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Our Catholic Foundation
Mary's Missionaries is a Catholic nonprofit dedicated to making God's love visible by providing for the fundamental needs of people in war-torn and impoverished countries.
We are named after Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God, who sends her missionaries into the world to save souls and draw people to her Son, Jesus Christ.
We are lay missionaries working with laypeople, priests, and religious brothers and sisters in Belize, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Uganda.
Our Catholic foundation teaches us that all people are created in the image and likeness of God and, therefore, deserving of love, empathy, and service.
In Belize, we provide healthcare and clothing to the poor. In Djibouti, we offer free meals to all who are hungry. In Ethiopia, we provide blind individuals with housing and fulfill their employment needs. In Uganda, we support rehabilitation programs for disabled children.
Mary's Missionaries is guided by Catholic Social Teaching and the Corporal Works of Mercy:
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Feed the hungry.
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Give drink to the thirsty.
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Shelter the homeless.
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Visit the sick.
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Visit the imprisoned.
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Bury the dead.
Jesus describes these works of mercy in Matthew 25: 34-36.
Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me."
In addition to the words of Jesus, Mary's Missionaries is inspired by the saints. Saint Francis of Assisi, who dedicated his ministry to seeing and serving Christ in the poor, is known for the following prayer, a prayer that we cherish.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
