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Friends of the Rosary,
Today, September 5th, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata), affectionally known as Mother Teresa, a universal symbol of God’s merciful, preferential love for the poor and forgotten and a living witness to the thirsting love of God.
Nun, missionary, and teacher in Calcutta, India, St. Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), left a testament to unshakable faith, invincible hope, and extraordinary charity. She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him.
“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.”
She received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She received those prizes “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.”
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a saint of heroic virtues and miracles, was entrusted with proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest poor. “God still loves the world, and He sends you and me to be His love and compassion for the poor.”
Jesus revealed to her His heart’s desire for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” “Come be My light,” He begged her. I cannot go alone.”
He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, the Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Today, the Congregation works in 30 countries.
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 her death, another heroic side of Mother Teresa was revealed: her inner experience of darkness. Hidden from all eyes was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him.
She called it the “painful night” of her soul, which began when she started working for the poor and continued until the end of her life. Through the darkness, she mystically participated in Jesus’s thirst, His painful and burning longing for love, and shared in the poor’s interior desolation.
Mother Teresa expired on September 5, 1997, and was beatified only six years later, on October 19, 2003.
She was a fierce defender of the unborn, saying: “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 the sign of God’s love in him.”
Also, Mother Teresa once said, “A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. 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.”
She also said, “Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things if you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.”
Ave Maria!
Jesus, I Trust In You!
St. Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for Us!
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
To Jesus through Mary!
+ Mikel Amigot | RosaryNetwork.com, New York
