By: Jay Sorgi
“We need hands to help and hearts to love” – St. Teresa of Kolkata, founder of the Missionaries of Charity
Often, Catholic leaders will accurately use the phrase “closeness” to explain how Christ resides right beside those in the greatest need.
The East Bay’s Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by St. Teresa of Kolkata (Mother Teresa), have moved from Richmond to get closer to those with the greatest need within Oakland and the East Bay.
Dozens of the order’s members gathered with Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ and nine other priests on March 25 to celebrate the opening of the new convent, located at 1479 78th Avenue.
“God has blessed us with many, many beautiful graces during that opening, in order to prepare to serve the poorest of the poor of this area,” said Sister Maria Agnes, MC, the local superior for the new Oakland convent which will house five sisters.
“Our charism as Missionaries of Charity is to work for the poorest of the poor. We go into the poorest areas and minister to their needs, and thereby give them the love of Christ. In our present location, we are nearer to them and easier for them to come to us for help and for us to be with them.”
Their new convent is one of five locations where they serve in Northern California, with three in San Francisco and one in Sacramento.
The Missionaries of Charity have worked in the East Bay since 2006 out of their previous convent in Richmond, but they chose to move to be able to be closer to those in greatest need.
“Many times we see them under the bridges, inside the forest, near the train tracks, on the sidewalks and we go to the poorest among them and ask them, how can we help?” Sister Maria Agnes said. “Sometimes it’s for food, sometimes it’s for clothing, sometimes it’s just to be there, to be present to them, listen to them and pray with them.”
She says they plan to make the property’s backyard accessible to provide resources to those who can come to the new convent.
“They can wash their clothes here for free. (They can come) if they need food, if they need some catechism classes, to pray the rosary, to learn how to have good parenting classes, to have a place for mothers who have nowhere to go to be together so that they can interact with each other and support each other,” she said.
“This is our goal, to have a place of peace and safety in this area so that they know that they can come here, be together, support each other, help each other, learn together, pray together and grow together in the faith.”
This move empowers the sisters to better live the calling Mother Teresa gave them in founding the order.
“We have the charism of ‘I thirst,’ Jesus thirsting for love and for the poor people’s souls to come to heaven. One of our charisms is to do the humble tasks for them,” Sister Maria Agnes said.
Sister Mary Agnes remembers their foundress would always quote Matthew 25: “‘You did it to Me.’ Whatever small things we can do for them, it is for their salvation and sanctification.”
Sister Maria Agnes added that the order does not do any direct fundraising work, or outsource fundraising work for anyone, only operating monetarily in a “free will, individual way.”
“We just bring the love of Christ and the little that we have to them and share with them what we could, and then God takes care of the rest,” she said.
“We’re not in the house, we’re more out in the streets. We can visit them in the families, we can visit them in hospitals, or we can also visit them in prison. Those are like our people, the ones that nobody would like to be with or to care for.”
She says that there are many ways that people can get involved in helping the Missionaries of Charity in the Bay Area.
“First of all, they can pray for us, and we can pray and pray with them,” Sister Maria Agnes said. “We accept volunteers. It would depend on what they would like to do.”
For instance, volunteers can help men receiving hospice care at the Gift of Love house in Pacifica, and those who want to focus on helping adult mothers who need short-term shelter can help at the Queen of Peace Shelter on Folsom Street in San Francisco.
As for street ministry like what they offer in Oakland, Sister Maria Agnes said that they often discover impromptu volunteers who simply discover what they’re doing and want to help.
“People usually see us on the street, they stop and they say, ‘Sister, can I come help?’ ‘Sure, you can come help us.’ Mother (Teresa) would say ‘We need hands to help and hearts to love,’” Sister Maria Agnes said.
“That’s part of our charism, to reflect the poverty of Jesus and to give them the love of Christ.”
Learn more about the Missionaries of Charity here.