<---The Flame of Love of the Immacualate Heart of Mary.
Mother Teresa's date of birth is disputed: "So unconcerned was she about accuracy in relation to the chronicling of her own life, and so disinclined actually to read anything written about her, that for many years and in a succession of books her birthdate was erroneously recorded as 27 August 1910.
It even appeared in the Indian Loreto Entrance Book as her date of birth. In fact, as she confided to her friend, co-worker and American author, Eileen Egan, that was the date on which she was christened Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. The date which marked the beginning of her Christian life was undoubtedly the more important to Mother Teresa, but she was none the less actually born in Skopje, Serbia, on the previous day."
Moter Teresa said: “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.
”Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor.
“God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.” She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.”
After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.
On 10 September 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her “inspiration,” her “call within a call.”
On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus’ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.”
“Come be My light,” He begged her. “I cannot go alone.” He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor.
Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.
After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On 21 December she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB.
She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students.
Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.
On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.
The new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.
n order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers.
Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love.
This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a “little way of holiness” for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit.
During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honoured her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.”
The whole of Mother Teresa’s life and labour bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God.
But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, “the darkness.”
The “painful night” of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor.
During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa’s Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world.
In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On 5 September Mother Teresa’s earthly life came to an end.
She was given the honour of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity.
Her response to Jesus’ plea, “Come be My light,” made her a Missionary of Charity, a “mother to the poor,” a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God.
The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers.
The Missionaries of Charity throughout the world are aided and assisted by Co-Workers who became an official International Association on March 29, 1969. By the 1990s there were over one million Co-Workers in more than 40 countries. Along with the Co-Workers, the lay Missionaries of Charity try to follow Mother Teresa's spirit and charism in their families.
Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.
Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa’s widespread reputation of holiness and the favours being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On 20 December 2002 he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.
BEATIFICATION OF MOTHER THERESA OF CALCUTTA. HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
World Mission Sunday
Sunday, 19 October 2003
1.- "Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all" (Mk10: 44). Jesus' words to his disciples that have just rung out in this Square show us the way to evangelical "greatness". It is the way walked by Christ himself that took him to the Cross: a journey of love and service that overturns all human logic. To be the servant of all!
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Foundress of the Missionaries of Charity whom today I have the joy of adding to the Roll of the Blesseds, allowed this logic to guide her. I am personally grateful to this courageous woman whom I have always felt beside me. Mother Teresa, an icon of the Good Samaritan, went everywhere to serve Christ in the poorest of the poor. Not even conflict and war could stand in her way.
Every now and then she would come and tell me about her experiences in her service to the Gospel values. I remember, for example, her pro-life and anti-abortion interventions, even when she was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace (Oslo, 10 December 1979). She often used to say: "If you hear of some woman who does not want to keep her child and wants to have an abortion, try to persuade her to bring him to me. I will love that child, seeing in him the sign of God's love".
2.- Is it not significant that her beatification is taking place on the very day on which the Church celebrates World Mission Sunday? With the witness of her life, Mother Teresa reminds everyone that the evangelizing mission of the Church passes through charity, nourished by prayer and listening to God's word. Emblematic of this missionary style is the image that shows the new Blessed clasping a child's hand in one hand while moving her Rosary beads with the other.
Contemplation and action, evangelization and human promotion: Mother Teresa proclaimed the Gospel living her life as a total gift to the poor but, at the same time, steeped in prayer.
3.- Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant" (Mk 10: 43). With particular emotion we remember today Mother Teresa, a great servant of the poor, of the Church and of the whole world. Her life is a testimony to the dignity and the privilege of humble service. She had chosen to be not just the least but to be the servant of the least. As a real mother to the poor, she bent down to those suffering various forms of poverty. Her greatness lies in her ability to give without counting the cost, to give "until it hurts". Her life was a radical living and a bold proclamation of the Gospel.
The cry of Jesus on the Cross, "I thirst" (Jn 19: 28), expressing the depth of God's longing for man, penetrated Mother Teresa's soul and found fertile soil in her heart. Satiating Jesus' thirst for love and for souls in union with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, had become the sole aim of Mother Teresa's existence and the inner force that drew her out of herself and made her "run in haste" across the globe to labour for the salvation and the sanctification of the poorest of the poor.
4.- "As you did to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25: 40). This Gospel passage, so crucial in understanding Mother Teresa's service to the poor, was the basis of her faith-filled conviction that in touching the broken bodies of the poor she was touching the body of Christ. It was to Jesus himself, hidden under the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor, that her service was directed. Mother Teresa highlights the deepest meaning of service - an act of love done to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, prisoners (cf. Mt 25: 34-36) is done to Jesus himself.
Recognizing him, she ministered to him with wholehearted devotion, expressing the delicacy of her spousal love. Thus, in total gift of herself to God and neighbour, Mother Teresa found her greatest fulfilment and lived the noblest qualities of her femininity. She wanted to be a sign of "God's love, God's presence and God's compassion", and so remind all of the value and dignity of each of God's children, "created to love and be loved". Thus was Mother Teresa "bringing souls to God and God to souls" and satiating Christ's thirst, especially for those most in need, those whose vision of God had been dimmed by suffering and pain.
5.- "The Son of man also came... to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10: 45). Mother Teresa shared in the Passion of the crucified Christ in a special way during long years of "inner darkness". For her that was a test, at times an agonizing one, which she accepted as a rare "gift and privilege".
In the darkest hours she clung even more tenaciously to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. This harsh spiritual trial led her to identify herself more and more closely with those whom she served each day, feeling their pain and, at times, even their rejection. She was fond of repeating that the greatest poverty is to be unwanted, to have no one to take care of you.
6. "Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you". How often, like the Psalmist, did Mother Teresa call on her Lord in times of inner desolation: "In you, in you I hope, my God!".
Let us praise the Lord for this diminutive woman in love with God, a humble Gospel messenger and a tireless benefactor of humanity. In her we honour one of the most important figures of our time. Let us welcome her message and follow her example.
Virgin Mary, Queen of all the Saints, help us to be gentle and humble of heart like this fearless messenger of Love. Help us to serve every person we meet with joy and a smile. Help us to be missionaries of Christ, our peace and our hope. Amen!
LAST INTERVIEW WITH MOTHER TERESA.
The magazine gave the Brazilian Missionary Borders Sem. Here are some passages which conveyed the agency Zenit:
HOW MANY ARE THE MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY?
Teresa of Calcutta: 3604 We have sisters who have pronounced their religious vows, 411 novices, 260 aspirants to religious. We are scattered in 119 countries. Today we have 560 booths or houses.
WHY CALL THEM "TABERNACLES"?
Teresa of Calcutta: Because Jesus is present in these homes. These houses of Jesus. Our congregation wants to help people to satisfy their thirst for Jesus. This rescue and try to sanctify the poorest of the poor. Utter the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. But we have also received special permission to make a fourth vow: ourselves at the service of the poorest of the poor.
YOU OFTEN SAID THAT THERE IS NO LOVE WITHOUT SUFFERING.
Mother Teresa: Yes, true love hurts. Every life and every family relationship must be lived honestly. This presupposes a lot of sacrifices and love. But at the same time, these sufferings are always accompanied by a great sense of peace. When a house is peaceful, there are also the joy, unity and love.
HIS CONGREGATION HAS OPENED HOMES FOR "AIDS" PATIENTS IN DIFFERENTS PARTS OF THE WORLD...
Teresa of Calcutta: A few years ago, some people went further to commit suicide when they received the news that they were suffering from AIDS. Today not one person dies in despair and anguish in our homes. Everyone, including non-Catholics, die in the Lord's peace. Do not you think this is wonderful? The rules of the congregation indicated that work for the poor must either be" in the spiritual realm as in the material.
"WHAT IS MEANT BY SPIRITUAL POVERTY"?
Teresa of Calcutta: The spiritually poor are those who have not discovered Jesus or those who have been separated from Him because of sin. Those living on the street are also in need of help in this regard. On the other hand, I'm perfectly happy to see that, in our world, we also have the help of well established, to whom we offer the opportunity to do good work for God.
DO YOU RECEIVE HELP ALSO PEOPLE OF OTHER RELIGIONS?
Mother Teresa: Yes, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and many others. A few months ago, a Japanese Buddhist group came to talk to me about spirituality. I told them that we fast every first Friday of the month and the money we saved was used for the poor. When returned home, they asked the Buddhist families and communities to do the same. The money collected has enabled us to build the first floor of our downtown "Shanti Dan" ( "Gift of Peace") for girls who are in jail. Over a hundred girls have already left prison.
THOSE WHO CRITICIZE ENSURE THAT YOUR SOLE PURPOSE IS TO CONVERT NON-CHRISTIANS...
Teresa of Calcutta: No one can force or require the conversion, takes place only by the grace of God. The best conversion is to help people to love each other. We who are sinners, we were created to become children of God and we must help each other to be as close to Him We are all called to love.
YOU SAY THAT YOUR SISTERS ARE NOT SOCIAL WORKERS.
Teresa of Calcutta: We are contemplative, for "pray" our work. We play a social work, but we women consecrated to God in the world today. We have entrusted our lives to Jesus and Jesus gave his life in the Eucharist. The work we do is important, but what matters is not the person doing that job.
We do this through Jesus Christ, because we love it. We are not able to do everything. Anyway, I always pray for all who care about the needs and miseries of the people. Many wealthy people have joined our action. Personally we have nothing. We live off the charity and the charity.
-AND OF PROVIDENCE...
Teresa of Calcutta: We always face unforeseen needs. God is infinitely good. Always concerned about us.
WHY DO SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE ENTER IN YOUR CONGREGATION hy do so many young people enter in your congregation?
Mother Teresa: I think they appreciate our prayer life. We pray four hours a day. Furthermore, they see what we do for the poor. Not that they are important and impressive work. What we do is very discreet, but we do it for the little ones.
YOUR ARE A WELL-KNOWN. DO NOT YOU EVER GET TIRED OF SEEING SO MANY PEOPLE, PHOTOGRAPHS...?
Teresa of Calcutta: I consider it a sacrifice, but also a blessing for society. God and I have made a pact: I said "for every photo you make me, You take to release a soul from purgatory .... "Between smiles, he adds. I think that at this rate, soon will be empty purgatory.
WHAT MESSAGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEAVE US?
Teresa of Calcutta: Love one another as Jesus loves you. I have nothing to add to the message that Jesus left us. To love one must have a pure heart and pray. The fruit of prayer is the deepening of faith. The fruit of faith is love. And the fruit of love is service to others. This brings us peace.
TIME MAGAZINE. INTERVIEW TO MOTHER TERESA: MISSIONARY OF COMPASSION
December 4th 1989.
A Pencil In the Hand Of God.
Mother Teresa sees poverty as a kind of richness -- and richness as impoverishment -- as she cares for the dying and unwanted of Calcutta.
BY EDWARD W. DESMOND.
WHAT DID YOU DO THIS MORNING?
Pray.
WHEN DID YOU START?
At half past four in the morming.
AND AFTER PRAYER?
We try to pray through our work by doing it with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us put our whole heart and soul into doing it. The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved -- they are Jesus in disguise.
PEOPLE KNOW YOU AS A SORT OF RELIGIOUS SOCIAL WORKERS. DO THEY UNDERSTAND THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF YOUR WORK?
I don't know. But I give them a chance to come and touch the poor. Everybody has to experience that. So many young people give up everything to do just that. This is something so completely unbelievable in the world, no? And yet it is wonderful. Our volunteers go back different people.
DOES THE FACT THAT YOU ARE A WOMAN MAKE YOUR MESSAGE MORE UNDERSTANDABLE?
I never think like that.
BUT DON´T YOU THINK THE WORLD RESPONDS BETTER TO A MOTHER?
People are responding not because of me but because of what we are doing. I think that before people were speaking much about the poor, but now more and more people are speaking to the poor. That is the great difference.
Before, nobody bothered about the people in the street. We have picked up from the streets of Calcutta 54,000 people, and 23,000-something have died in that one room (at Kalighat).
HUMBLE AS YOUR ARE, IT MUST BE AN EXTRAORDINARY THING TO BE A VEHICLE OF GOD´S GRACE IN THE WORLD.
But it is his work. I think God wants to show his greatness by using nothingness.
YOU FEEL YOU HAVE NO SPECIAL QUALITIES?
I don't think so. I don't claim anything of the work. It is his work. I am like a little pencil in his hand. That is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be ) allowed to be used. In human terms, the success of our work should not have happened, no?
WHAT IS GOD´S GREATEST GIFT TO YOU?
The poor people.
HOW ARE THEY A GIFT TO YOU?
I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus.
HERE IN CALCUTTA, HAVE YOU CREATED A REAL CHANGE?
I think so. People are aware of the presence, and also many, many, many Hindu people share with us. Now we never see a person lying there in the street dying. It has created a worldwide awareness of the poor.
BEYOND SHOWING THE POOR TO THE WORLD, HAVE YOU CONVEYED ANY MESSAGE ABOUT HOW TO WORK WITH THE POOR?
You must make them feel loved and wanted. They are Jesus for me. I believe in that much more than doing big things for them.
FRIENDS OF YOURS SAY YOU ARE DISAPPOINTED THAT YOUR WORK HAS NOT BROUGHT MORE CONVERSIONS IN THIS GREAT HINDU NATION.
Missionaries don't think of that. They only want to proclaim the word of God. Numbers have nothing to do with it. But the people are putting prayer into action by coming and serving the people. Everywhere people are helping. There may not be a big conversion like that, but we do not know what is happening in the soul.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HINDUISM?
I love all religions, but I am in love with my own.
AND THEY SHOULD LOVE JESUS TOO?
Naturally, if they want peace, if they want joy, let them find Jesus. If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there. They come closer and closer to God. When they come closer, they have to choose.
YOU AND POPE JOHN PAUL II HAVE SPOKEN OUT AGAINST LIFE-STYLES IN THE WEST, AGAINST MATERIALISM AND ABORTION. HOW ALARMED ARE YOU?
I always say one thing. If a mother can kill her own child, then what is left of the West to be destroyed? It is difficult to explain, but it is just that.
IS MATERIALISM IN THE WEST AN EQUALLY SERIOUS PROBLEM?
I don't know. I have so many things to think about. Take our congregation: we have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not a mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. This is the only fan in the whole house. It doesn't matter how hot it is, and it is for the guests. But we are perfectly happy.
HOW DO YOU FIND RICH PEOPLE THEN?
I find the rich much poorer. Sometimes they are more lonely inside. They are never satisfied. They always need something more. I don't say all of them are like that. Everybody is not the same. I find that poverty hard to remove. The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
THERE HAS BEEN SOME CRITICISM OF THE VERY SEVERE REGIMEN UNDER WHICH YOU AND YOUR SISTERS LIVE.
We choose that. That is the difference between us and the poor. Because that will bring us closer to our poor people. How can we be truthful to them if we lead a different life? What language will I speak to them?
WHAT IS THE MOST JOYFUL PLACE THAT YOU HAVE EVER VISITED?
Kalighat. When the people die in peace, in the love of God, it is a wonderful thing. To see our poor people happy together with their families, these are beautiful things. The joy of the poor people is so clean, so clear. The real poor know what is joy.
THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WOULD SAY IT IS AN ILLUSION TO THINK OF THE POOR AS JOYOUS, THAT THEY MUST BE GIVEN HOUSING, RAISED UP.
A)The material is not the only thing that gives joy. Something greater than that, the deep sense of peace in the heart. They are content. That is the great difference between the rich and the poor.
PEOPLE WHO WORK WITH YOU SAY YOU ARE UNSTOPPABLE. YOU ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT.
That's right. All for Jesus.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus.
AND THE FUTURE OF THE ORDER?
It is his concern.
QUOTATIONS OF MOTHER TERESA.
SEEK INSPIRATION IN THESE WORDS
Each one of these Mother Teresa quotations is a refreshing view on life's mundane problems. We worry about our immediate needs. But Mother Teresa toiled a lifetime to bring a ray of sunshine in the lives of the destitute. These Mother Teresa Quotations urge us to get in touch with our conscience, the core of our existence.
"Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet especially your family. Remenber. Be holy – we must pray everyday incessantly".
ONE TIME A REPORTER ASKED MOTHER TERESA: IS IT TRUE THAT YOU HAVE FOUND PEOPLE IN DUMPSTERS?
"Yes, I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: ‘My son did this to me.’ I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him.
It took me a long time to make her say: ‘I forgive my son.’ Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand."
When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her.
It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
"Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength."
There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God. I’ve always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic. We believe our work should be our example to people. We have among us 475 souls - 30 families are Catholics and the rest are all Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs—all different religions. But they all come to our prayers."
"There are so many religions and each one has its different ways of following God.
I follow Christ:
Jesus is my God,
Jesus is my Spouse,
Jesus is my Life,
Jesus is my only Love,
Jesus is my All in All;
Jesus is my Everything."
Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy.
I heard the call to give up all and follow Christ into the slums to serve Him among the poorest of the poor. It was an order.
I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.
You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing.
Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me.
Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.
If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.
A clean heart is a free heart. A free heart can love Christ with an undivided love in chastity, convinced that nothing and nobody will separate it from his love.
Purity, chastity, and virginity created a special beauty in Mary that attracted God’s attention. He showed his great love for the world by giving Jesus to her.
There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family.
Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.
Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.
Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.
The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance.
It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.
I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Ask yourself “How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?” Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery.
Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.
A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.
If you're too busy to pray...you're too busy"
"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."
"If you judge people you have no time to love them."
"I know God will not give me anything I cannot handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."
On Service to Humanity
Get to know the poor in your country. Love them. Serve them.
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.
The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.
On God
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.
Let's do something beautiful for God.
Love is like a fruit in season at all times. Love can warm three winter months.
It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing that matters.
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
The fruit of faith is love.
The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.
On Abortion
How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.
On Peace
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature -- trees, flowers, grass -- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.
On Poverty
The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.
Love
If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
Happiness
Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
Love
Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.
The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody.
One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
Poverty
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
Attitude
I think I'm more difficult than critical.
Work
There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devoticome in -- that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.
PRAYER OF MOTHER TERESA
DEAR JESUS, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus.
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best.
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching,
not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force -
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Amen.
MOTHER TERESA´S NAZARETH PRAYER FOR THE FAMILY
Heavenly Father,
you have given us the model of life,
in the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Help us, O Loving Father,
to make our family another Nazareth
where love, peace and joy reign.
May it be deeply contemplative,
intensely eucharistic,
revived with joy.
Help us to stay together in joy
and sorrow in family prayer.
Teach us to see Jesus in the members of our families,
especially in their distressing disguise.
May the eucharistic heart of Jesus
make our hearts humble like his
and help us to carry out our family duties
in a holy way.
May we love one another
as God loves each one of us,
more and more each day,
and forgive each other's faults
as you forgive our sins.
Help us, O Loving Father,
to take whatever you give,
and give whatever you take with a big smile.
Immaculate Heart of Mary,
cause of our joy, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
Holy Guardian Angels,
be always with us,
guide and protect us.
Amen.
THE VERSION FOUND WRITTEN ON THE WALL IN MOTHER TERESA´S HOME FOR CHILDREN IN CALCUTTA.
MOTHER TERESA, "DO IT ANYWAY"
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
-this version is credited to Mother Teresa.
2. THE ORIGINAL VERSION:
The Paradoxical Commandments; by Dr. Kent M. Keith.
1.- People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2.- If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
3.- If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Love them anyway.
4.- The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
5.- Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
6.- The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
7.- People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8.- What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
9.- People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
____________________________
Mother Teresa's words of Love
