I'm sure many of you are wondering how I came to be motivated to serve alongside the Missionaries of Charity in India, Kolkata. So here's the story...

As many of you may know, I'm a prideful person. I love competition and feed off of a winning victory, either way, I was struggling with my pride and virtue of humility. And it distanced me from growing closer in relations with my family, friends, and my relationship with God. I started praying the litany of humility and for months nothing came to me. But it didn't stop me from trusting in the powers of prayer. One specific day after praying the Litany along with the rosary and a special prayer intention in front of the Blessed Sacrament, to understand how I can obtain this virtue of humility, I went downstairs and feel asleep on one of the couch in the Newman Center. Half an hour later, I awoke from my nap and the words that rolled out of my mouth were, "I need to go to Kolkata". Someone that overheard me from the other room stuck there head into the room I was in and asked "what?" But even then I had no clue what I was talking about. A couple days pasted but the zeal didn't fade but rather I grew more and more passionate about this urgency to travel to India and to serve those of the poor. Researching the possibility of working with the Missionaries of Charity fueled this desire even more.I was constantly on the internet searching for plane tickets, contacts, hotels, and researching about the history of how India became how it is. Later on that week I prayed the Litany of Humility again and then everything came together and made sense to me; God was challenging me to grow in humility by humbling myself to serve those of the poorest of the poor. He was going to help me grow closer to him, taking on Jesus in the most distressing disguise of the poor in the slums of Kolkata. What can be more humbling then being a servant among those that are weak and lowly, rejected, destitute, orphans, and that society lack to acknowledge. This was my mission God’s given me; to be a servant to those he loves so much, the poor. To become a prophet of God’s love to them and all others I come in contact with. This zeal and passion to serve and love has ignited a fire within me that I couldn't turn away from and so I started planning, fundraising, serving those around my community, in Mexico during Spring Break and now, here I am! I'm still at the very beginning of my journey and will spend a life time working towards humility but what I've come to learn is that the moment you think you've obtained the virtue of humility, you've already lost it. So let us all humble ourselves to become a blessing to others, for our greatest example of Love has humbled himself and came down from being praised and glorified in the Heavens to be among those of the poorest of the poor. Humbling himself to be ridicule, mocked, spit on, condemned, scourged, humiliated, and crucified by the same world he came to show ultimate selfless love. May we only strive to become an imitation of Christ to others. Blessed Virgin Mary, help and guide us to your only beloved Son.

Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…