Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Mother Teresa
Today is the feast day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. We all know how incredible this woman was... working tirelessly among the poor, living with them and sharing in their sorrow. There are so many beautiful thoughts she has left us with, I'm not even sure where to start. Her Missionaries of Charity started out with only 12 nuns, and now has over 4,000 people serving "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." In our Holy Father's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Mother Teresa is mentioned three times and he had this to say of her:"In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service."
Here are some of her own beautiful words:
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.
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.
Labels: feastdays
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10:22 AM ::
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