• Tribute to St. Teresa of Calcutta
On The Anniversary Of Her Death, 5 September
Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala M.C., 2009
We all have witnessed something extraordinary happening around and across the world since the night of September 5, 1997 when Mother Teresa's thirsty soul abandoned her frail and worn out body to quench once and for all the infinite thirst of her Lord and Saviour whose thirst she tried to quench over the years with all the powers and fibres of her being on the streets of Calcutta and of the world. Although it is hard for us to accept the reality of her not being with us, the fact is that she returned to the Source and fullness of Love and Grace from where she will continue to shower many graces.
On the other hand it is absolutely necessary for us to accept the "Kairos of God", the divine hour of God's visitation for which she was always ready. So our beloved Mother whom we all loved and who loved us all so dearly within minutes disappeared from the visible horizons of our lives to be totally united to Jesus like a piece of iron stuck to the magnet never to be separated.
Already from a distance she might have heard the words of the Master: "Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world". We can imagine in our own minds the long line of the M.C. Community in heaven with Sr. Agnes and Sr. Sylvia in the front, then there is the endless line of the poorest of the poor whom Mother Teresa fed, quenched, clothed, sheltered, visited and buried; those in thousands who have lived like animals on the street but have died like angels with dignity, loved and cared by her and the members of the M.C. Family in the homes of the dying destitutes, the many lepers and AIDS patients, all dressed in white singing the songs of praise and thanksgiving were all waiting in heaven to welcome her and to take her to Abraham's bosom.
I wonder there has ever been such a reception in heaven for anybody or a funeral of any sort for any person on earth of any time or place. Everything in heaven and on earth for her was so unique and unprecedented. Never before in the story of any person of her status as religious had a State and Catholic funeral at the same time.
Leaving behind all these sublime and unique privileges that our Beloved Mother received both in life and at her death, not only from her beloved daughters and sons of the Family of the Missionaries of Charity but of the whole world we are now compelled to proceed to some of the principal teachings of our "Little Mahatma" Mother Teresa.
If Calcutta can be taken as a cesspool especially in the 1940s Mother Teresa can be the Lotus. As we know that immediately after the world war India became independent from the British, but not independent from problems. There were continual exodus in millions - especially from East Pakistan - majority of whom found their home on the side-walks and empty, and old and unused buildings of Calcutta. Many could be found lying prostrate on both sides of the roads, a phenomenon that can still be found in Calcutta. Deprived of all human comforts and consolations, the poorest and the rejected cried to God for help. God saw the affliction of the poor and heard their cry. He called this simple, humble, and small in stature woman until now quite unknown to the world to be his messenger of love and tender care on the way to Darjeeling on 10th September 1946.
What did she learn from September 10th experience?
1) She learnt that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth is still hungry and thirsty for love of souls especially in the poorest of the poor irrespective of caste, colour, creed or nationality; and that she is being called to satiate and satisfy the hunger and thirst of Jesus and of the poor through prayer, penance and whole-hearted free service to them.
2) She learnt that the needs of the person take precedence over any other consideration such as religion, colour or nationality. Her first question was not what religion he or she belonged to or what country he or she came from, but whether the person in question was in need of any help or not and what could I do for him or her to alleviate the pain.
When I began working in the home for the dying in Kalighat (Calcutta) in the year 1967, there was a man close to death who was brought by the Calcutta Corporation Ambulance. Once inside with all the care and love, simple medicines and some food, he was able to regain his strength; as soon as he was a little better he would go out to the street again and then within a few days an ambulance would bring him back. This happened over ten to fifteen times within a couple of months' time. I used to get upset and even angry with him for this. One day when he was brought back, I told Mother Teresa, this man has been here over fifteen or more times; there is no meaning in taking him in again. In a couple of days' time he is going to go back to the street. Mother looked at me and said: "Listen, Brother Sebastian, does this man now need your help or not?". I said, yes. "Then do whatever you can to help him. The question is not how many times he has been to us but how can we help him now. Plus whatever we do to him we do it to Jesus. This then is the point: although it was not the religion the person belonged to was her first consideration, every person she served was Jesus for her. She was always aware that whatever we do to the least of our brothers we do it to Jesus. And therefore:
3) She decided to make a fourth vow of whole hearted free service to the poorest of the poor in whom she loved and served Jesus.
4) Mother Teresa learnt that the same Jesus whom she loved and adored in the Bread of Life is the same Jesus whom she loved and served in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor. From the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament she went to the presence of Jesus in the poorest of the poor and vice versa. She used to say: "The more repugnant the poor is the more faith is required to help him".
5) Mother Teresa learnt that the work she was going to do was not social work but God's work. She repeatedly said: "Our work is not social work; it is God's work we are doing. We are not social workers, we are consecrated persons who are called to do God's work". This gives the clear answer to the question: what is going to happen now to the Missionaries of Charity? Because it is God's work and works of love it is going to continue, as long as we remain faithful to her Spirit and Charism.
6) Mother Teresa realized that she was not called to do extraordinary things, but ordinary things with extraordinary love. She repeatedly said: "It is not how much we do that matters but how much love we put in our actions".
7) She learnt that not only she should hear the words of Jesus: "Come blessed of my Father..." but she should help all men of good will to hear it. She realized that she was called to build the bridge between the rich and the poor - the rich can find peace and joy in giving and sharing and the poor in receiving and returning. Both the rich and the poor give and receive mutually...
8) Mother Teresa learnt that it is in giving that we receive, in dying that we are born to eternal life. She realized that she was called to live the words of St. Paul: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20: 35).
9) Through Mother Teresa God opened the eyes of many to see their own poverty and misery and the poor thery are surrounded with and that they have to be "their brothers' keepers".
10) Mother Teresa made the world realize that there are two kinds of poverty: material and spiritual, both of which have positive and negative aspects. The spiritual poverty however is worse than the material poverty.
In conclusion we can say that although Mother Teresa died, had her most solemn funeral performed and her mortal remains have been laid in the tomb, her immortal spirit will continue to operate until the end of time and she from heaven will go on satiating the infinite thrirst of our Crucified Saviour for love of souls as she has become more powerful than ever.
"Each sigh, each look, each act of mine shall be an act of love divine, and everything I shall do, shall be, dear Lord, for love of you. Take this my heart and keep it true: a fountain sealed to all but you. What is there that I would not do today?" This was her prayer and her life. Let this be our prayer and our life as well.
God bless you.
• Prayers to St. Teresa of Calcutta
Blessed and beloved Teresa of Kolkata, our foundress and our Mother,
bless your own Missionaries of Charity-Contemplative family.
help us to do all the good we can.
Enable us to love and adore Jesus in the Bread of Life
as you loved and adored Him; to love and serve Jesus
in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor
as you loved and served Him.
Mother Teresa, our dearest Mother and beloved Foundress,
filled with invincible love, profound humility, unshakeable faith and undaunted courage,
you went in haste like our Blessed Mother
to give wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.
Help us to go forth with greater zeal and fervour
to meet human needs, to bring help and above all
to bring Jesus to the poorest of the poor
and thus to satiate the infinite thirst of Jesus on the Cross
for love of souls.
Assist us, we pray, to proclaim the mighty works,
the Lord has accomplished in and through you,
so that the entire M.C. family may extol the greatness of the Lord
together with the poorest of the poor of the whole world.
Help us to give wholehearted free service
to the hungry, the thirsty,
those who lack the basic necessities of life,
those who live in despair and in the shadow of death,
the broken families, the little ones
and all those who seek God with a sincere heart.
Beloved Mother Teresa, you never refused
assistance to any one
who sought your help or implored your guidance.
Look upon your own children and beg of Jesus,
your beloved crucified Spouse, the pardon of all our sins,
particularly our sloth, tepidity, negligence, indifference, coldness,
pride and other sins committed against our vows
of Chastity, poverty, obedience and Charity.
Our beloved Foundress, you who ardently
desired and tirelessly worked to satiate
the infinite thirst of your Crucified Spouse,
help us to continue satiate the infinite thirst
of Jesus on the Cross for love of souls,
with even greater thirst and ardent zeal and with complete dedication.
Obtain from Jesus the grace we need
to remain faithful to our M.C. vocation;
to serve the Lord freely, joyfully and wholeheartedly through prayer,
penance and works of mercy,
desiring nothing except to love
Jesus in the poorest of the poor,
and make Him loved and served in them,
as He has never been loved and served in them before,
until we die of serving them in love as you have done.
Blessed be the holy and undivided Trinity. Amen.
Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala, M.C.
• Mother Teresa Biography (1910-1997)
“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.”
This luminous messenger of God’s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her father’s sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left in the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved.
At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary’s School for girls. On 24 May 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the“spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity". From that time on she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary’s and in 1944 became the school’s principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and her students, Mother Teresa’s twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.
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.
On 7 October 1950 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.
In 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.
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 Teresa 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 toidentify 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 thatthe 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!
© Copyright 2003 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
• Canonization of Mother Teressa of Calcutta
JUBILEE FOR WORKERS OF MERCY AND VOLUNTEERS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 4 September 2016
“Who can learn the counsel of God?” (Wis 9:13). This question from the Book of Wisdom that we have just heard in the first reading suggests that our life is a mystery and that we do not possess the key to understanding it. There are always two protagonists in history: God and man. Our task is to perceive the call of God and then to do his will. But in order to do his will, we must ask ourselves, “What is God’s will in my life?”
We find the answer in the same passage of the Book of Wisdom: “People were taught what pleases you” (Wis 9:18). In order to ascertain the call of God, we must ask ourselves and understand what pleases God. On many occasions the prophets proclaimed what was pleasing to God. Their message found a wonderful synthesis in the words “I want mercy, not sacrifice” (Hos 6:6; Mt 9:13). God is pleased by every act of mercy, because in the brother or sister that we assist, we recognize the face of God which no one can see (cf. Jn 1:18). Each time we bend down to the needs of our brothers and sisters, we give Jesus something to eat and drink; we clothe, we help, and we visit the Son of God (cf. Mt 25:40). In a word, we touch the flesh of Christ.
We are thus called to translate into concrete acts that which we invoke in prayer and profess in faith. There is no alternative to charity: those who put themselves at the service of others, even when they don’t know it, are those who love God (cf. 1 Jn 3:16-18; Jas 2:14-18). The Christian life, however, is not merely extending a hand in times of need. If it is just this, it can be, certainly, a lovely expression of human solidarity which offers immediate benefits, but it is sterile because it lacks roots. The task which the Lord gives us, on the contrary, is the vocation to charity in which each of Christ’s disciples puts his or her entire life at his service, so to grow each day in love.
We heard in the Gospel, “Large crowds were travelling with Jesus” (Lk 14:25). Today, this “large crowd” is seen in the great number of volunteers who have come together for the Jubilee of Mercy. You are that crowd who follows the Master and who makes visible his concrete love for each person. I repeat to you the words of the Apostle Paul: “I have indeed received much joy and comfort from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you” (Philem 1:7). How many hearts have been comforted by volunteers! How many hands they have held; how many tears they have wiped away; how much love has been poured out in hidden, humble and selfless service! This praiseworthy service gives voice to the faith – it gives voice to the faith! – and expresses the mercy of the Father, who draws near to those in need.
Following Jesus is a serious task, and, at the same time, one filled with joy; it takes a certain daring and courage to recognize the divine Master in the poorest of the poor and those who are cast aside, and to give oneself in their service. In order to do so, volunteers, who out of love of Jesus serve the poor and the needy, do not expect any thanks or recompense; rather they renounce all this because they have discovered true love. And each one of us can say: “Just as the Lord has come to meet me and has stooped down to my level in my hour of need, so too do I go to meet him, bending low before those who have lost faith or who live as though God did not exist, before young people without values or ideals, before families in crisis, before the ill and the imprisoned, before refugees and immigrants, before the weak and defenceless in body and spirit, before abandoned children, before the elderly who are on their own. Wherever someone is reaching out, asking for a helping hand in order to get up, this is where our presence – and the presence of the Church which sustains and offers hope – must be”. And I do this, keeping alive the memory of those times when the Lord’s hand reached out to me when I was in need.
Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded. She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that “the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable”. She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity; she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime – the crimes! – of poverty they created. For Mother Teresa, mercy was the “salt” which gave flavour to her work, it was the “light” which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering.
Her mission to the urban and existential peripheries remains for us today an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor. Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model of holiness! I think, perhaps, we may have some difficult in calling her “Saint Teresa”: her holiness is so near to us, so tender and so fruitful that we continual to spontaneously call her “Mother Teresa”. May this tireless worker of mercy help us increasingly to understand that our only criterion for action is gratuitous love, free from every ideology and all obligations, offered freely to everyone without distinction of language, culture, race or religion. Mother Teresa loved to say, “Perhaps I don’t speak their language, but I can smile”. Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer. In this way, we will open up opportunities of joy and hope for our many brothers and sisters who are discouraged and who stand in need of understanding and tenderness.
© Copyright 2003 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
• St. Teressa of Calcutta feast day inscribed in Roman Calender on September 5
The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments releases the decree inscribing St. Teresa of Calcutta in the General Roman Calendar, along with the liturgical texts to accompany her feast day on September 5.
By Devin Watkins
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was “a beacon of hope, small in stature but great in love, a witness to the dignity and privilege of humble service in the defence of all human life and of all those who have been abandoned, discarded and despised even in the hiddenness of the womb.”
Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, offered that praise of St. Teresa on Tuesday.
The Cardinal Prefect released a comment to accompany the decree inscribing St. Teresa of Calcutta into the General Roman Calendar.
The decree was accompanied by the liturgical texts (in Latin) to guide the faithful in praying the Liturgy of the Hours and the celebration of Mass.
Her feast day will be celebrated as an optional liturgical memorial annually on September 5, the date of her death in 1997.
Mother Teresa was born in Skopje on August 26, 1910 as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She professed solemn vows as a Sister of Loreto in Calcutta, India, in 1937. In 1950, she left the Sisters of Loreto to found the Missionaries of Charity, which now numbers over 6,000 sisters active in 130 countries who serve those most in need.
Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and Pope St. John Paul II beatified her on October 19, 2003.
Pope Francis canonized her on September 4, 2016 during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
'Witness to Hope'
In his comment released on Tuesday, Cardinal Roche said Pope Francis requested her insertion in the Roman Calendar in response to the requests of bishops, religious, and the lay faithful.
He noted that her holiness and spirituality reveals to the faithful an “outstanding witness to hope for those who had been discarded in life.”
At the Mass of Canonization for St. Teresa on September 4, 2016, Pope Francis called her a conduit of divine mercy that illumines the darkness that surrounds us.
“Her mission to the urban and existential peripheries,” noted the Holy Father in his homily, “remains for us today an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor.”
Reflecting on the liturgical texts released on Tuesday, Cardinal Roche said the Collect prayer focuses on the presence of the Cross of Christ in the needs of the poor.
The First Reading for the optional memorial Mass comes from Isaiah and relates to the “fast that is pleasing to God”.
The Gospel, he added, underlines the revelation of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God to little ones.
The Liturgy of the Hours contains part of a letter Mother Teresa wrote to Fr. Joseph Neuner in 1960 about her struggle with what St. John of the Cross termed the “Dark Night of the Soul.”
“Opening her soul,” concluded Cardinal Roche, “she manifests the darkness of God’s absence through which she lived for many years yet joyfully offered to God, so that, bearing faithfully this trial, many souls may be enlightened.”