I have always been drawn to the core simplicity of Source of All Hope’s mission and devotion to the Eucharist. The missionaries are given the grace to roam as Christ did from block to block, accompanying the forgotten, abandoned, and suffering while reminding them that they have a radically available God that loves them.

I have realized that for the past few years, my heart has longed to physically serve and spread the joy and love of God that has transformed my own heart. As a college student, I was blessed to have many pivotal and transformative experiences through the UNL Newman Center, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), and many authentic friendships that helped foster and feed my relationship with God.

While nearing my senior year of college, I began to look at jobs and different career paths for post-graduation, and truthfully, as I was looking, nothing seemed fulfilling. Taking this to prayer, I began to recognize and name this desire to have my day-to-day work entirely revolve around Christ in a very radical way. I surrendered and left this desire with Jesus. Later in the semester, during one of my holy hours, a deep longing to clean the wounds of Christ rested on my heart. Not completely sure what that meant, I continued to bring Jesus this longing before Him in the Eucharist, and it soon manifested into an invitation to share the truth of God’s love and endless mercy with the poor, whose wounds are His.

At first, I still was unsure where or how exactly He was inviting me to serve Him. I loved leading bible study and accompanying women on my college campus, who at times were living out of a place of spiritual and relational poverty. As I continued to discern, He gently revealed my true desires: serving Christ in the forgotten and those living out of a place of spiritual, relational, and physical poverty. Because of my experience as a summer missionary with Source of All Hope, I recognized that these were the men and women I had befriended on the streets of Baltimore, and I knew God was asking me to return.

It is clear that Jesus wants to be present in the streets of Baltimore, and I am so grateful that He has invited me to witness him change the heart of the city. This program is not only a place where I can serve Christ in the poor but a place where Jesus can continue to restore my poverty alongside our friends on the street. Please keep me, the other missionaries, Baltimore, and our friends on the street in your prayers!