Marymount Hermitage to celebrate opening of new Jubilee House

Bishop Christensen will offer Mass and bless guest house on Oct. 11

Sister Mary Beverly Greger looks out across the landscape from a window in the newly constructed Jubilee Guest House at the Marymount Hermitage in Mesa. The hermitage is place of retreat for individuals, couples and groups who want to disconnect and spend time with the Lord in quiet contemplation and prayer. The 4,000-square-foot Jubilee House will allow more retreatants to visit. (ICR photo/Philip A. Janquart)

By Philip A. Janquart

ICR Editor

Mesa, Idaho — After more than a year of planning, prayer and construction, Marymount Hermitage co-founder Sister Mary Beverly Greger is finally settling into the newly finished Jubilee Guest House, a 4,000-square-foot building that triples the capacity of Marymount to host retreatants.

“I’m so excited; we are finally getting furniture moved in and some ladies are getting the rooms decorated,” Sister Beverly of the Hermit Sisters of Mary told the Idaho Catholic Register on Monday, Aug. 4. “It just looks so beautiful!”

Jubilee House is the newest addition to Marymount Hermitage’s 13-building campus, spread across 100 acres of mesa. The desert landscape is home to many species of wild-life—including elk, deer, coyotes and foxes— offering sweeping picture-postcard views of Idaho’s West Central Mountains.

The new Jubilee Guest House has been completed and features a great room, laundry facilities, full kitchen, parlor and rooms to house retreatants. (ICR photo/Philip A. Janquart)

What God wills

Designed as a guest house rather than individual hermitages, Jubilee House answers a long-held prayer for more space to welcome visitors.

Sister Beverly said she didn’t have plans to build a guest house but was inspired over time.

“It was in October of 2023 when the Lord really put it on my heart that what I needed was more space for retreatants,” she said. “And for some reason, it never crossed my mind to make more hermitages. What crossed my mind was that I could have a guest house: bedrooms and large rooms in the house that everybody could use—living room, kitchen and dining room, for instance.”

Jubilee Guest House has a wing with four small bedrooms, each with its own color palette, saintly dedication and character. Each room has a bathroom, and there is another wing with one larger bedroom and bath-room for long-term retreatants.

All the bedrooms have a queen-size bed and can accommodate either individuals or married couples. Each bathroom has either a walk-in shower or a shower/tub combination. One bathroom is fully accessible for guests with physical limitations and includes adaptive fixtures and grab bars.

“There’s a room for Our Lady of Guadalupe with an aqua green wall,” Sister Beverly said. There are rooms dedicated to St. Joseph, the Child Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The master bedroom is dedicated to Mary, Mother of the Church. All of the rooms have different exterior views and configurations, “Not at all the same and sterile like a motel,” Sister Beverly added.

The great room boasts of a soaring 20-foot arched ceiling and large windows that flood the space with natural light. A 4-by-10-foot hickory dining table, handmade by a Mennonite craftsman, anchors the dining room with seating for 12. Neutral tones run throughout the interior, complemented by a black quartz countertop island in the kitchen, slate tile flooring sourced from the mountains of Afghanistan and custom cabinetry crafted by a local man from nearby Council.

“His work is so meticulous—you can’t find any flaws,” Sister said.

“The drawers are soft-close, which I had never seen before. In the kitchen are two refrigerators for use when groups reserve the building, and two pantries to accommodate either groups or individuals. The utility room has a washer and dryer, and it will be my work room when retreat-ants depart. But those appliances can also be used by retreatants who stay longer than a few days.”

Jubilee House will host its first retreatants this month. Sister Beverly is considering holding a monthly open house, allowing the public to tour the facility and see what their support helped build. People are welcome to email or call Sister Beverly to schedule a private tour.

The formal blessing of Jubilee House and Mass will take place Oct. 11, celebrated by Bishop Peter Christensen of the Diocese of Boise. The liturgy begins at 11 a.m., followed by the blessing and a light lunch reception. All are welcome.

“At Mass, we will honor in a special way Jack Roberts of PMR, Inc., who was the general contractor,” Sister Beverly said. “Jack came out of retirement to help me with this building project, which began with site-clearing in July 2024 and was completed with remarkable speed due to his diligence, dedication and lifelong experience. Most of the men who worked on Jubilee House were locals, and I am proud to showcase the talent and skill of these very hard-working tradesmen.”

She added, “Jack Roberts believes in families who live, work and recreate together. Work was usually done only on weekdays, rarely on Saturday and never on Sunday, unlike the prevailing culture in the area. Many of the men and boys who worked were part of Jack’s extended family. Sawyer Wells, his 12-year-old grandson, proudly delivered and installed the two wooden picnic tables he assembled for the back patio of Jubilee Guest House. When the bishop comes to bless the Guest House, that’s when it becomes officially dedicated.”

Funding

Funded entirely through donations, the $1 million project drew support from across the country. Contributions came from Sister Beverly’s 3,000-person mailing list, including locals, Boise-area residents, out-of-state friends, retreatants and longtime supporters of Marymount, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year.

“When this (the Jubilee House) was first proposed, people said, ‘A little nun in the middle of nowhere is trying to raise a million dollars? Probably not going to fly.’ But when the Lord really wants something, he puts it on people’s hearts.”

Sister Beverly initially sought per-mission under her vow of obedience.

“The first step was going to Bishop Peter (Christensen) and saying, ‘This is what God is putting on my heart,’ that this is what I should do,” she said. “I asked his permission, and he said, ‘Yes.’ So, that’s affirmation that I’m on the right track. If Bishop Peter had said, ‘No,’ it would have been no.

“And for me, having a vow of obedience, that’s where the freedom comes from. I don’t have to worry if this is God’s will or not. With obedience … it makes things really easy.”

Although the building came together quickly, the journey carried hidden burdens.

“I wasn’t aware of how stressed I really was all last year,” she said. “Now that it’s done, and we’re using it, I feel so much better. Looking back, I think some of those little ailments I had were stress. But it’s completely gone now.”

Marymount Hermitage, founded 41 years ago under the late Bishop Sylvester Treinen, began as a place for hermit sisters to live in prayer and silence. Although some women discerned life there, most eventually left.

Sister Beverly and co-founder Sister Rebecca Mary Bonnell, who passed away last year, became Marymount’s two remaining residents.

“There were the two of us, and we thought other women would join us, so we built three more hermitages for them to live in,” she explained. “We had women come and discern, but they decided it wasn’t God’s will for them, so they would leave. In the meantime, I thought, ‘These buildings aren’t going to sit here empty; we’ve got to do something with them.’

“So, instead of having women come and hoping that they stay, I figured if people just want to pray, they could come here for the weekend or the week. It was just a way to make sure the buildings were not just sitting empty. We didn’t intend for it to be a retreat center; that was never the plan. I had been thinking we had to do something else, but God is always surprising us.”

Jubilee House is the fruit of that evolution. “It’s meant to be welcoming and homey,” Sister Beverly said. “When people come here, it’s just them and God. That’s what we hope to provide.”

For more information or to schedule a stay, visit marymount-hermit-age.org

or call (208) 256-4354.