Capital campaign underway to complete monastery renovations

The Carmelite Monastery at 2201 West Main Street in Jefferson City is pictured in this Nov. 8, 2013 News Tribune file photo.
The Carmelite Monastery at 2201 West Main Street in Jefferson City is pictured in this Nov. 8, 2013 News Tribune file photo.

Contemplative revelry always came to the former Carmelite Monastery in Jefferson City on Oct. 1, the Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

This year, construction workers spent the feast day preparing to transform the venerable place into a priest's residence and adoration chapel for Cathedral of St. Joseph parish.

"The Carmelites, our friends and former neighbors, made this place holy through 52 years of prayers and sacrifices," stated Msgr. Robert A. Kurwicki, pastor. "We will honor them by putting their former home to good use."

The Cathedral parish bought the 23,000-square-foot monastery and three-acre property in the summer of 2014, six months after the sisters moved to a new home on the monastery grounds of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde.

The Cathedral parish's purchase of the property helps ensure the sisters' long-term financial security while creating more space for the parish to carry out the work of the Gospel, Kurwicki said.

"While this will be a home for four priests or more, it will also give to the parish a center for additional meetings, a chapel for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and much-needed storage space," he wrote in a letter to parishioners.

He noted the parish has been working for more than a decade to accommodate increased membership, programs and school enrollment while renewing its aging facilities.

Sixteen classrooms were added to St. Joseph Cathedral School in 2008 on ground formerly occupied by the parish rectory.

The parish bought a neighboring house for use as a temporary rectory, but structural problems made the home uninhabitable.

The priests moved to cramped quarters in the parish office building, awaiting construction of a new rectory with money donated by a family of the parish.

When the monastery property became available, the parish seized a one-time opportunity to take a longer view.

Msgr. Kurwicki said it will be a privilege to make his home in such a venerable place, where consecrated women had poured themselves out for decades in radical prayer and singular contemplation of God's saving grace.

He pointed out that one of the main charisms of the Discalced Carmelites is to offer prayer for priests.

"So it seems particularly appropriate," he said, "that their former monastery would become a home for the Cathedral parish priests as well as visiting priests from around the diocese and other priest guests."

An area near the chapel is being converted into a Carmelite heritage room, with mementos and artifacts from when the sisters lived there.

The property also includes a contemplative garden the sisters maintained as part of their work and prayer regimen, as well as a small cemetery where nine of them are at rest.

Asking for help

The monastery, built in 1961, needs extensive renovation, including reconfigured spaces, plumbing and electrical work, asbestos removal, code compliance, energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning and other upgrades that will make the whole building friendlier to the environment.

The capstone of the project will be converting the chapel - where local Catholics gathered for daily Mass with the sisters and joined them for their annual summer novenas - into a new place for all-day Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

The estimated total cost for labor and materials for the renovations is $914,264.

The parish has launched a capital campaign to pay for the project.

"Prayerfully consider what you can give, either a one-time gift or over a three-year period," Kurwicki wrote to parishioners. "Please join me in praying for guidance during this important process."

The amount already pledged to the campaign as of Sept. 29 was $401,405, of which $351,610 had been paid. Anyone wishing to contribute may write to: Cathedral of St. Joseph parish, 2305 W. Main St., Jefferson City, MO 65109.

Kurwicki suggested the following prayer for the success of the renovation:

"Holy St. Joseph, Spouse of Mary, be mindful of the Catholics of Cole County and our monastery renovation project. Pray for us; watch over us.

"Guardian of the paradise of the new Adam, provide for our temporal needs. Faithful Guardian of the Most Precious of all treasures, we beseech you to bring this project to a happy end if it be for the glory of God and for the good of our souls. Amen."