retired, the call to hospitality is just as persistent, and her love of literature, just as strong. Living in community, Sister Rita knows the hospitality she extends to other FSPA and community members throughout the challenges of life is important. "It means serving as a confidante, helping people navigate the inevitability of life, and offering person-to-person support."

When she isn't offering person-to-person support, you can find Sister Rita in the Adoration Chapel at St. Rose, holding the very same friends and sisters in quiet contemplation and prayer. It's generosity that goes beyond offering a cup of tea, to offering a wellspring of hope.

Now, as in the past, when she strives to better understand life and to help others do the same, she draws on the messages of hope from the great thinkers and writers, including the words of poet Robert Browning:

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made;

Our times are in his hand

Who saith, 'A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: See all, nor be afraid!"

Sister Rita said she often shared this message when signing students' yearbooks, yet it holds just as true for the challenges of any generation. "It's an invitation to look ahead for the best that may come, for better days," she explains. "God's presence is there every moment, taking care of us and leading us along the path that leads to eternity."