St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish Church in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood is a multicultural community that welcomes migrants of various nationalities. Sr. Monica Zhang has found there a new field of apostolate and shares her experience. I owe this opportunity to the pandemic. The confinement at home and internet connections brought me into contact with a group of Chinese, based in Chicago. I was invited to join their weekly rosary, via Zoom, sharing about religious insights and the relationship with Mary.

After, I was invited by the parish team to work for evangelization in Chinatown, Chicago. It was a great opportunity to serve God’s people, especially the Chinese at St Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish. I started working as an outreach and formation coordinator in August.

In my 10 years in the United States, I have always lived in small towns. But I am learning a lot and I enjoy new encounters and challenges. The first thing I did was research about the neighborhoods. There is a good concentration of Chinese, but also a mix of Polish, Filipinos and Hispanics. On Sundays I attend different masses to get to know the parishioners and the parish situations. There are Masses in English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Indonesian.

This exposes me to the experience of multi-cultural communities in this parish. I walk around the neighborhood in Chinatown and Bridgeport asking for information and trying to build a relationship. But approaching people is not easy, as it seems they have become very sensitive to keeping their distance during the pandemic. But with the grace of the Holy Spirit, 4 people showed interest in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.