Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

By Victor Bruno Ooi

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born on the 26^th of August 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. She was the daughter of a well-respected businessman of Albanian descent. Her father was kind, helpful and trusting in God. He died when Agnes was 8, leaving her mother to care for the family. Even as a young girl, Agnes was captivated by the love of Jesus and of neighbour. At 12, she felt a strong calling from God and she knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ

Agnes left home at 18 and joined the Loreto convent in Rathfarnam, Ireland. It was here that she received the name Teresa, after her patroness St. Teresa of Lisieux. Agnes was sent to India and arrived in Calcutta in 1929. Upon arriving, she joined the novitiate in Darjeeling, and made her final profession as a Loreto nun in 1937. Thereafter, she was called Mother Teresa. She chose to stay in Calcutta and became an Indian citizen.

The suffering and poverty she experienced outside the convent walls made a deep impression on her. At the age of 32, she vowed to give herself utterly and unreservedly to Christ: to give anything that God asked of her. 1946 was the year mother Teresa received her “calling in a calling”. As she was travelling by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, she realized that Jesus was calling her to serve him by helping the poorest of the poor. Jesus spoke to her through visions asking for her help in doing his work among the poor, sick, dying and the little ones.

In 1948, she received permission to work among the poorest of the poor in the slums and streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa left her happy life as a Loreto nun, exchanging her habit for a plain cotton sari with blue stripes, and took up the uncertain life Jesus was asking of her. It was during this time that she founded the Missionaries of Charity, which is still growing today.

Mother Teresa said that she “want[ed] Indian nuns, Missionaries of Charity, who would be [her] fire of love amongst the poor, sick, dying and the little ones. [Their] task would not be to do social work but to adore Christ in the littlest and weakest of his children and to bring Christ the souls for which he thirsts”. The Missionaries of Charity took four vows: that of poverty, chastity, obedience and pledging of service to the poor. Mother Teresa saw the poor as the embodiment of Christ – “It is the broken bodies that I nurse; I feel as though I am doing it to my Lord, and it is his body that I am touching.”

Mother Teresa worked with her small group of nuns, doing their very best to see to the needs of whoever needed help regardless of religion. They had no funds and lived on a day-to-day basis. “Today we have food to eat; tomorrow God will provide” was Mother Teresa’s motto. The Missionaries of Charity were funded by donations and alms. In 1952, Mother Teresa opened the Nirmal Hriday (pure heart) home for the dying and destitute so that in their last hours of their lives, these people could die clothed in love and dignity.

Mother Teresa had her dark hours too. When she left the Convent to work with the destitute and dying on the streets, the visions and locutions that she had from 1946 to 1947 ceased, causing her a spiritual darkness that remained with her till her death. She sometimes had feelings of doubt and loneliness and felt abandoned by God. She wanted to know if God felt she was doing the right thing or a good job, but no reply ever came. In all these times of need Mother Teresa turned to what she did best - helping others - and it was through helping that she felt God’s presence in the bodies of the dying and lonely.

Throughout her extraordinary life Mother Teresa poured never-ending love into her work. She strongly objected to abortion, and fought abortion with adoption. “Don’t destroy the child,” she pleaded, “If you don’t want him… we will take him”. Mother Teresa’s work has been reorganised and complimented on. She has received countless awards and distinctions such as the Pope John XXIII Peace prize and the Nobel Peace Prize. The monetary prizes that she received always went to helping the poor and the homeless.

From 1990 till 1997, Mother Teresa’s health started to decline and her weak heart gave out one evening. She died in her sleep. On the 5^th of September 1997, the Nun of the slums, and the most-loved woman of the century passed away. Her funeral service was held exactly 51 years after she received her divine mission from God. She had given all of her 87 years in service to our Lord and Saviour.

Following Teresa's death, the Holy See began the process of beatification, the second step towards possible canonisation, or sainthood. This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa. In 2002, the Vatican recognised as a miracle the healing of a tumour in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, following the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa's picture. Monica Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumour. Mother Teresa was formally beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19 October 2003 with the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. A second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonisation.

Mother Teresa's Favourite Prayer

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord make me an instrument of thy peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, let me bring pardon

Where there is doubt, let me bring faith

Where there is despair, let me bring hope

Where there is darkness, let me bring light

Where there is sadness, let me bring joy

O divine master, grant that I may not so much

Seek to be consoled as to console

To be understood, as to understand

To be loved, as to love

For it is in giving that we receive

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it is in dying that we are brought to eternal life

AMEN