Homeless center thanks Trappists for donation

Friday, Apr. 07, 2017
Homeless center thanks Trappists for donation
IC photo/Marie Mischel
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Trappist Father Casimir Bernas, the retired abbot of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville, carries his lunch through the cafeteria of the Lantern House in Ogden. The mural above him is in honor of the monks, who gave a $400,000 donation to help re-build the former St. Anne's homeless center, a nonprofit organization. Fr. Bernas visited the Lantern House on April 3, to accept thanks and recognition for the monks' donation.
By Marie Mischel
Intermountain Catholic

OGDEN — The 7-foot mural that stretches above the kitchen of Lantern House is a prominent “thank you” to the monks of Huntsville’s Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity. The monks contributed $400,000 for the construction of the homeless shelter, a nonprofit that was known as St. Anne’s Center before the new facility was built in 2015.
The mural shows a background of golden wheat with a quote from the sixth-century Rule of St. Benedict: “In the reception of strangers and pilgrims, every care, solicitude and courtesy should be shown, because it is especially in them that Christ is received … for he is going to say, ‘I was a stranger and you made me welcome.’” (Mt 25:35) 
The monks gave the donation during the fundraising campaign for the new center, which began in 2011. The mural was installed late last year. On April 3, Trappist Father Casimir Bernas, the retired abbot of the monastery, dined in the homeless center’s cafeteria with members of the Lantern House’s board of directors, who thanked him for the donation.
The Lantern House has dormitories for men and women, and 14 separate quarters for families. The cafeteria serves 400 to 500 meals a day, according to the organization’s website. In Weber County in 2015, 236 people were homeless; of those, 67 were families with children, according to the 2015 annualized homeless estimate published by the state. 
The nonprofit Lantern House receives some state and federal funds, but more than half their budget comes from donations from corporations, foundations and private individuals, according to the organization’s website. 
“This facility right here brings a little bit of light into their lives and gives them an opportunity to renew or rebuild life skills,” James Ebert, a Lantern House board member and Weber County commissioner, said in an interview. He added that many times when people think of the homeless, “We don’t think of children, we don’t think of single moms, or families, and that’s a large part of this community that many people don’t see.” 
The monastery has donated to various community efforts since it was founded in 1947, Fr. Casimir said. The funds came from the sale of bread that the monks baked, honey from their beehives, the dairy, beef cattle and chicken that they raised.
Now, with only seven monks in residence, “We’re in the process of closing, almost surely by the end of the year,” he said. 
The closure of the monastery has been anticipated for several years; the property on which it sits was sold in 2015 to a developer. 
Trappists understand the monastic life as providing “an environment of constant prayer ... so that everything you do – your work, your daily routine – is in some way a reminder of the divine,” he said.
Even work is important, he added, because it contributes to the wellbeing of the community, which for the Huntsville monastery has meant giving financial help to organizations such as the Lantern House. 
The monastery learned that funds were needed the new facility through Allan and Kay Lipman, the chairpersons for the capital campaign, Fr. Casimir said.
Many of the donors specified where their funds should be used; for example, 13 of the Lantern House’s family rooms are named for those who contributed to their construction. The monks made no such stipulation, Kay Lipman said, but “we wanted to thank them by putting their name on something,” so the board members decided on the mural in the cafeteria, where it will be seen every day by the Lantern House clients. 
“Maybe they’ll say a little prayer,” she said.

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