Tucked into one of Chicago’s poorest and most overlooked neighborhoods is a thriving community rooted in joy, service and daily Eucharistic prayer and devotion. The Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago, founded in 2010 at The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels on Chicago’s West Side, live by a simple yet profound motto: love God, love the poor and let everything flow from the Eucharist.
“For us as Franciscans, the mystery of the Incarnation is central,” Sister Alicia Torres explained. “St. Francis was deeply moved that the Son of God took on human flesh and dwelt among us. And the most powerful presence of Jesus we have on this side of heaven is the Eucharist.”
Sister Alicia’s love for the Eucharist began early. Growing up Catholic, she and her siblings often visited the Blessed Sacrament with their mother after school. “I remember being drawn to the sanctuary lamp when I was about seven,” she recalled. “My mom had explained that the light meant Jesus was truly there, and I was deeply moved by that.”
As a teenager, her family would stop by the adoration chapel on Fridays. “I didn’t always want to go inside because we had already prayed so much during school,” she shared. “My mom never forced us to enter. Often my siblings stayed in the car, but I usually went in because I felt bad sitting outside. I believed Jesus was really there.”
She reflected, “It was a huge grace that my mom didn’t force us to visit the Blessed Sacrament. The Lord was quietly working in my heart.”
Seeing Jesus in the poor
When Sister Alicia moved to Chicago to attend Loyola University in 2003, she carried those practices with her: daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration and a growing personal prayer life. It was there she sensed a deeper call.
“I noticed many peers looked unhappy, burdened by a kind of heaviness,” she said. “I realized this was likely because they lacked a relationship with God.”
That insight clarified her own call to a deeper relationship with Christ and eventually religious life. Meeting now-Bishop Bob Lombardo, CFR, who came to Chicago’s West Side to start a Franciscan mission in an underserved area, opened a new path. Many young adults were drawn to the service and prayer that then Father Bob was fostering and desired to commit their whole lives to Christ as religious. Lombardo perceived that the Holy Spirit was inspiring a new expression of the Franciscan charism, and discerned this with the blessing of the late Cardinal Francis George, who was the Archbishop of Chicago at the time. The community was canonically erected on September 1, 2010.
“What drew me here was knowing our life would be rooted in the Eucharist — daily Mass and daily Eucharistic adoration,” she said. “And that men and women would intentionally work together to serve the Lord and the poor.”
The Franciscans of the Eucharist live and serve in Humboldt Park, once home to Our Lady of the Angels School, the site of a tragic 1958 fire that claimed 92 children and three sisters. Today the neighborhood faces poverty, violence and hardship.
In response, the community operates one of the city’s largest food pantries, hosts block parties, offers retreats, parish missions and summer youth programs, and teaches religion in local Catholic schools — all while living in intentional community grounded in prayer.
“The work with the poor is so powerful,” Sister Alicia said. “Mother Teresa said — and Bishop Bob often reminded us — that if you can’t see Jesus in the Eucharist, you can’t see him in the poor. I have always taken that to heart.”
Giving back to God
The Eucharist is not only their inspiration; it is their daily reality. “We come together every day for Mass and for holy hour,” she said. “We eat together, we pray together. That rhythm of contemplation and mission makes our life beautiful.”
That rhythm also has evangelizing power. “Many volunteers have been returning to Mass,” Sister Alicia shared. “Some started participating in Eucharistic adoration. Others went to confession after decades. A simple, kind invitation from someone you trust can be life-changing.”
One story still moves her deeply. “One day we saw a group of children outside the rectory window,” she recalled. “One boy said, ‘God lives in the gold box.’ He meant the tabernacle. The kids were excited, jumping up to see it, filled with awe.”
“They probably never saw a tabernacle before,” she said. “But that child was so convinced by what he heard the sisters teach him during Bible camp that he wanted to tell all his friends.”
For the Franciscans, serving the poor is not political but rather spiritual, personal and Eucharistic. “The poor remind us of our spiritual poverty and need for God,” Sister Alicia said. “Jesus gave us everything. Doesn’t it make sense to give everything back?”
This Eucharistic vision of self-giving shapes every part of their lives. “We strive to live the Gospel just like St. Francis did, first through our own daily conversion and then through loving service to every person we encounter” she explained. “We’re not perfect, but with Jesus, we learn to look beyond annoyances and recognize each person as a beloved child of God.”
