France Davis

6:16am, Arizona, apartment. A prominent Utah minister had a street named after him the other day. Pastor France Davis is, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, “A civil rights legend in Utah.” He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, taught at the University, and built Salt Lake City’s Cavalry Baptist into a large and influential congregation. I met Reverend Davis a couple times when I lived in Utah. I recall he was somewhat slight in stature but had what is best described as “fierce calm.” He is a man that works hard and is greatly respected. Long ago I had a copy of his biography, ‘France Davis: An American Story Told’ written by him and Nayra A. Arita. I will have to see if I can find it and read it again.

Monastery mornings

7:05am I checked the Salt Lake Tribune and noticed there was a new book coming out called “Monastery Mornings: My Unusual Boyhood Among the Saints and Monks.” The Author is Michael O’Brien. An attorney in Salt Lake City. The book is about his trips to Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville, Utah. I have written about the monastery before. (Side note: I need to start adding tags to posts) I often visited the monastery with my mother and on my own when I was a hospice chaplain in Utah. It closed four years. I still cry realizing I can’t go to the chapel and sit in contemplation.

Monastery

One of my favorite places in the world is the Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville, Utah. Holy Trinity Abbey was a Trappist Monastery that closed in 2017. I would often drive out there and sit in the chapel. The silence of the place was powerful. When it closed I felt a piece of me die. This morning in the Ogden paper I read a group is raising money to purchase the land and place a permanent conservation easement on it. I texted my mom. She was the one who showed me the monastery back in the days when they made their own honey and bread to sell in the gift shop.

On another note. The pews at the chapel were bought by a Greek Orthodox Church in salt lake. I want to go visit that church to see them again.

I always planned to do a weekend retreat in Huntsville but never did. My first job at the state hospital doing clinical pastoral education we did a field trip and met with the brothers. Lots of great memories of the monastery.