By Jennifer Mauro | Associate Editor
It was snowing heavily the day Terry McGuire got a call from the Missionaries of Charity sisters in Harlem, N.Y. Mother Teresa was visiting, and the sisters needed some mattresses.
So McGuire, parishioner in Our Lady of Perpetual Help-St. Agnes Parish, Atlantic Highlands, rummaged through her basement, found some beds and braved the storm.
“When I got there, the sisters told me Mother Teresa was resting, but if I came back the next day, I could meet her,” she recalled with a laugh.
Of course, she did. And the next day, she found herself eating a simple breakfast of toast and bananas with a woman who would one day become a saint.
“I was just speechless,” she said. “I felt that all I could do was,” she paused, “breathe.”
Before leaving, McGuire was asked to kneel for a blessing with her friend Barney Welch – founder of The Barn for the Poorest of the Poor, Middletown, a nonprofit organization that distributes food to the needy. Welch had a long history with Mother Teresa, as he had been supplying food to New Jersey and New York City soup kitchens, Missionaries of Charity convents, parishes and more since 1981, when his niece entered the order.
“Mother Teresa had me kneel next to Barney and hold his foot while she blessed him,” McGuire said, explaining that Welch’s foot was injured. “I was looking down at her bare feet, and she had one toe that went across the other. It made me think of the Sign of the Cross.”
McGuire has been working for 25 years to help the needy. Over the years, she’s volunteered with The Barn for the Poorest of the Poor as well as taken high-schoolers into poverty-stricken areas such as New York City and Trenton to work in soup kitchens and interact with the less fortunate on the streets. She currently organizes the distribution of food on Fridays at a field near the Missionaries of Charity convent in Asbury Park.
McGuire is one of many lay people who have been inspired by Mother Teresa to actively live her mission of service.
Gerry Duffy, The Barn’s executive director, and his wife, Karin – both of St. Mary Parish, Middletown – have been working with the organization since 1987.
“We’re humbled by it,” he said. “The benefits are enormous if you realize you’re here to serve – not be served.”
Duffy, who succeeded Welch after he died in 2010, oversees an organization that distributes food to nearly 40 locations a week, including the Missionaries of Charity sisters in Asbury Park and New York City and McGuire’s field at the corner of Springwood and Atkins Avenues.
“We’re all called to be a saint, and we’re all working at it as best we can in limited ways,” he said. “She [Mother Teresa] persevered, and that’s a great lesson for all of us. If you persevere, the prize at the end will be yours.”
The couple will be in Rome Sept. 4 for Mother Teresa’s canonization. They were given two tickets by the sisters in the Bronx, N.Y., which will allow the Duffys to sit with the Missionaries of Charity instead of being part of the general assembly.
“It doesn’t happen every day that someone who has affected your whole life becomes a saint,” Duffy said, explaining that the couple was excited about the trip.
Kathy Plath, also of St. Mary Parish, says she, too, is anxiously awaiting the canonization of the woman who inspired her to serve the less fortunate.
“She was as human as the rest of us,” Plath said of Mother Teresa. “But isn’t that the case with all of the saints?”
Plath volunteers with the Missionaries of Charity in Asbury Park, working in their soup kitchen, petitioning in parish bulletins for items to help the sisters aid the needy and running a girls club on Friday afternoons in which the sisters often take part.
“The girls absolutely love them,” Plath said of the sisters. “They’re so faith-filled. The charism of Mother Teresa just shines through them.”
On a recent Sunday afternoon, Plath and her husband delivered back-to-school items to the Asbury Park convent. With temperatures topping 90 degrees outside and the humidity rising inside the non-air-conditioned building, there were nothing but smiles as backpacks lined the convent hallway.
“If we all followed in Mother’s footsteps, I don’t think we’d ever disappoint Jesus,” Plath said.
Desiring to know more about the soon-to-be saint, Plath traveled to India years ago to see how and where Mother Teresa started her ministry.
“It gives you a different perspective on seeing the poor when you see the face of God in everyone you meet,” she said. “We’re not social workers; we’re not trying to fix anyone. We’re just trying to be Christ to our neighbors.”
That was a sentiment shared by McGuire, explaining the relationship between the people she and her volunteers serve at the field behind the Asbury Park convent every week
“They’re happy we’re there, and we’re happy to be there,” she said. “It’s a mutual admiration.”