Hospitality

PHOENIX -- Football fans struggling to find a place to stay for the Super Bowl may not be entirely out of luck: there are still beds available at the local monastery.

The Benedictine nuns of Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in Phoenix are renting out rooms during Super Bowl week for $250 a night, plus $50 extra for each additional person. That's not an unreasonable fee, considering a nearby Super 8 Motel is charging $500 a night.

"It's a different twist for us in the sense that we've never opened the monastery for an event like the Super Bowl," said Sister Linda of the Benedictine Sisters of Phoenix. "It's just a different clientele than we're accustomed to."

The nuns said they plan to use the money to pay for some property they purchased adjacent to the monastery.

Though the sisters won't impose a curfew, lodgers at the monastery will have to abide by a few rules: no smoking, no rowdy behavior and most importantly, no alcohol.

Super Bowl fans will have to have their crazy fun elsewhere, but at least confession is conveniently located.

"I would think that God's got to be excited about the Super Bowl as well," Sister Linda said. "He wants people to enjoy life."

This makes sense since the rule of St. Benedict Chapter 53 says:

Let all Super Bowl fans who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: "I was a stranger and you took Me in" (Mt 25:35). And let due honor be shown to all, especially to those fans of the opposing team to the one you like.

Let the kitchen of the Abbot and the guests be apart, that the brethren may not be disturbed by the guests who arrive at uncertain times because of Super Bowl parties and who are never wanting in the monastery. Let two brothers who are able to fulfill this office well go into the kitchen for a year to be able to provide the guests with appropriate snacks such as Buffalo Wings and a tray of cold cuts and cheeses.