April Newsletter |
“I can tell you about my path,” says
Mother Teresa, “but I’m only a little wire- God is the power. Talk to the others, the sisters and the brothers and the people
who work with them. Some are not Christians, talk to them. You will know what it is
when you see it. It is very beautiful.” And a passage in scriptures tells us, Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” You don’t have to go to church nor be a Catholic to apply Mother’s Teresa’s: A Simple Path 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 Mother Teresa, a powerful woman at age 18, and who stood for the suffering of the poor in the world, was born in 1910; her birth name was
Agnes. At age twelve, she felt she says, a “gentle call” to religious and missionary
life. She did nothing about her calling for many years. She prayed and thought about the mission for six years. Do we often rush or put off our divine call from God? Or don’t acknowledge the call at
all? She said, “YES”! Her religious name became Teresa afterwards she picked up the saintly guide, St. Therese of Lisieux (born 1873)—the “Little Flower of Jesus” who never left the four little walls of her convent and died at the age of twenty-four. Mother
Teresa wanted to associate herself with the saint who claimed, “Holiness is not a matter of this or that pious practice; it consists of
a disposition of the heart which makes us small and humble in the arms of God, aware of our weakness, yet confident, boldly confident in the goodness of our Father.” Once, Mother Theresa asked her confessor for advice about her “call or vocation”. I like how she uses the word vocation. She asked, “How can I know if God is calling me?” The confessor told
Mother Teresa, “You will know by your happiness, if you are happy with the idea that God called you to serve Him and your neighbor, this will be proof of your vocation. Profound joy of the heart is like a magnet that indicates the path of life one will follow although the way is full of
difficulties.” (A Simple Path, Lucinda Vardey) Mother Teresa was a teacher at St. Mary’s High School before leaving to answer God’s
Call. The call came on the 10th of September 1946, the day their Catholic Church celebrates “Inspiration Day.” She is on a train to another city when she is told by Jesus: “I want you to serve Me among the poorest of poor.” (The Joy in Loving, Jaya Chalika and Edward Le Joly) The authors claim this encounter with
Jesus changed her life. Mother Teresa starts obeying Jesus and that defines her work and prayers among the very poor. She is quoted in the
book, as saying, “I was sure it was an order from the Lord.” Many of us in our world don’t answer personal and spiritual calls
from God. Then we are left trying to answer other people’s call or no call at all.
We are sad, unhappy and unfulfilled in life. We must answer our calls and wear the shoe that fits our life. Can we learn to say, YES? Following God’s Plan 1948
She applied for the “privilege of exclaustration” (to live outside the convent) and it was granted to
her. She had work to do for Jesus. Next she took a crash course in medical aid to
help the sick and the suffering in the slums. She returned to Calcutta to work in the slums to assist the poor. 1949
Mr. Michael Gomes had a house that put Mother Teresa’s first mission, the Missionaries of Charity, at
the top of the entire house. When God wants the work of healing and helping done a way is made out of no way! Many of the Mother’s female students who were at St. Mary’s now follow the Mother; they offer themselves as candidates. Her students went wherever she went into the slum villages, prayed and taught the poor children.
The number of Mother’s students increased. As the number increased of young women wishing to work with Mother she had to
start new orders. It was clear that God wanted her to expand her vision and mission. It was necessary to draft a Constitution of
the Missionaries of Charity. One must have two years of training for candidacy and take vows.
There were three vows at first: Poverty, chastity and obedience. Then Mother added a fourth one, a by-law that could
never be changed: “Wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.” She didn’t want the Missionaries of Charity’s identity to change from the have-nots to the haves. In 1950, the draft was sent to Rome for approval, and it was approved. She lacks administrative assistants because she does not know how
important she is in the world. She is a person who didn’t seek public recognition, but through word, action and works, she left us a clear example of “how to serve God.” She was too busy serving God to write books. And when she spoke in public, she used no
form. Mother Teresa belonged to Christ.
She looks back twenty years after coming to India, “To serve the poorest of the poor was a special vocation, to give all to belong to Jesus,” she reflects in
My Life for the Poor. Mother Teresa continues, “Maybe it looks a failure, but if it’s a
failure, it’s only in the eyes of people, not in the eyes of God. I didn’t have to give up anything: vocation is belonging to
Christ, and my belonging to him had not changed. I was only changing the means to serve the poorest of the poor. The work is
only a way to put our love for Christ into action. The vocation itself, my belonging to Christ, didn’t have to change. It had rather deepened.” From 1952 until the time of her death, homes were opened around the world to assist the dying and children of
orphanages. To list a few countries Australia, Melbourne, Jordon, Ethiopia, Philippines, Germany, United States, Peru, Fiji etc. Missionaries of Charity received support and assistant from all over the globe. Her
office in the Gomes home had no air condition, yet she worked, answered and wrote letters to the sick and dying. She prayed throughout the night on behalf of others. Missionaries of Charity attracted people from all walks of life
who wanted to be a part of this loving service; the media helped to draw attention to this service rendered. Pope Paul VI gave a
blessing to start an International Association of the Coworkers of Mother Teresa. He told them, “My prayer for you is that you
may grow in the likeness of Christ, that you be real carriers of God’s love and that you really bring his presence first, into your own family, then to the next door
neighbor, the street we live in, the town we live in, the country we live in, then only, in the whole world, that living example of God’s presence.” An Archbishop told Mother not
to start any other missionary work outside of Calcutta for ten years. He continues he said. “Your concentration should be on
training of your nuns and molding future Superiors of houses.” Has a religious leader or someone you respected ever counseled you and did you listen to them? Mother Teresa did. She let go of her own ego and leadership role to share her empowerment with her nuns.
How many of us in leadership roles can share our power with others? A Soul of Great Silence “Behold, I will allure her and will lead her in to the wilderness and I will speak to her heart.” Hosea 2:14 Mother Teresa counsels her nuns and brethren, “Take time to be silent, and to contemplate, especially she said when you work in big
cities.” London and New York were a few of her examples for cities that move too fast and were too noisy. She created a Contemplative Sister’s home (whose vocation is to pray most of the day) in New York instead of quiet places like the
Himalayas. She said, “I felt silence and contemplation were needed more in large cities of the world.” Mother always starts her day with prayer in silence, she says, “It is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence—we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say, but what He says to us, and through us, that
matters. Prayer feeds the soul as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul and it brings you closer to God. It also gives you a clean and pure heart. A clean heart can see God, can speak to God,
and can see the love of God in others. When you have a clean heart it means you are open and honest with God, you are not hiding anything from Him and this lets Him take what He wants from you.” (A Simple Path, p.7-8) When working with the sisters, to apply silence, she asks of them, “Have you noticed the cities that
are angered, violent, frustrated and afraid of silence?” Souls of prayer are souls of great silence. Each one of us will take it as our
serious and sacred duty to collaborate with one another in our common effort to promote and maintain an atmosphere of deep silence and recollection in our own lives,
conducive to the constant awareness of the Divine Presence everywhere and in everyone, especially in our own hearts and in the hearts of our sisters with whom we live in the
poorest of the poor. To make possible true interior silence, we shall practice: Silence of the eyes, by seeking always the beauty and goodness of God everywhere. Silence of the ears, by listening always to the voice of God and the cry of the needy, and closing them to all the other voices
that come from the evil one: e.g. gossip, tale –bearing, and uncharitable words. Silence of the tongue, by praising God and speaking the life giving Word of God that is the Truth that enlightens and inspires,
bring peace, hope, and joy and by refraining from self-defense and every word that causes darkness, turmoil, pain, and death. Silence of the mind, by opening it to the truth and knowledge of God in prayer and contemplation, like Mary who pondered the
marvels of the Lord in her heart, and by closing it to all untruths, distractions, destruction thoughts, rash judgment, false suspicions of others, revengeful thoughts, and
desires. Silence of the heart, by loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love one another as God loves, desiring
God alone and avoiding all selfishness, hatred, envy, jealousy, and greed. She says, “Our silence is a joyful and God-centered silence; it demands of us
constant self-denial and plunges us into the deep silence of God where aloneness with God becomes a reality.” I am asking you, reader, “How do you feel when you go downtown?
Do you hear shouting, noises? Or do you hear and feel a peaceful countryside or the sound of
a waterfall?” If Mother Teresa was here today with you, my dear sisters and brothers, she would tell you this, “We
should become empty from food, radio, or keeping busy. But this emptiness can only be filled by the “spiritual,” by God. If we give time for God to enter this space, then our hunger can be more easily satisfied by just being with God in prayer. But it is a hard thing to be prayerful in our society which feeds us with so many distractions.”
Compiled by, Lifestyle Coach Carol S. Batey
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