The dining hall in Moreau House is a strange sight — at least to university students and faculty who have never previously visited this small, sparsely populated nook of campus.

But if the room seems strange, it is only because it is immaculate — glasses in their proper places, two forks and four courses are diligently set at 6:30 every evening by the house’s student residents, or “Moreau men.”

The men who live in the house, which is located on the second floor of St. Joseph Hall, take turns preparing meals and each share a part in cleaning up afterwards. Last week, it was sophomore Timothy Briones’ turn to cook.

“Every meal has to have a meat, a bread, a vegetable and a salad,” Briones explained, and so it goes every night.

The joint nightly dinners serve not only to reinforce the sense of community in Moreau House, but also to instill a sense of responsibility in the men, who learn to cook and clean for themselves and others during their residency.

“[Living here] prepares you for life beyond college,” Briones said. “Learning to live in a community is really important because you won’t always live by yourself.”

Although the proper communal meal is one of the features that distinguishes Moreau House from traditional campus housing, it is not the only aspect of the place that makes it unique. Besides the fact that it is sponsored by the brothers — not the university — and is not considered campus housing at all, the house looks very different from a typical dorm set-up. There are more (and cozier) shared living spaces and the men spend a lot of time doing service together.

“The best part about living here is the community aspect,” Briones said, “Part of why [Moreau House is] so awesome is that no one even knows about it.”

“It’s like a hidden gem on campus,” House Director Brother Larry Atkinson said of the Moreau House.

Its exclusivity and relative obscurity make Moreau House an interesting place to live, but membership does not come without commitment: Atkinson expects the men to uphold their promises to commit to “the three pillars”: community, service and spirituality.

“The goal of the house is to provide young men at St. Edward’s the opportunity to grow together spiritually through community and service,” Atkinson said, “[my] job is to hold them accountable to their commitments.”

Part of their commitments involve obediences: “shared cooking and cleaning which everyone is expected to do,” Atkinson explained.

The men are expected to serve their school and their community as often as possible. Every Tuesday night, instead of praying, the men make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to be delivered to a homeless shelter the next morning along with coffee, bananas and eggs, which lends their service its name — egg ministry.

Additionally, “the boys are also expected to do other service on campus,” Atkinson said.

This community service, in addition to mass, and completion of “obediences” frequently brings the Moreau men together.

“We hang out with each other a lot,” Anthony Longoria, one of the 11 Moreau men, said. “[We’re] like a little family. We look out for each other. It feels like home.”

Follow me, @viacavasos!