Students of Suffering on the Streets of Portland

We are learning how not to be “successful” in our mission. 

As we serve those on the fringes of the Church, especially those people who have been wounded, scandalized, or abused by members of the Church, we are trying to be responsible and to build something lasting. But more important than striving for the usual hallmarks of success, we are learning that our mission is, most importantly, to share in the suffering of those we serve. 

People on the fringes of the Church, especially those who have been abused, know that God does not guarantee us justice and perfect happiness in this world. The people we serve know deep and profound pain, injustice, and vulnerability. They know what it is to crash against the limits of their human weakness over and over; they know what it is to struggle to survive; they know what it feels like not to belong, to be misunderstood, and rejected. We are learning not to expect to be exempt from these experiences ourselves. 

As many of you already know, taking risks to follow a call from God does not provide a person with an airtight, sure-to-be-successful business plan—it instead gives a person a path to the Cross. We do not say this with pious stoicism. We actually really do not want to suffer. We would be the first to say that we do not always embrace the crosses that God gives us; in fact we often try to push them away; we complain, or we consider running away. Given the reality of our own human weakness as religious sisters, we do not assume that we go out to teach those we serve how to live with their suffering—they know better than us how to do that. Instead, we learn from those we serve how to be students in the school of suffering. 

Right now, we do this in two primary ways. First, the many meetings we have with survivors of abuse grounds our work and deeply roots us as students in the school of suffering. We also study in this school every time we join the Urban Missionaries as they are present to people living on the streets of Portland. 

The Urban Missionaries’ apostolate is inspired by Saint Charles de Foucauld, a saint whose life demonstrates that failure in the world’s eyes is sometimes success in God’s eyes. Fr. Yves Congar, OP once declared that Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and Saint Charles de Foucauld “are the beacons that … God has set aflame on the threshold of the atomic century." So, we do not think it’s a coincidence that we have found resonance in the work of the Urban Missionaries.

Every time we go out to the streets of Portland, we meet people who teach us how to live, how to have faith, and how to be honest in our weakness. We are grateful for the people we meet and the lessons they teach us. Later this week, we will share the story of a man we met on the streets who has inspired us immensely. 

Until then, please consider signing up for the Sisters of the Little Way mailing list if you have not already. We are mailing out a newsletter soon that will contain more detailed updates about our mission and needs. In the meantime, if you are able to help us buy stamps for our mailing, we would be grateful!

Ways to Support the Urban Missionaries:

• Support the Urban Missionaries weekly budget. The three most important material items they pass out (aside from rosaries) are Gatorade, food, socks /gloves/underwear. The weekly budget for Gatorade on a busy summer day is about $75, snack bags are about $100, and socks, etc are about $75 per walk. If you can help with their budget, email Scott Woltze (swoltze[at]gmail.com).

• Buy supplies to pass out on the streets from the Urban Missionaries Amazon list.

• Follow the Urban Missionaries on Facebook!