July’s fund-raising feast features star-spangled menu
Manna House kicks off Independence Day with a star-spangled bang on the first Monday of the month.
July’s “First Monday at Manna” fund-raising dinner will feature all red, white and blue salads and desserts.
The dinner at Manna House of Prayer, 323 E. Fifth St., is set for July 1, and reservations are required by June 27, by calling 243-4428 or emailing retreatcenter@mannahouse.org.
There will be two seatings for the dinner — at 5:30 and 6:45 p.m. — and guests are invited to arrive 15 minutes early for “Patriotic Punch,” wine and appetizers.
The dinner menu includes berry and apple salad, hot chicken salad, Fourth of July potato salad, “Red, White and Bleu (cheese) Slaw,” spiral pasta salad and blueberry muffins, topped off with red velvet cake and angel food cake with berry toppings for dessert.
Donations are welcome, with all proceeds going to the numerous Manna House ministries, including Helping Hands, a program that provides emergency assistance for people throughout Cloud County and operates a small food pantry.
The “First Mondays at Manna” dinners are part of the center’s 35th anniversary celebration, and will continue throughout 2013.
The Aug. 5 dinner will be a simple but delicious “retreat meal” similar to what would typically be served during a stay at Manna House.
The red brick building that is today Manna House was built in 1884 as the first Motherhouse of the newly arrived Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia. The building at Fifth and Olive streets served as the convent and a boarding school, but it soon became apparent that a bigger building was needed to house Nazareth Convent and Academy.
So in 1903, the Nazareth Motherhouse opened at the corner of 13th and Washington streets, and the sisters converted their old home into St. Joseph Hospital.
An addition to the hospital was built in 1915, and the significantly bigger facility remained a hospital until 1951, when the sisters built what is now Cloud County Health Center.
The sisters converted the building into a nursing home and it served as St. Anne’s Home for the Aged until 1977, when the new Mount Joseph Village was built on the west edge of Concordia.
Meanwhile, three Sisters of St. Joseph had opened Manna House of Prayer in Clyde and were reaching out to the community there.
By April 1978 the sisters in Clyde moved their program to the newly renovated brick building in Concordia, and it was dedicated as Manna House of Prayer.
Its mission, then and today, is to be a place were people of all faiths come for personal and communal prayer, on-going education, quiet time and counseling. Sisters who live there also provide youth ministry, facilitation services, spiritual direction and counseling.
In 2013 Manna House is home to seven Sisters of St. Joseph and has a staff of four laypeople. Throughout the year there are workshops on everything from “seasonal spirituality” and the ancient art of bobbin lacemaking to “meditation and movement” and the meaning and mystery of the rosary.
To learn more about Manna House, its ministries and upcoming events, go to mannahouse.org.