Mother Teresa Love in Action Leo R Sandy

Mother Teresa Mother Teresa was only 5 feet tall but had a strong influence She provided comfort for countless poor, sick, and dying people She made every person she cared for feel special and loved Her efforts earned her the Nobel Peace Prize At age 12 she felt drawn to a life of religious service When not sure about this calling, her priest told her to continue only if she experienced inner joy She did experience this joy and made the decision to fully dedicate herself to religious life

Teresa cont’d After some training in Dublin, Ireland with the Sisters of Lareto, and taking her vows, she gave up her name, Agnes Bojaxhiu, to become Mother Teresa For 20 years she taught at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta, India One day she felt a calling to work with the poor while living with them. She then left the convent after getting some nursing training and headed into the streets of Calcutta One of her first experiences was finding a woman partially eaten by rats dying in the street Mother Teresa rushed the woman to a hospital and they only accepted her on the insistence of Mother Teresa

Teresa cont’d Mother Teresa asked the local authorities for some space where she could aid those who were dying on the streets so they could die with dignity and love. She got two rooms in a Hindu Temple She called her space the Kalighar Home for the Dying Her message to the dying was that no matter if they had been unwanted and forgotten throughout their lives, at least in their final days someone loved them One of her former students became her aide, and this was revolutionary because the girl was from a high caste and the dying were known as “untouchables” Later, Mother Teresa founded her own order, the Missionaries of Charity who had an additional vow of serving the poor

Teresa cont’d The sisters in this order had few belongings, little personal space, worked and prayed hard, and were also relegated to the status of “untouchables” The sisters saw their service to the poor as an active form of worship (akin to Engaged Buddhism) which helped them not be overwhelmed by the constant suffering and dying Mother Teresa once gave some rice to a starving Hindu family who took half and gave the other half to their hungry Muslim neighbors A beggar once gave all his money to Mother Teresa to help others meaning that he went without food that day. She only accepted the money to preserve his dignity, and he was overjoyed by her acceptance of it

Teresa cont’d Pope Paul VI gave Mother Teresa a limosine but she raffled it off and gave the money to a center for lepers She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 on the grounds that “poverty and distress also constitute a threat to peace” She asked the reward banquet be cancelled so that its $7000. cost could go to helping the poor Mother Teresa has been criticized for spending more time helping the poor than on attacking policies and structures that produce poverty Her response was that her calling focused on helping people at a personal level and not at a societal or political level

Teresa cont’d She was also criticized for her strong stand against abortion and capital punishment. Her argument was that every life is precious (she promoted family planning and adoption) Mother Teresa noticed two kinds of poverty in the world. One was in poor countries where people lacked food, shelter, and health services, and the other was in rich countries such as the U.S. where she saw spiritual poverty – single-parent families, loneliness, and lack of love For her, the worst disease was being unwanted On death, she looked forward to it saying she was “going home” She died at age 87 in 1997, and recently was granted sainthood by the Catholic Church

Teresa cont’d India gave Mother Teresa a state funeral usually reserved for prime ministers and presidents (something she would have vigorously protested against). Her body was carried in the same carriage that held Mahatma Gandhi Thirteen thousand mourners attended her service and many more mourners took to the streets or watched it on TV Her order continues to do the work she started

Mother Teresa Quotes Some say to me that if we give charity to others, it will diminish the responsibility of government towards the needy and poor. I don’t concern myself with this, because governments do not usually offer love If you judge people, you have no time to love them Live simply so others may simply live. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless Works of love are always works of peace We must bring peace, love, and compassion to the world today. We don’t need guns and bombs to do this. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Video Interview with Mother Teresa

References Beller,K., & Chase, H. (2008) Great peacemakers: True stories from around the world. Sedona, AZ: LTS Press Mother Teresa quotes. Retrieved at https://search.yahoo.com/ yhs/search?p=Mother+Teresa+quotes&ei=UTF- 8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001