Saints Under the Dome: St. Teresa of Calcutta
This luminous messenger of God's love was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, North Macedonia. She died on September 5, 1997, Calcutta, India, founding the order of the Missionaries of Charity. Award: Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
St. John Paul II beatified her on October 19, 2003 and on September 4, 2016, Pope Francis canonized her, recalling her ardent defense of life and the God-given dignity of those left to die on the street sides.
Mother Teresa's spirituality
We know Mother Teresa's mission among the poorest of the poor, but what was her interior life like? Three aspects of Mother Teresa's interior life were revealed during the cause for her canonization: the private vow made while she was still a religious of Loreto, the mystical experiences surrounding the inspiration to found the Missionaries of Charity, and her intimate participation in the Cross of Christ through the long years of interior darkness.
The private vow is at the heart of her call to serve the poorest of the poor; in this call she embraces the spiritual reality of those she served; and the vow also sustains the heroism with which she lived through painful darkness. From her childhood she had a great love for God and her neighbor, she was a very generous woman from a young age. God was preparing her throughout her life to be the foundress on September 10, 1946 of the Missionaries of Charity. This vocation and mission awakened from what she herself called “a call within a call”. She faced this new mission with courage and sufferings, when everything seemed to be in order, she began the hardest of her trials and understood that her mission was to bring the light of faith to those who lived in darkness. Indeed, she herself would experience the “darkness” of those poor souls in the depth of the mystical experience of “Dark Night of the Soul”. (Citation). In addition, Mother Teresa was willing to assist the oppressed and marginalized of society in their material and spiritual needs.
Mother Teresa's suffering could have discouraged her, but on the contrary, she radiated extraordinary joy and love. She is a witness of hope, an apostle of love who radiates a kind of “luminosity”. Undoubtedly, her life is of great inspiration to all who approach her regardless of material, physical and spiritual condition.
Transcend the Ordinary Blogs
keep the conversation going about the beauty of the Catholic faith and the Transcend Campaign. Want to see how you can sponsor a facet of the Church? Email Rebecca Almanza, our development director, at ralmanza@stannparish.org. Please continue to pray for the successful completion of these projects and for our church.