Missionaries of Charity Sisters serves the poorest of the poor in Southern California
By Orange County on September 4, 2022
With a hundred pennies a year and a will to serve the poor in Los Angeles, they continue to do their “Mother’s” work.
They feed the hungry on the streets, run a food bank, provide a shelter for pregnant women, visit the women’s Century Regional Detention Facility jail in Lynwood, teach catechism and run youth programs.
They are the Missionaries of Charity Sisters of Lynwood. They wear trademark saris weaved by lepers and designed by their Catholic mother after she gave up her habit to fit in with the poor in Kolkata, India.
A homeless man receives food from the Missionaries of Charity Sisters in Watts. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A cross swings on the rearview mirror before a picture of Mother Teresa as the Missionaries of Charity Sisters head to Downey to feed day laborers at Home Depot. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sisters and volunteer Eliseo Ramos pray with homeless men in the Los Angeles’ Florence-Graham neighborhood before feeding them. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sisters and volunteers feed people in a Los Angeles homeless encampment. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Eliseo Ramos, second from right, a volunteer with Missionaries of Charity Sisters, leads a prayer and blessing for people in a Watts homeless encampment before feeding them with the sisters. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity volunteers Celia Chan, center, and Jose and Beatrice Perez work in the sisters’ pantry at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sister Xaveria brings Jacqueline Ramirez and her 11-year-old daughter Evelyn Contreras from their motorhome to the sister’s van for food in the Los Angeles’ Florence-Graham neighborhood. The sisters have been helping the family for the past two years while they live on the streets. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sister Xaveria brings Jacqueline Ramirez in her motorhome some extra supplies after giving the family food. The sisters have been helping the family for the past two years while they live on the streets. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Alicia Velarde, 22, who is staying in the Missionaries of Charity’s shelter, joins in a prayer with Sisters Andrew, left, and Twisa as they travel to feed the poor in Los Angeles.(Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sisters Xaveria and Andrew pray with Alexandra Alvarez and Carlos Lopez before feeding them at a Huntington Park homeless encampment. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sisters hold a daily prayer in their chapel at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood. The sisters pray a total of four hours a day. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sisters hold a daily prayer in their chapel at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood. Mother Teresa’s image is always near. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A Missionaries of Charity Sister prepares to enter the chapel for a daily prayer at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood. The sisters pray a total of four hours a day. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sisters live at the convent at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood which Mother Teresa opened in 1989. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sister Suzane, who helped open many homes with Mother Teresa, lives in the convent at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood which Mother Teresa opened in 1989. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sister Andrew shows Alicia Velarde, 22, who is staying in the Missionaries of Charity’s shelter, books on Mother Teresa at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Missionaries of Charity Sisters live at the convent at St. Emydius Church in Lynwood which Mother Teresa opened in 1989. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The sisters accept food donations, do not use government grants or money from the church and have devoted volunteers. They live on “whatever God provides,” says Sister Andrew.
The Missionaries of Charity, founded in 1950 by Mother Teresa of then-Calcutta, has homes all over the world where the sisters vow chastity, poverty, obedience — and to serve the poorest of the poor. In Lynwood, Mother Teresa established a convent at St. Emydius Church more than 30 years ago and was there for the opening. Sister Suzane, who helped open many homes with Mother Teresa, continues to live there.
One recent day, after a morning of prayer and chores, the sisters travel in their van full of prepared lunches and food bags for the needy. They make a stop to offer food to day laborers and then many stops for homeless people.
Out of respect for the sisters, many men put on shirts and women tidy up as they approach the van. At each stop the sisters or their volunteers lead a prayer and blessing before serving those in need.
One woman they help is 22-year-old Alicia Velarde, who came to the sister’s shelter for a week to heal after delivering a stillborn infant by c-section. Velarde, who had been homeless since running away at age 15, is living in the shelter and spends time with the sisters preparing and handing out meals to day laborers and those living on the streets of Greater Los Angeles.
Velarde joins them as they pray for the poor. “It’s a positive influence being around the sisters they make me not want to go back to where I was and go forward with my life,” she said. She’s taking classes at adult school for her high school diploma and is trying to get her life situated.
“If I can find my way to God, they can find their way to God too,” she says of the homeless people she encounters with the sisters.
The 25th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death is September 5, known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta feast day after Pope Francis made her a saint. The sisters will be celebrating.
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