logo english transparent 500px
  • About US
    • Who we are
    • Our Spirituality
    • History
      • Cardinal Lavigerie
      • Mother Marie Salomé
      • Our Lady of Africa
      • Our first sisters
    • Past & Present
      • Our Lady of Africa family
      • General Chapter
      • 150th Anniversary
    • Contacts
  • Mission
    • Women with women
    • Education
    • Pastoral work
    • Justice & Peace
    • Health & social work
    • Our Apostolic Orientations
      • Interreligious and Intercultural Encounter -Dialogue
      • Migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons
      • Modern slavery and human trafficking
      • Care of the environment
    • Our Projects
  • Vocation
    • Missionary vocation
    • Join us
    • Stages of formation
    • Forms of belonging
  • Agenda
  • Resources
    • Extraordinary life stories
    • Prayers
    • Library
    • Jubilarians
    • Entered into eternal life
    • Links
  • French
Menu
  • About US
    • Who we are
    • Our Spirituality
    • History
      • Cardinal Lavigerie
      • Mother Marie Salomé
      • Our Lady of Africa
      • Our first sisters
    • Past & Present
      • Our Lady of Africa family
      • General Chapter
      • 150th Anniversary
    • Contacts
  • Mission
    • Women with women
    • Education
    • Pastoral work
    • Justice & Peace
    • Health & social work
    • Our Apostolic Orientations
      • Interreligious and Intercultural Encounter -Dialogue
      • Migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons
      • Modern slavery and human trafficking
      • Care of the environment
    • Our Projects
  • Vocation
    • Missionary vocation
    • Join us
    • Stages of formation
    • Forms of belonging
  • Agenda
  • Resources
    • Extraordinary life stories
    • Prayers
    • Library
    • Jubilarians
    • Entered into eternal life
    • Links
  • French
Search
Close
Youtube

God called me through a small ad!

mendiant

An ad, a call:

A little distracted, I had read an ad that asked for volunteers to welcome the homeless during the winter. It was on Ash Wednesday that this call came to me with great intensity, “Mia, you must do that!” I phoned the manager who told me that she was still looking for volunteers to simply sit among people who come to the church hall, from 3 to 7 pm.

My answer: “I will go.”

People entered the room where various drinks were available, as much as they wished. At 5 pm a hot meal was offered. There were about 50 to 60 people. They all served themselves and some came up a second and even a third time. I too served myself so as to eat like them and be with them. Sometimes one of them even brought me a plate!

pianiste de rueWhat more to say about those meetings?

Mostly I listened a lot. Some people told me their personal story: no work, drugs, loneliness … There were Belgians but also “undocumented” of different nationalities. I felt good among them, among the “favorite of Jesus” as I often think. I really admired the courage and the will of these people who wanted to “get out.” I was moved by the sincerity and confidence with which they shared with me their life stories. Unfortunately March 31 I went there for the last time as it closed with the end of winter. So no longer a place to spend the night but again on the street or in an abandoned building.

I think about the conference that Sister Carmen Sammut gave to the UISG (International Union of Superiors General). Did she not tell us: “What are these young people telling us, as they take drugs; sleep in the streets? … We must create spaces of friendship … We are sent to the periphery … to live a lifestyle that knows how to say “that is enough.”

Mia Van LooyA new little ad!

This time, it’s for a “Café without beer” … a place to receive single people, ex-prisoners, or people with drug problems … that needed volunteers. We had our first meeting with the leaders of the project.

From little ads to the calls of God, I join according to my age and at my own pace, the “peripheries” mentioned so often by Pope Francis.

Sister Mia Van Looy, Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa,
Antwerp, Belgium

READ MORE : In the midst of the “poor”

  • June 8, 2016
  • 3:42 pm
  • Health and Social work
  • God's call, Missionaries, Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, Missionary vocation, MSOLA, White Sisters
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
RELATED POSTS
The prayer against human trafficking
February 7, 2023
IX° International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking 2023
February 6, 2023
Me? Be a sister? You’re not serious.
February 2, 2023
How a dream became reality
January 30, 2023
Only women can accomplish this mission!
January 28, 2023
Moving Forward Together towards the Peripheries
January 26, 2023
Copyright 2022 - All rights reserved
Privacy Policy
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Facebook