BOSTON, United States — For the last five years, our Province of St. Mary in New York has been running a very inspiring ministry. It’s called the “Mobile Ministry”: a van loaded with food, warm socks, and prayers that travels the streets of New York and Boston. This is not a typical soup kitchen, but an initiative that offers “spiritual resources for the road,” as Friar Paul Fesefeldt calls it. For the past five years, the Province of St. Mary has created an itinerant ministry that blends material support with spiritual care, reaching out to homeless individuals on the city streets.
The idea, which originated during the COVID-19 pandemic and was developed with meticulous organization, is based on a simple but profound principle: every person met on the street is not just someone being helped, but becomes a spiritual part of the community. A group of friars, including Friar Samuel Fuller, Friar Anthony Zuba, and Friar Francesco Serrano, runs the initiative, supported by about 60 volunteers. The volunteers prepare sandwiches, load the van with food and drinks donated by businesses and individuals, and participate in serving guests during the “tour.”
But the heart of this service-ministry is something else. The friars and volunteers write down the names of those who ask for help, prayer, or the simple gift of a rosary. Every day, during the community’s prayers, these names are read aloud, transforming a simple act of charity into a deep spiritual connection.
In Boston, the van usually follows a well-established route: Central Square, Harvard University, the Cambridge Library, the Boston Public Library, the Veterans House, the Boston Common, and finally Nubian Square, the last stop. Dozens of people have received not only a hot meal or socks, but also closeness and a prayer.
“A kind gentleman approached and asked only for prayer,” one of the friars recounts, describing the encounter at the Cambridge Library stop. “I felt blessed to pray for this man, who, after our simple prayer, felt very reinvigorated.”
This is the essence of the initiative: not only to feed bodies but also to nourish spirits, offering a ray of hope and a sense of belonging to those living on the streets.