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.
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.