Traces
On an October day in 1960, a small woman dressed in a sari arrived in Las Vegas. It was her first visit to the United States and the first time away from her adopted home in India in more than 30 years. A former geography teacher and now head of her order, the Missionaries of Charity, this modest nun known as Mother Teresa had arrived in a city she described as a perpetual festival of light, or “Diwali.”
While little known outside Calcutta (Calcutta) at the time, Teresa had been invited to speak at the annual conference of the National Council of Catholic Women. Seated in a small booth during the conference, she fielded endless questions about her sari, her free service to the poor and her Albanian origins. Months before her trip, Teresa had written to her colleague, Eileen Egan: “Thank God I have a lot to do – otherwise I would be terrified of that big audience. Being an Indian citizen, I will have to get an Indian passport.”
Canonization of Mother Teresa of Kolkata
ROME – For most of her life, she was known as the “living saint”. On Sunday, the 19th anniversary of her death, Mother Teresa’s sainthood was sealed with a canonization Mass led by Pope Francis in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square. To her legion of die-hard admirers, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s ascension to “sanctified” status may seem as inevitable as it is justified. But for a nun whose name has long been a byword for pious compassion, her canonization has been met with controversy. Much of the criticism of Mother Teresa has focused on how her practice of Catholic devotion clashed with the real needs of the poor people she set out to help. In the eyes of some, especially in India, she put fame and piety ahead of her relief mission.
Love of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
What mattered most to Mother Teresa of Calcutta was the love of Jesus. He was the reason she got up early in the morning, worshiped Him in the Eucharist and ministered to the poorest of the poor. She wrote: “For me, Jesus is the life I want to live, the light I want to reflect, the way to the Father, the love I want to express, the joy I want to share, the peace I want to sow around. me. Jesus is everything to me.” Love is what made the Eucharist the center of Mother Teresa’s life. Years ago, I had the privilege, from time to time, of celebrating Mass for the Missionaries of Charity in their convent in Rome. Sometimes, when I went to Mass early in the morning, in a chapel without pews, Mother was there, sitting on the floor among the other sisters, adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. When asked about her prayer, she replied: “Mostly I listen to God.” And when asked what God told her, she replied, “Mostly, He listens to me.”