A Strong Ministry Continues

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By Brother Gregory

 

Back in 1983, a group of chapel community members at New Skete felt very strongly about the monastic witness lived by the monks and nuns of New Skete. These married couples wanted to join in a closer relationship with the monks and nuns as a third monastic community, and they became known as the Companions of New Skete. With their financial resources and the help of the monks and nuns, Emmaus House was built on the property of the monks’ monastery. For the next 30 years, the Companions at Emmaus House added their voices and zeal to the witness of New Skete as a monastic presence in America. The Companions helped in many ways with the hard work needed to keep New Skete alive. They painted icons, trained dogs in the Adult Dog Training Program, made dog biscuits, added their singing voices to the daily monastic services, offered hospitality to guests visiting New Skete, and gave in so many other ways that the Companions developed their own ministry identity.

One special gift that the Companions offered at Emmaus House was the gift of hospitality to those wanting to visit New Skete, to rest and renew their relationship with God and New Skete. Over the years, some Companions stayed and some left, but this made no difference because Emmaus House was built on the hard work of all the Companions no matter how short or long they stayed as Companions at Emmaus House.

In time, the winter months took a toll on the last two Companions, Br Stephen and Sr Melanie, and they decided in 2014 to leave Emmaus House and find housing that was closer to medical resources around the Albany, New York, area. The Emmaus House property was placed under the monks’ care. This was not the end of the ministry at Emmaus House but just another turn in the continued ministry of hospitality that had been offered by the Companions since 1983. In 2013 the original building built by the monks, which later became the monks’ guest house, was torn down to make room for the new Maurice Sendak Dog Training Center. Emmaus House, along with the surrounding property, was now the answer to the need for a space to accommodate the guests who had increased in numbers over the years. Guests coming to New Skete for the first time, anticipating sparse monastic guest rooms, are surprised to see and enjoy the suite guest rooms—each with bedroom, sitting room, and private bathroom—thanks to the Companions of Emmaus House.

Last year, in July 2022, the monks temporarily closed Emmaus House to guests because the cloister (bedroom area of the monks’ monastery) badly needed some renovations. The monks moved into Emmaus House, and so did seven dogs. In some bedrooms the wall-to-wall carpeting took a bad beating from the canine residents, so it was decided that at the end of June of this year, Emmaus House will be professionally cleaned. As the guest brother for the monks I have received numerous emails asking when Emmaus House will open back up to receive guests. We hope that the professional cleaning will go well and the hospitality ministry started by the Companions at Emmaus House will resume after July 5.

Thanks to Sr Melanie, the last Companion at Emmaus House, and all the other Companions at Emmaus House for their love and hard work in their witness to the monastic life and for the ministry of hospitality at Emmaus House they began years ago.

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