Sr. Marcela is photographed with two friends from Christ House in Washington, DC. Sr. Marcella began working with homeless people in 1979 as a social worker in Washington, DC, USA. She now serves as a pastoral assistant and lives at Christ House, along with other clinicians and 34 homeless people.

Safe Haven for Sick and Dying Homeless

At one point or another we’ve all got to leave our comfort zones and decide to make a difference in other people’s lives, according to Marcella Jordan, SND, who made her decision 20 years ago, when she began living and working with homeless and seriously ill people.

Home is a large brick building named Christ House in the Adams-Morgan section of northwest Washington, D.C. Its walls are shared among a number of medical and social service professionals who tend to the needs of the 34 homeless and sick people, mostly men, who live there. “It is a place for healing, medically and spiritually,” says Sr. Marcella.

“This program has changed over the years according to the needs of the time,” says Sr. Marcella, citing a similarity between Christ House and the life and work of St. Julie Billiart, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
“You have a man who is homeless,” Sr. Marcella says flatly, “and he has a broken leg because he was hit by a car while drunk, or he has cancer, or HIV, or TB, or he is blind and wheelchaired. Where does he go when it snows? Where does he go at night?”

Twenty-years ago, while working as a socialworker across the street from what was to become Christ House—and her home—Sr. Marcella joined forces with a physician and her Methodist-minister husband and a few others, and opened Christ House to care for the sick and dying homeless in the area. In 1993, she gave up her focus on social work to concentrate fully on pastoral counseling.

Christ House has given Sr. Marcella a new kind of comfort zone. But she continues making a difference every day. “I’m their friend; that’s all,” she said.

SR. MARCELLA'S MINISTRY REFLECTION

HOME PAGE