“I was hungry and you gave me food” (Mt 25:35). Under this Biblical passage, I wish to share the mission of the Daughters of Charity of La Milagrosa Province of Bogotá – Venezuela during this time of quarantine and worldwide pandemic.
More than 250 homeless people arrive every day at noon at the Miraculous Medal Ambulatory Center which is under the direction of Sister Nohemí Sánchez DC, to receive lunch that perhaps may be their only food for the day. They are hungry, without resources, and without a roof over their heads; they are sheltered under God’s mercy, the care of some benefactors and the Daughters of Charity.
There are many benefactors who have joined this fight against hunger, who provide food for these homeless persons. Every day God is inviting people to help alleviate the suffering of these men and women who live in the streets. The Vincentian Family, headed by Father Tomaž Mavrič, C.M., initiated the first step by inviting the National Councils to organize charity in favor of the most insignificant in today’s society under the motto “In the Vincentian Family we will continue to globalize charity and not indifference”.
Sister Cecilia Triana, D.C., Visitatrix, together with Father Álvaro Mauricio Fernández C.M., Provincial Director, a group of Daughters of Charity and the postulants are helping in this daily work of feeding the inhabitants of the streets.
But our brothers and sisters in the streets have also a mission; they were entrusted to help distribute Miraculous Medals to others who, like them, are homeless in Bogotá. This mission has two important purposes: to ask for the protection of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal for Colombia and the entire world and to seek strategies so that more people may know Our Mother, the Virgin of the Miraculous Medal. Everyone shares in the work; our older Sisters are in charge of preparing the medals that the street dwellers will take to every corner of the capital.
Thank God for this work in favor of the poorest carried out by the Daughters of Charity!
Sister Sandra Emilce Vivas Ramírez, D.C.
