Teresa
By 1950, the Saint had established this order with twelve other nuns and they were named the Missionaries of Charity. By the time she died, over forty years later, that order had grown to four thousand sisters, six hundred and ten mission and they operated in one hundred and twenty three countries.
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997), was an Albanian born in Macedonia. She was called to missionary work in India and when she was only twelve years old she had discerned a religious life vocation. When she was eighteen years old, Saint Mother Teresa became a missionary in India, joining the Sisters of Loreto. Her religious name was chosen after Saint Therese of Lisieux who is the patron saint of missionaries.
The Mother Teresa who people remember is the woman who lived her life serving the poorest of the poor – first in India and later in all the world. We remember her white and blue sari, which was hr habit. But this was not the Saint’s first calling. Initially, she worked as a teacher, teaching girls in India in an expensive Indian school. She was even the headmistress of that school. However, almost twenty years after she first began that work, the Saint experienced what she later described as a call within a call. She felt Christ ask her t begin a new religious order who would serve the poorest of the poor. She felt called to work with “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” By 1950, the Saint had established this order with twelve other nuns and they were named the Missionaries of Charity. By the time she died, over forty years later, that order had grown to four thousand sisters, six hundred and ten mission and they operated in one hundred and twenty three countries.
During her lifetime this Saint received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and the Nobel Peace. I remember being a little girl and listening to her acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize. Even then she spoke out. In that speech she condemned abortion. The Saint said that if a mother could kill her own child inside her own body then there was nothing to stop one human killing another. She urged mothers to protect their children and asked them to give the children to her if the mothers were unable to care for them because she would find a place for them and love those children.
And I have been thinking about this Saint for she was so unusual that she changed the world. And she did that with a smile on her face and love in her heart – even when she was experiencing periods of terrible spiritual dryness… She brought Christ to everyone who she encountered and saw Christ in everyone she encountered.
And it was this – more than any other thing – that allowed her to make such an impact on the world. Because she was not acting alone – she was the handpiece of God – giving Him every part of herself for Him to work His will…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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