ENCOUNTERING OUR SHARED DEPENDENCE ON GRACE | KAIROS GLOBAL | FEBRUARY 2026

Author: Abigail George

Intro: On a yearlong commitment, Abigail George shares her experiences of working with the homeless.

Since August 2025, I have been serving with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, a yearlong commitment shaped by the Ignatian call to find God in all things. I chose to step into this year of service after experiencing a deep sense of desolation at the beginning of my professional career. Though my work was stable, I felt unfulfilled, restless, and without a clear sense of purpose. I was deeply aware of the gift of a supportive family, whose encouragement gave me the freedom to enter into discernment and search for something more.

I was drawn to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps because of its four pillars: community, simple living, social justice, and spirituality. These values had already shaped me through earlier experiences at School of Nazareth (a formation programme in Delray Beach, Florida) and the Taizé community in France (I lived and volunteered there for 3 months). I felt the invitation to something deeper: not simply to admire these values, but to live them daily in an integrated and intentional way. 

While I entered the application process open to many types of placements, I carried a particular fear of working with the homeless community. I was aware of the prejudices and judgments I held, shaped by my own limited worldview. I doubted whether I had the capacity to accompany people whose suffering felt overwhelming and complex. In hindsight, I recognise this fear as an invitation to move toward the margins. I was ultimately matched with Friendship Park, a programme of Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento, California.

Loaves & Fishes is a non-profit organisation that provides respite and survival services for people experiencing homelessness. Founded by a couple deeply formed by Jesuit theology, the organisation operates with an ecumenical spirit that reflects the Church’s long-standing call to unity through love for the poor. The conviction of the inherent dignity of every human person and that the poor are not burdens to society, but neighbours whose lives demand justice and care shapes the mission of Loaves & Fishes today. The core expectation of every staff member and volunteer is to love fully and to be wholly present to the person before us.

Loaves & Fishes includes many programmes, such as a school for children experiencing homelessness and a shelter for women who face deep trauma and mental health issues from years of being on the street. I serve at Friendship Park, an outdoor respite centre for adults experiencing homelessness. Guests are free to enter and remain without expectations or requirements placed upon them. Within this space, they have consistent access to meals, hygiene supplies, survival items, and connections to external resources for mental health, recovery, rehabilitation, and housing support. Loaves & Fishes is not focused on resolving the deeper traumas or systemic injustices that shape homelessness, but to love faithfully and to remain consistent. Through this steady affirmation of the person’s dignity, the hope is that guests are empowered to trust themselves, trust others, and eventually become open to the resources and relationships that can support healing and change.

In my formal role as the Special Events and Activities Coordinator, I plan chess tournaments, bingo, and art projects, but my deeper vocation is one of accompaniment. I am called to build community, foster relationships, and help cultivate a space where guests feel safe, welcomed, and truly seen. Much of this work unfolds through simple presence, consistency, and the willingness to listen. At the same time, this ministry has continually challenged my desire for efficiency, measurable outcomes, and visible success.

There are days when it feels as though nothing I plan is enough and few people are willing to participate in the activities I have prepared. I have made it a practice to walk around the park to personally invite each guest into whatever space has been created for that day. More often than not, I am met with rejection. In the beginning, this affected me deeply. I struggled with the sense that my efforts were failing if attendance was low or if I was turned away repeatedly. Over time, however, my understanding of success has shifted. The few people who do choose to come often open the door to genuine connection and relationship. Through this work, I have been forced to slow down, to pay attention, and to notice where consolation arises in unexpected places, and where God’s grace is quietly at work. I am learning that the people I accompany are not objects of service, but subjects of encounter.

It has been tempting to compartmentalise, to show up fully during work hours and then retreat into comfort and distance. Living in the city has made that separation impossible. I encounter the people I serve at Friendship Park in the streets, at bus stops, and in the raw reality of sleeping outside. In these moments, something shifts. We recognise one another. They acknowledge me, and I acknowledge them – not as roles or responsibilities, but as people who know each other’s names and stories. The relationship does not end when the workday does. It becomes part of my daily life, shaping how I move through the city and how I understand community. This integration has revealed to me that love for the poor is not meant to be a task, but a way of living.

One of the most unexpected graces of this work has come through my co-workers. They are not saints or ‘good’ people. They struggle with their own wounds, frustrations, and human limitations. There are moments of tension, exhaustion, and imperfection. Yet they continue to show up because they have made a commitment through their work to serve the poor with care and integrity. This has been deeply liberating for me. It has dismantled the belief that one must be a certain type of person, morally exceptional, spiritually advanced, or emotionally whole, to accompany others in their suffering. God does not wait for our perfection before calling us into mission. Pope Francis often reminds the Church that ‘the poor are at the centre of the Gospel,’ not because they are idealised, but because they reveal our shared dependence on grace. 

This awareness has made my work so much more meaningful because loving the poor does not stop with material poverty. While homelessness exposes a harsh and visible injustice that demands our attention, it has also revealed to me that every person carries some form of poverty. In naming our shared need for grace, love for the poor becomes love for all, without ever diminishing the real suffering of those who lack the necessities of life. When I acknowledge my own poverty, the distance between myself and those I serve collapses. Love for the poor becomes less about charity and more about communion. Pope Francis writes that true solidarity is learned only through encounter, and it is in these encounters that Christ is revealed.

The graces I have received from this year are many: deeper humility, greater freedom in my own poverty, and a more honest faith. I am learning that love for the poor is not measured by outcomes, but by fidelity, showing up, remaining attentive, and trusting that God is already at work. This year of service has revealed love not as an abstract ideal, but as a daily, incarnational practice. I have come to understand that loving the poor is not an optional expression of faith, but a privileged place of encounter with Christ Himself.

Abigail George is a Jesuit Volunteer in Sacramento, California. Originally from Coral Springs, Florida, she was deeply formed through her family’s involvement in Jesus Youth. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Sociology from Florida Atlantic University in May 2023. She continues to discern how faith, justice, and community intersects in her life.