Becoming a Missionaries of Charity sister: “It was a decision”

Based on interviews with Sister M. Joseph, M.C. and Sister M. Prema, M.C.

When I boarded my flight to Kolkata, India in January 2023, it was reminiscent of a similar journey I had taken in August 1995, but little did I know then that Saint Teresa of Kolkata’s influence would be with me up until today. Over the past 30 years, I have documented many aspects of the saint’s legacy, but it has been in this past year that I can truly say that I have a much deeper understanding of what it means to be a Missionaries of Charity sister, first through my interview with Sister Mary Joseph, M.C., the newly elected superior general of the order and then most recently in Poland interviewing Sister M. Prema, M.C., who served as superior general for 13 years. As Sister Prema, M.C., told me in August, “It was a decision.” That decision was one in which each of the sisters has devoted herself completely and for life to Jesus Christ. 
 
This new journey began for me after being diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2022. Following my treatments, I immediately flew to Kolkata, India and was given permission to interview Sister Joseph, M.C., Then, in August 2023 I was diagnosed once again, this time with a more aggressive breast cancer in the other breast. The news came after I traveled to Poland in July, knowing the likely outcome. When I met with Sister Prema, M.C., at the home in Warsaw, I confided my fear to her and her response was perfect, “What a privilege!” she said. “It forms you into who God wants you to be.” It was this perfect timing in coming face-to-face with Sister Prema, M.C., that I was given the courage for the journey ahead. 

Sister Mary Joseph, M.C.  
When I arrived in Kolkata, India in August 1995, I did not know if Saint Teresa of Kolkata was even in the city. Before easy access to the Internet, I went in faith through the chaotic streets of the city, knowing in my heart that Saint Teresa of Kolkata had called me. Within minutes of entering the mother house, I was guided to a hallway where Saint Teresa of Kolkata was greeting an Indian family. Moments later, I was at her feet, the ones I had looked at for so long when she was speaking at Sacred Heart Church in Atlanta on June 14, 1995. When I asked her permission to document the work, she said, “I don’t need photographers, I need volunteers.”  A few weeks later, in a personal conversation, she invited me to join the order. I was aghast by the invitation, not knowing anything about becoming a nun. It wasn’t until all these years later, that her invitation had a deeper significance. 

In January 2023, when I entered the mother house for the 6 a.m. Holy Mass, I was again at an intersection. It was with the hope of having an interview with Sister Joseph, M.C., but knowing full well, that it was entirely in God’s hands. I met with Sister Joseph, M.C., after the Mass and was immediately humbled by her graciousness and kind attention. In that infamous hallway where I had met with Saint Teresa of Kolkata, I handed Sister Joseph, M.C., my prepared written request for an interview. “I will pray about this Linda and then come back this evening.” That evening after the hour of adoration, she granted me the interview for the following morning. 

Our nearly two-hour conversation took place in the dimly lit confessional room of the mother house. When I entered the room, I could feel the presence of Saint Teresa of Kolkata and the stream of sisters who had passed through these doors. There was a sanctity in the room that gave me a sense of complete peace and surrender. 

Sister Mary Joseph, M.C., first began by describing her childhood. She grew up in Kerala, one of six children to a poor family, but as she described, “not the poorest of the poor.” Her father had a small shop and sold pencils and school supplies. “One thing I remember very clearly is the deep faith of my father.” Each evening, the family prayed the rosary. “My father would encourage us to kneel as we prayed because he was a man who knew it was God who was sustaining us.”

Despite her structured prayer life, Sister Joseph, M.C., told me her faith was shallow. “You need faith in the depth of your heart to know there is an invisible reality to whom you turn.” It wasn’t until she understood her own weaknesses and deep vulnerabilities that she turned her life over to Jesus. In my interview with Sister Joseph, M.C., I felt that I was being given a lesson on spirituality. She was extremely open about her own spiritual path, from being a young girl who did not take her faith that seriously, to a nun whose only vocation in life was in giving herself completely to Jesus in service through the Missionaries of Charity. 

The journey in becoming a Missionaries of Charity sister began with Sister Joseph, M.C., when she was 18 years old and a day when Saint Teresa of Kolkata was visiting a community of professed sisters in the state of Kerala, India. “I heard she was a living saint, and I was expecting to see a smiling Saint Teresa of Kolkata, but instead, she was very sick.” She sat at the table and made the sign of the cross. Sister Joseph was given the duty of placing silverware and dishes on the table for Saint Teresa of Kolkata. In her excitement and nervousness, she dropped the drawer of spoons, which spilled out over the floor. While the other girls were giggling, Sister Joseph, M.C., managed to complete her duties. Then, to her surprise, Saint Teresa of Kolkata looked at her sideways and said, “Sister are you in the presence of God?” In retrospect Sister Joseph, M.C., reflected on that moment, “She was giving me the fundamentals of religious life. Whenever I would be preoccupied, hurt by someone, wondering, I would always have that question behind me. Are you in the presence of God?”

Upon entering the Missionaries of Charity, Sister Joseph, M.C., was sent to Australia to work with the Aborigines. It was there that she took her first vows to the order. “The primary aspect of a vocation is a relationship with the living God, which Saint Teresa of Kolkata was so clear to emphasize constantly. It’s not the work we do. It’s a call to follow the invisible. I don’t see him with my eyes, but I know I am in his presence, always. That presence sustains me.”

The sisters were not aware of mother’s journey through the dark night of the soul. However, her faith in the living God was never shaken, “She did not receive consolation, but she was like the giving tree spreading joy to others because she was so connected with the living source. When you choose to be connected without receiving anything for yourself, you become, I believe a much more transparent instrument for others.”

Sister Joseph, M.C., eventually became a counselor for Sister Prema, M.C., in Kolkata, India. Today, as superior general of the Missionaries of Charity today, her spirituality as leader of the worldwide charity is very clear. As she gazed up at the crucifix she said, “I must have this vertical dimension. If not, I see that even the love for the poor fails over the years. The well from where I can draw the living faith of God, who is the source of all goodness, never dries up.” 

Sister Mary Prema, M.C.
My first morning in Warsaw, I took an Uber from my Airbnb to the home where I was scheduled to meet with Sister Prema, M.C., I was a little nervous since I had only met her once in Kolkata, India when she was superior general for the order. However, when she called me into a visitor’s room, her welcoming smile put me immediately at ease. 

Born into a strongly devout Catholic family in Westphalia, Germany, Sister Prema, M.C., attended Catholic schools and as she put it, “My heart was restless to find what God wants from me.” After finishing her studies in Germany, she went to England as a teacher for special needs children. She also encountered the lay-concentrated Focolarini movement and was drawn to their devotion, “… their way of being very radical and practical about living the gospel values.” 

The natural evolution of her faith to be “in the shoes of charity,” ultimately led her to the Missionaries of Charity. She joined the “Come and See” program in Essen, Germany when potential sisters enter a Missionaries of Charity community to discern their vocation. After six months in Germany, Sister Prema, M.C., was sent to Rome, Italy for the postulancy and novitiate. It was there that Saint Teresa of Kolkata was present for Sister Prema’s first and second vows to the order in in 1983 and 1989. She was 34 years old when she took her final vows. 

Sister Prema, M.C., said she always dreamed of being placed in South American homes, but Saint Teresa of Kolkata kept her in Rome and over the years had the opportunity to attend meetings between Pope John Paul II and Saint Teresa of Kolkata. “It was such a joy for mother, and I think for the Holy Father as well. He used to place his hand on her head and kept blessing her.” 

In terms of her public persona, Saint Teresa of Kolkata accepted the adulation as the will of God. The events themselves were not important to her but everyone meant everything to her. “Jesus, it was Jesus at the front. She had a mission to bring souls to Jesus.” I asked Sister Prema, M.C., what Saint Teresa of Kolkata’s secret was, “She made God’s love tangible, visible through her being and God formed her through the darkness to be very small and to know that it is God who is using me … she was terribly afraid of taking the place of Jesus.”

On taking her vows, “My first vows were in 1983, and those were also my final vows. In the sense I was determined. It was not probation - it was for life. This confirmed what I already had given to the Lord. I had an experience in prayer that I was bargaining with the Lord. I give you some of my life. He was not happy with that one. I then said, for life. I will give myself completely to you. Then he was satisfied.”

Two days after our meeting Sister Prema, M.C., who is now the regional director of the order for Eastern Europe left for Hungary where much of the work is focused on serving the gypsy communities. Several sisters kindly accompanied me to several homes in Poland. We also visited the Niepokalanow monastery founded by the martyred saint Maximilian Kolbe. Of note, Saint Maximilian Kolbe coined the phrase, “Love until it hurts,” a message Saint Teresa of Kolkata embraced in her own ministry.

Sr. Sefapano, M.C., the archivist for the Missionaries of Charity who is presently giving workshops for the sisters in the U.S., gave me a list of some of Saint Teresa of Kolkata’s favorite books. It is in one that I find the perfect description of Saint Teresa of Kolkata and her legacy found in her sisters. Paul De Jaegher, S.J., writes in “The Lord is My Joy,” “Authentically pure and holy joy begins above all when a soul has given herself entirely to God, left self to live in God. These are the joys of union.” I believe it is what Sister Joseph, M.C., meant by the horizontal and vertical way of allowing Jesus to abide in our hearts and our souls. Why do I personally have an unquenchable thirst to be with the sisters? I believe it is because when I walk through the doors of their homes, I know I am going to have an encounter with Christ. 


Photo: (Above) Saint Teresa of Kolkata and Sister Nirmala (who was second superior general) in pew of Sacred Heart Atlanta June 14, 1995. Photos Linda Schaefer/motherteresaofcalcutta.com


Sr. Mary Joseph, M.C., in Kolkata, India, January 2023.


Sr. Mary Prema, M.C., in Warsaw, Poland, August 2023.