By: Fr. Bobby P. Sagra, MSP

A personal experience of working with the Missionaries of Charity Sisters of Kerema, gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.

It had been more than a year now, since I arrived here in Kerema, taking the position of a Parish Priest. The Sisters Superior of the Missionaries of Charity Sisters told me upon my arrival that one of my responsibilities is to take care of the spiritual needs of their small community of six sisters. This means acting as their Father Confessor on a bi- weekly basis, and also giving them spiritual talks on the various aspects of their religious life. With cheerfulness I assumed the position, not only on the spiritual needs of the people and the sisters, but also of the challenging pastoral work of visiting the villages around Kerema.

From Monday to Friday, the missionaries of Charity Sister and I work hand in hand. I go with them to the different villages as their priest co-worker. Once we arrive at the village, we gather all the mothers for sewing class and the children for pre-school. In those villages with community schools, the sisters give religious instructions. I help giving instruction to adults in preparation for Baptism and Marriage. The sisters also go for house visits, and whenever there is a very sick person in need of Holy Anointing, they call on me to give Sacrament. Other than helping in the Catechism and the giving of the Sacraments, I have unique task of driving the buggy for them, of acting as their personal security while walking in the bush, and of helping them to carry heavy things when necessary.

I have learned that the secret of the shining lives of the Missionaries of Charity Sister is their wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor, and their intimate relationship with Christ in prayer. They also have a love for Mary, which is above every religious sister I know. Their joy is a spark from their humble devotion to Mary, whom they call, Cause of our Joy. They considered themselves as victims of their Crucified Lord; they seek more “to comfort than to be comforted; more to understand and to be understood; more to love than to be love; for it is by forgetting self that one finds, it is by forgiving  that one is forgiven, it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life”. In their white and blue saris, the poorest of the poor when they are serving as the new little flower of St. Francis for our generation.

As a Filipino missionary, I cannot help but marvel at the Missionaries of Charity Sisters. For me, their charism, is to promptly, wholeheartedly and free serve the poorest of the poor. Like Mary, who thought of others at the wedding feast at Cana, and asked Jesus to provide immediately for the needs of the newly wed poor couple, the Missionary Charity Sisters is full thought of others. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, their Foundress says: “Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn the art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christlike, for His heart was meek and He always thought of needs of others-our lives to be beautiful, must be full of thoughts for others.” I have never met Mother Teresa personally, but in each of her Sisters whom I met here, I see the aura of Mother Teresa. She herself said that “I will give saints to Mother Teresa Church”. The witness of joy and holiness of the MC Sisters I’m working with, brings to me an honest re- examination of my life as a missionary priest. One of the humbling realizations of my life here, is that, while I preach more with my words, thee Sisters preach by their example.

It is my loving and prayerful wish that for all those young Filipino girls and boys who happen to read this article, their hearts will be touched to consider becoming a missionary. In my missionary work with the Missionary of Charity Sisters, I have found a treasure, Christ.