By Thea Jarvis

“Why is she coming to Atlanta?”

That was a question asked often when the visit of Mother Teresa was announced. But her arrival was an eagerly awaited blessing to a faithful band of volunteers and professionals who are welcomed regularly by the Missionaries of Charity at the Gift of Grace House on St. Charles Avenue.

Carol Braun first met the Missionaries of Charity when she and her husband John renovated the property for the order’s Atlanta foundation in 1993. The site included a 14-room home formerly used as a day care center and a garage with an upstairs apartment.

The work was slow going because of the extensive remodeling and the sisters’ unhurried pace. “They believe things happen when they’re supposed to happen,” said Mrs. Braun, a St. Ann’s parishioner. “You have to go with God’s flow. We had to make (the property) safe and livable, but according to their standards.”

The sisters’ simple lifestyle meant that ‘standards’ for their living quarters were pared down. Although the large guest house for homeless women with AIDS and their children was outfitted with standard amenities like air conditioning and appliances, the Missionaries themselves require no such luxuries.

“They are very conservative” in their needs, Mrs. Bran said, carefully limiting their use of water, electricity and creature comforts. The sisters have only two changes of clothing, “one to wear and one to wash.” Their saris are cleaned by hand each day and hung out to dry.

A five-gallon bucket filled from a tap is used for daily bathing and indoor heating temperatures are low in winter, Mrs. Braun said. Cots and handsewn mattresses are provided for sleeping.

During their first summer of remodeling, the Missionaries used a sunny second-floor bedroom in the larger house as a chapel. There, Mrs. Braun and friends from St. Ann’s often took part in the sisters’ afternoon holy hour.

“It was so hot up there,” Mrs. Braun remembered with good humor. “We were like drowned rats, literally dripping with perspiration.”

The sisters, comfortable in their cotton habits and unruffled by the heat, ran a small fan for the benefit of their guests. “They aimed it at us,” said Mrs. Braun, keeping well out of the path of the fan’s cooling breezes.

Though some find such self-denial old-fashioned or foolish, said Mrs. Braun, she is frankly drawn to the spiritual values underlying the Missionaries’ way of life. Detachment from worldly things is the basis of their spirituality and a springboard for ministry with the poorest of the poor, she said.

“They are so joyful all the time, and get so much pleasure out of the least little thing. If you turn everything over to God, there are no more cares or worries, just total trust and joy.”

Despite their simple lifestyle, the sisters are well-educated and well-traveled, Mrs. Braun said. A lengthy formation period, with hands-on assignments that can span the globe, allows the Missionaries a clear picture of the life they have chosen.

The Missionaries focus on a strong community life that includes daily Mass and specific prayer times, yet maintain an active outreach to the world around them. Their current ministry here not only involved hospitality to the homeless, but also touches Atlanta’s Vietnamese community, Hispanic missions and countless parishes whose members share in the sisters’ work.

Like Mrs. Braun, visitors to the sisters’ daily holy hours easily fall into the peaceful rhythm of traditional prayer and gentle hymns, the rosary and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that reflect the Missionaries’ inner life.

“It was a real gift for me” to have worked so closely with the Missionaries, Mrs. Braun said. “I feel privileged” to know them.

Dr. Sharne Sheehey, a family practice physician working at the Grady Infectious Disease Clinic, knew the acute need for the dedicated care the sisters offer. Many of her patients were indigent and homeless women with AIDS.

Dr. Sheehey said the Gift of Grace House “really helps us and allows the indigent to die in a dignified setting.” Before, she said, one of the “terrible problems” faced by the people with AIDS and their health care providers was the scarcity of such facilities. “It fulfills a major need...both physical and spiritual.”

The hospice on St. Charles Avenue in Midtown becomes a “safe haven” for women who come there to die, said Dr. Sheehey, adding that the youngest patient admitted was 19. Often the women are poor or have been shunned by their family. In the peaceful environment the sisters provide, they become more open and peaceful, almost as if “they heave a sigh of relief at the loving attention.”

“It’s a beautiful place and the sisters keep it spotlessly clean,” she said, although “a lot of people still don’t know it exists.”

Father Jim Hurley, M.S., parochial vicar at St. Ann’s, was one of a number of local priests who celebrated Mass with the sisters when they arrived in Atlanta two years ago. Using St. Anthony’s old convent as their base, the sisters happily welcomed Father Hurley and others who generously made daily Mass available to them.

“The love of the Eucharist and love of Mary is the core of their spirituality,” Father Hurley said, citing Mother Teresa’s belief that she could never see Christ in those she served if she didn’t meet him in the Eucharist each morning.

“There’s a spirit of joy there,” Father Hurley said of the Atlanta foundation. “They’re angels of charity.”

Father Hurley said he enjoyed surprising the sisters with milkshakes and sundaes, items they would not consider buying for themselves.

“They never ask for anything,” she said, but live a dedicated life of poverty. When he arrived with ice cream, “they were in seventh heaven,” like children given a special treat.

The Missionaries possess unusual gifts of grace and confidence, qualities of added importance when working with people who are fearful, ill and often helpless, Father Hurley said. “They know this is the Lord’s work. They do what nobody else does.”

Father John Fallon, one of the Missionaries’ local chaplains, said the sisters identify themselves with the poverty of Christ, “living the radical demands of the Gospel.”

Besides providing ministerial assistance to many of their non-Catholic patients, the sisters offer spiritual nourishment that sometimes leads to conversion, Father Fallon said.

“Many (AIDS patients) who have been admitted to the House of Grace have asked to be received into the Catholic Church before they die,” he said. “It is an incredible ministry that they do.”

The sisters treat each patient as if they were caring for Christ himself, “(staying) with the patients right up to the moment of death,” said Father Fallon. Their smiles, faith, and unconditional love “help the dying understand that they are destined for heaven and will soon be in God’s presence.”

When the Missionaries’ founder came to New York in 1984, she was driven around town by Father Rick Figliozzi, now pastor of Our Holy Redeemer Church in Freeport, N.Y.

At the time, Father Figliozzi was working with the Missionary Fathers of Charity, the sisters’ fraternal order. His assignment gave him the opportunity to talk at length with Mother Teresa.

“It’s what really has guided my priesthood,” he said of their time together. Because Mother Teresa so strongly reflects Christ,” (she) inspires other people to do the same.”

Father Figliozzi has met with Mother Teresa several times since her New York visit and continues to be motivated by her thought and example.

“She has a special gift from God, a tremendous sense of the presence of Christ,” he said, reaching out to Christ “in the distressing disguise of the poor.”

“She believes what you can’t do, I can do, and what I can’t do, you can do, but we are all called to do something beautiful for God.”

The order’s autonomy, its singular lack of reliance on outside funding or grants, make the Missionaries focused and efficient, he feels.

“They never get involved in answering (critics) or defending themselves, but are simply set on doing their work.” Their freedom from competitiveness and negativity “dissipates any tension that bogs down so many good works,” he said.