The Tobit House is a Catholic Community located between the church and school on the Saint Raphael Campus in Crystal, Minnesota. This is a community inspired by the first Catholic communities found in the Acts of the Apostles. When the disciples received the Holy Spirit their response was charismatic, both in a supernatural way, and in a profoundly human way. Their human response was to live in common, share everything they had, break bread together, and pray together. All the while, they imitated Jesus in His love for the poor. The purpose of the Tobit House is to provide a place for community, prayer, meals, and love of the poor, which are essential for Christianity to flourish.
Residents of the Tobit House are limited to only men. Our daily household community will be composed of the Pastor of Saint Raphael and lay men including house leaders, parish staff, and others who have desired and agreed to a common way of life as well as additional clergy and seminarians desiring communal living. Resident members will live in two wings, with four bedrooms comprising a clergy wing and a lay wing comprising 10 bedrooms. We are particularly excited at the opportunity that the clergy guest rooms provide for the growth of the community of Cleric and Seminarian members. Additionally, the lay wing allows us the freedom to open and expand our community to additional men as well as reserving a number of the rooms to provide a safe home and community for those most in need. As a community, we strive to preach the Gospel first and foremost by the way we live our lives. This is done by living a common life of prayer, voluntarily embracing the evangelical counsels, and teaching and welcoming others into this life.
The broader Tobit House community includes residents, regular attendees at community encounters, parishioners and school families of Saint Raphael, and occasional guests. These are the poor of all types: lay single and married men and women, old and young, families with children, seminarians, consecrated virgins, religious, and priests. We try to practice a radical yet intentionally structured hospitality which opens our home to as many as 50 people at our Monday Open Table Dinners, Friday morning hospitality, and numerous others throughout the week. These include our Saint Vincent de Paul Conference, Parish Councils, class picnics, school teacher discussions, homeschooling family extracurriculars, etc. During these events, all community members and guests are welcome to share our common space on the first floor of our 7,300 sq ft home. This common space includes a spacious kitchen, dining room, living room, patio, library, and two public restrooms.
Why “Tobit” House?
The Archangel Raphael appears in one place in the Bible: The book of Tobit. In the Babylonian city of Nineveh, Tobit, his wife Anna, and his son Tobias were the only Israelite exiles who remained faithful to the works that God asked of the Israelites. Tobit was a Babylonian social justice warrior! He was constantly busy with carrying out corporal works of mercy, performing endless charitable acts toward his brethren as well as burying the dead, and remaining faithful in prayer. He suffered greatly and lost everything he had as a result of his givenness. What a great example Tobit and his family are for us today. As we, on our pilgrimage to our home in heaven, are very much a part of this world, we must remain faithful to God and our neighbors even if it means a little sacrifice to do so! With this family of the old testament as an example and type of the Church Jesus would later found, we name the Hospitality House in hopes of imitating the virtues of the father, Tobit.
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Interested in Learning More? Email: tobithouse@srsmn.org