It's strange, where did she become a saint?
In a California hospital (where she was treated for heart disease, far from the poor people of Calcutta)?
or in their free “clinics”?
Then why did the doctors, when confronted with this old woman, run away from her in horror?
Teresa's free clinics provided care that was at best primitive and haphazard, at worst unsanitary and dangerous, despite the huge amounts of donations she received. Several volunteers at Teresa's clinics, such as Mary Loudon and Susan Shields, testified to the lack of care provided to the dying. Despite regularly receiving millions of dollars in donations, Teresa deliberately kept her clinics ineffective and poorly equipped, unable to provide any but the most rudimentary care.
Volunteers like Louden and Western doctors like Robin Fox were shocked by what they saw at Teresa's clinics. No tests were performed to diagnose the patient. There was no modern equipment available. Even people dying of cancer, suffering in terrible agony, were not given any painkillers except aspirin. Syringe needles were washed and reused without sterilization. No one was ever sent to the hospital, even in the case of an urgent need for emergency surgery or treatment.
Again, it is important to note that these conditions were not the result of insufficient funding. Teresa's organization regularly received multimillion-dollar donations, which were hidden in bank accounts while volunteers were told to ask donors for more money, citing extreme poverty and desperate need. With the money she received, half a dozen fully equipped modern hospitals could have been built, but the money was never used for this purpose. No, the careless and primitive assistance to the sick was not accidental, as discussed in the next paragraph. However, despite her praises of poverty, when Teresa herself needed medical attention, she hypocritically sought out the most advanced technology in the West.
In the matter of helping the poor and sick, Teresa considered providing for their real needs a lower priority, and believed that human suffering was desirable and even "beautiful." The following quote from Teresa says it all:
"I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot and share the suffering with Christ. I think the world is greatly helped by the suffering of poor people."
Another time, Teresa told a terminally ill cancer patient who was dying in terrible agony that he should consider himself lucky: “You suffer like Christ on the cross. So Jesus should kiss you.” (She freely reported the response she received, which she apparently did not understand contained criticism: “Then please tell him to stop kissing me.”)
Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize winner, will be canonized. The Vatican has set the date for the canonization ceremony for September 4. Mother Teresa worked for many years in India, where she founded and led the women's monastic congregation "Sisters of the Missionaries of Love." She passed away in Kolkata in 1997.
Catholics have been waiting for today's announcement of the date of canonization of Mother Teresa since December last year - after all, it was then that Pope Francis completed the verification procedure for the second miracle performed by the nun, which is necessary for canonization. Teresa was credited with "miraculously" curing a Brazilian man of multiple brain abscesses. Mother Teresa was beatified back in 2003 by Pope John Paul II after the verification procedure for the first miracle performed by Teresa was completed - this miracle was the healing of a brain tumor of one of the women in India, writes Kommersant.
Mother Teresa has been recognized for her active work in helping the poorest people in many countries around the world. Thanks to her, several hundred shelters, schools, hospitals and hospices were organized around the world. Mother Teresa received various prizes and awards from the governments of India and the United States, charities and public organizations.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 into an Albanian family in Skopje, Macedonia. In 1928 she joined the Sisters of Loreto. In 1946, while traveling around India, she was struck by the huge number of poor and sick people, abandoned children who could not count on help from relatives, the state or charitable organizations. It took her four years to create a monastic congregation, which received the name “Missionary Sisters of Charity”, receiving the approval of the Vatican. Mother Teresa died in 1997 in India, at that time the organization she founded consisted of more than 4,000 nuns who worked in 600 charitable institutions.
However, today many express doubts about her holiness and virtue - they say, preaching asceticism, Teresa herself preferred to be treated not in her own hospitals, but in super-expensive clinics in the USA, flew on comfortable charter flights, through which many good deeds could be done, etc. d. “Mother Teresa was very consistent in her faith. She had plenty of money, but she believed that all believers should go through suffering similar to what Jesus Christ experienced,” said Serge Larivee, a psychologist at the Canadian university. interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta. - ""There is a lot of evidence when, for example, patients did not receive painkillers. Thus, according to her conviction, people became closer to God, and a certain grace descended on them. I do not agree with this approach, but mother "Teresa was his staunch supporter. However, when she fell ill herself in 1992, she chose to be treated in a modern hospital in California."
The psychologist’s words are confirmed by other sources. For example, evidence was found from doctors that the operating shelters were often in extremely depressing condition, were equipped in poorly suitable premises, they were dirty, and the patients did not receive enough food and painkillers. However, millions of dollars were donated to the Sisters of Charity congregation, and it does not seem reasonable to justify such conditions by lack of funds.
In 1991, a message appeared in the German magazine Stern that only 7% of donations in Teresa’s fund went to charity, but no one was able to provide final clarity with the accounts and financial flows. It would seem, why financial secrets in such a structure? After all, they shouldn’t engage in shady business, money laundering, etc. here.
In fact, the network of free hospitals and shelters provided the most primitive and unsystematic assistance, writes Klubkom.net, diseases were not diagnosed at all, and there was no modern diagnostic equipment. And this despite tens of millions of dollars in charitable contributions. Doctors who examined these institutions noted with horror that unsanitary conditions reigned everywhere; needles and syringes were not sterilized, but were simply washed under the tap and used repeatedly.
Robert Fox, editor of the prestigious medical journal Lancet, wrote during Teresa’s lifetime that Mother Teresa’s organization practically does not attract doctors, although it has all the conditions for this, but has thousands of volunteers, and is simply engaged in a vigorous imitation of medical care. Painkillers were not used as a matter of principle. At best, some dying cancer patients were given aspirin. Even in cases of urgent need, no one was ever taken to a real hospital. All this was not due to lack of funds, but was precisely the result of Madame Teresa’s convictions. She sincerely believed that the fate of the sick was to suffer; this seemed to bring them closer to God. And, accordingly, suffering is not an evil that needs to be reduced, but a blessing that needs to be glorified.
However, serious criticism of Mother Teresa's work is almost drowned out by a powerful enthusiastic wave of veneration. Her fans - despite critical voices - are eagerly awaiting the canonization ceremony on September 4.
The process of canonization of the world-famous nun Mother Teresa has reached a dead end - the Vatican cannot find enough evidence to declare her a saint, RIA Novosti reports, citing the Ansa agency.
Vatican experts examining the nun’s “dossier” cannot find a second miracle she performed, the presence of which is a necessary condition for declaring her a saint. One of Mother Teresa's miracles, the unexpected and inexplicable recovery of an Indian woman with cancer, was the evidence that led to the nun's beatification in 2003.
Beatification—beatification—serves as a necessary initial step in the canonization procedure. The distinction between beatification and canonization was introduced in 1642 by Pope Urban VIII. According to Catholic tradition, a righteous person who has undergone beatification receives the right to be called blessed. Only after this can the process of his canonization—canonization—begin.
The official website dedicated to the canonization of the nun presented to the Vatican a whole list of numerous miracles performed by her, but the Vatican has not yet identified any one case that could prompt the continuation of the canonization process. Vatican officials say the timing of Mother Teresa's canonization depends on God.
It is possible that the time frame for the nun's canonization may be delayed. In Italy, on September 4, a book is published containing letters from Mother Teresa’s private correspondence. In them she often talks about “not hearing God,” about “spiritual emptiness” and “mystical crisis.”
The procedure for beatification and canonization takes a long time. First, an extensive dossier on a candidate for blessedness or sainthood is submitted to the Vatican, containing documents and evidence that confirm his pious life, and most importantly - at least one miracle from his life, for example, an unexpected healing of a seriously ill person or some other supernatural event, which is living witnesses.
Then a kind of trial is held, at which testimony is heard from both supporters of canonization and his opponents, that is, those who do not believe in the miracles performed by the candidate. Once upon a time, such an accuser was specially appointed, called “the devil’s advocate.”
If the procedure is completed in favor of the candidate, his dossier is submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, where it is examined by another commission, which must determine whether the miracle attributed to the candidate has a scientific or at least logical explanation.
If the commission does not find such an explanation, the Congregation confirms that the miracle actually took place and that it was the candidate who performed it. After this, the Pope signs the corresponding official act proclaiming the new blessed or saint.
Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Boyadji) was born into a Catholic Albanian family in Skopje (Macedonia) on August 26, 1910. At the age of 18 she arrived in India as a nun of the Loretan order. In 1950, she left this order and founded the Society of Missionaries of Love, dedicated to helping the poorest and most disadvantaged whom she met along the way. She died on August 5, 1997 in Calcutta. The society she founded is today one of the most dynamically developing and has about 4.5 thousand missionaries on all continents. The nuns, who call themselves “Mother Teresa’s sisters,” care for the sick, the dying, orphans, and AIDS victims.
In 1979, Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize. On October 19, 2003, John Paul II declared her blessed. Her beatification process was the shortest in modern Church history. Wanting to speed up the process, the former Pope, by decree, made an exception to the existing rule in the Church, according to which the beatification process can only be opened five years after the death of a candidate for beatification.
The Vatican Commission for Canonization has currently collected about 35 thousand pages of documents and testimonies dedicated to the faith and life of Mother Teresa. During the process, more than 1,000 witnesses were interviewed. To recognize Mother Teresa as a saint, there must be another miracle recognized by the Church, performed through her prayerful intercession.
Mother Teresa is one of the most popular personalities in multicultural and multi-religious India.
Based on materials from news agencies
Patriarchy.ru
On September 4, the Catholic Church will canonize Teresa of Calcutta. This event should become one of the pinnacles of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
I was lucky enough to meet Mother Teresa in person.
Below I reproduce my translation of several fragments from the book of her conversations, where she recalled the beginning of her ministry, as well as my preface to it, where I recall my meeting with her. Both were published in the Parisian weekly Russian Thought in September 1997, a few days after the death of Mother Teresa (and, it seems, also reprinted in the Russian Catholic newspaper Svet Evangeliya). In addition, here I am posting three already faded photographs that I took in Calcutta in 1988.
Silent Encounters with Mother Teresa
(Instead of a foreword)
Little book “My life for the poor” (* My Life for the Poor. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Ed. by Jose Luis González-Balado and Janet N. Playfoot. New York: Ballantine Books , 1985), fragments of which I offer to the attention of readers in Russian translation, is a recording of short stories of Mother Teresa of Calcutta about her life - those short conversations that she conducted very rarely, in short breaks between the silent deeds of mercy that occupied most of her life.
My acquaintance with Mother Teresa began with this book. Of course, I knew something about her before that, but very little. And so, during my three-month business trip to India in the spring of 1988, in the city of Lucknow (the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh), I saw this book in one of the bookstores, immediately bought it and read it, it seems, on the same day. Everything I read impressed me so much that I immediately wanted to see with my own eyes what I had just read about. I asked Lucknow Catholics if there were Mother Teresa’s sisters in their city. Yes, they told me and took me to one of the shelters for the sick where they work. The sisters from the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity are taciturn (this is provided for by their charter - I don’t know, written or unwritten, it doesn’t matter), and I wasn’t particularly intrusive with questions. I remember what particularly impressed me then was the variety of sacred images in the rooms where the sick lived: above one bed there was a crucifix, above another - Krishna, above the third - Durga; One of the principles of the congregation is to serve everyone without distinction of religion and not to hinder the freedom of worship of any of those unfortunate people whom the sisters help...
Less than two months later I found myself in Calcutta. Finding myself there, I realized that, apparently, it was no coincidence that this city became the center of activity of the great modern ascetic of mercy. Never before has any city made such a frankly terrible impression on me. I had no idea that a city could be so uncomfortable... But “uncomfortable” is putting it mildly. After Delhi and Lucknow, where I saw a lot of poverty and other deformities of Indian society, Calcutta seemed like a terrible cluster of them. It seemed that this metropolis, located at the very mouth of the Ganges, was nothing more than a septic tank into which all the miasma, all the ulcers of this extremely dysfunctional, albeit great, country flowed through some all-Indian sewer. Under the scorching sun, with humidity that sometimes resembles the top shelf in a steam room, with air extremely polluted by industry and transport, with rare dirt and litter - blatant poverty, hundreds of thousands of homeless people sitting, lying, sleeping all over the sidewalks among rats running around in abundance. and other living creatures... Moreover, wherever you point, you will see either a hammer and sickle, or an appeal from one of the communist parties (at that time there were as many as half a dozen of them in West Bengal), promising to feed and employ everyone in the fight for the electorate.
Of course, once in Calcutta, I decided to definitely see Mother Teresa with my own eyes. But I think it was no coincidence that my acquaintance with her continued to be gradual. On one of the first free evenings, I went to look for the center of the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity - “Nirmal Hriday” (“Pure Heart”). Found house 54 A Lower Circular Road (as indicated in the address book), I rang the door and they opened it for me. Introduced himself. I asked if I could see Mother Teresa. “Mother is away now,” answered the sister who met me. - But, if you want, you can come and pray with us. We are having evening prayer now.” I thanked him, took off my shoes as they were supposed to, and went inside the house. And here something amazing happened, preserved in my memory as one of the most powerful impressions of my life. Although it would seem that outwardly nothing special was happening...
I entered the chapel where the sisters were performing their usual evening prayer. This chapel least of all resembled a temple building. It looked more like either a classroom or a gym... There were almost no sacred images, almost no liturgical decoration. Twilight reigned. Only a few candles were burning on the throne, and by their light a crucifix could be seen on the front wall and next to it the inscription: “ I THIRST "("THIRST"). And in this semi-darkness, in front of this crucifixion, a quiet, but zealous and intense prayer was going on.
All of us Christians profess faith in the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit: “Who is everywhere and fulfills all things...”. We know this well, but many of us are not often able to clearly feel it. In those minutes (how many were there - 15, 20 or a little more?) I really experienced this breath of the Spirit - scorching, instilling strength and confidence that God is and will always act in His Church. This was especially important for me then, because at that time I had serious doubts - specifically about the Church. And I have rarely experienced such a striking experience of a living meeting with God in my life. An experience that, it seems to me, became possible precisely thanks to the prayer of these sisters.
As I said goodbye to my sisters that evening, I found out when Mother Teresa was due back. On the scheduled day, I came to Nirmal Hriday again, but it turned out that mother had gone to the city and had not returned yet. I went outside and suddenly saw Mother Teresa getting off the rickshaw with her other sister. I said hello and introduced myself. “You are the first person from the Soviet Union to visit us here,” she told me. Perhaps it is immodest on my part to publish this remark now. But I do this partly because I remember very well the ambivalent feeling that I experienced then. On the one hand, it was a pride not entirely worthy of a Christian, but on the other, it was bitterness: how many of my compatriots, once in India, rushed to various pseudo-spiritual “teachers”, like Svyatoslav Roerich, leaving the true spiritual treasure unattended.
And then two more times I was lucky enough to pray in Calcutta with the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity congregation and with Mother Teresa herself. And what was especially valuable for me was that this happened during the services of Holy Week: on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I remember the priest who served on Good Friday began his sermon with these words: “It’s difficult to talk about death when addressing people who themselves come into contact with it every day...” And indeed, being among these people, you experience something completely differently and the saving death of the Lord.
Never before have I (so sensitive to external splendor) attended Holy Week services so devoid of any aesthetic principle. Moreover, the incessant horns of cars, heard under the windows (they don’t drive silently in India), make it almost impossible to distinguish the words of prayers and readings. Heat 36° C and 96% humidity with no fans (the sisters don't recognize them because the poor don't have fans). But this is a memory of Jesus’ suffering. It is quite natural for him to be unaesthetic and uncomfortable.
I really wanted to ask Mother Teresa a few questions. These were questions about mercy, from the area of “how?..”, “what to do if?..”, “what to do when?..”; these questions really seemed serious to me, and I could not find a definite answer to them. Before the Good Friday service began, I told my mother that I would like to ask her advice about some things. She said she was ready to talk to me after the service. The service began. Sisters are praying next to me, Mother Teresa is praying nearby. Mother's place is at the back of the chapel, but during Communion she and the priest teach the Holy Mysteries.
And again the breath of the Spirit. By the end of the service, I understand that the issues that seemed so difficult and insoluble to me no longer pose a problem for me. The answers to them are completely clear, and it is not even clear what puzzled me before. After the service, I go up to Mother Teresa and say: “Mother, forgive me, but I have already received an answer to all my questions during prayer. I won’t take up your precious time, which you can use more profitably.”
With that we said goodbye.
How much, it turns out, meetings with spirit-bearing people can give - even when these meetings are almost silent.
The Apostolic Creed speaks of our faith in the “communion of saints.” I guess I managed to touch one of the sides of this communication. But the Church is a Mystical Body in which the communion of saints transcends the boundaries of earthly existence, and I think that Mother Teresa’s help to all those in need will not be interrupted with her death.
Petr Sakharov
Moscow
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
"My life is for the poor"
I am Albanian by birth. I am now an Indian citizen. I'm also a Catholic nun. In my work I belong to the whole world. But in my heart I belong to Christ.
When I first said that I wanted to devote my life to Christ, my mother was against it. Then she said: “Okay, daughter, go become a nun. Just try to always belong only to God and Christ.” Not only God, but also she would have condemned me if I had not been faithful to my calling. She will ask me one day: “Well, my daughter: did you live only for God?”
I was very young, no more than twelve years old, when I first experienced the desire to belong completely to God.
I thought and prayed about this for six years.
Sometimes it seemed to me that there was no calling. But ultimately, I became convinced that God had called me.
Our Lady of Letnitskaya prayerfully interceded for me and helped me discover my calling.
At times, when I was unsure of my calling, some of my mother’s advice helped me a lot.
She often repeated to me: “When you take on any work, do it from the heart. If not, then don’t take it.”
One day I asked my confessor for advice about my vocation. I asked, “How can I understand that God is calling me and what He is calling me to do?”
He replied: “You will understand by the feeling of happiness. If you are happy at the thought that God is calling you to serve Him and your neighbor, then this is proof of your calling. Joy in the depths of the heart is like a magnet in a compass that shows the path of life. You must follow it, even if you encounter difficulties along the way.”
I often remember how my mom and dad prayed every night with other family members.
Because of his work, dad was often away from home. But even on such evenings we gathered around my mother to pray with her.
Our most frequent prayer in such cases was the Holy Rosary.
At the foot of the Virgin Mary of Letnitsa (in Skopje) I first heard the call of God, convincing me to serve God and devote myself to His work.
I remember it was midday on the Feast of the Assumption. I prayed with a lit candle in my hand and sang with a heart filled with joy when I made the decision to devote myself entirely to God in monastic life.
And I also remember that it was when I was at the shrine of Our Lady of Letnitskaya in Skopje that I first heard the voice of God calling me to devote myself to Him and to serving others, in order to fully belong to Him.
This was a wish I had in my heart for some time.
I still remember that wonderful time and the hymns that we sang to the Mother of God, especially one that was called: “On Black Mountain we have Mother.”
A few years ago I had the opportunity to return to Skopje and Letnica. I was so happy when I was able to kneel again before the image of the Mother of God and pray to Her. The vestments of this image have changed, but Her eyes and Her gaze remained the same after so many years. With my prayer I wanted to thank God for the years that have passed since my departure from Skopje. These were fruitful years, and if I were starting all over again, I would leave Skopje the same way.
<...>
* * *
At the age of eighteen, I decided to become a missionary.
From then on, I no longer had any doubts about my decision.
This was God's will: He made a choice.
While I was still living at home, some of our Jesuits went as missionaries to India. They usually sent messages about what they were doing for the people in India. For me, they contacted the Loretan Sisters who were working in India at that time. Through these Jesuits I came into contact with the Sisters of Loreto and joined their congregation at Rathfarnham in Dublin.
* * *
After just six weeks I left Rathfarnham. I joined the congregation in October 1928, and already in January I went to India to undergo the novitiate (novitiate).
I took it in Darjeeling and took my vows from the Loretan Sisters.
For twenty years I taught at St. Mary's School in Calcutta, which catered primarily to middle-aged children. I don't know if I was a good teacher. My students can know this better. But I loved teaching.
With the Loreto sisters, I felt like the happiest sister in the world. Leaving the job I was doing there was a big sacrifice for me. I did not give up my status as a nun. Only the matter has changed. The Sisters of Loreto limit themselves only to teaching, which is a true apostolate for the sake of Christ.
I had a calling within a calling: something like a second calling. I felt an inner command to leave the Loretan congregation, where I was very happy, and go to serve the poor in the streets.
* * *
On September 10, 1946, while I was traveling by train to Darjeeling, a hill station in the Himalayas, I heard the call of God.
In a silent, deep, prayerful conversation with our Lord, I clearly heard His call...
His call was completely clear: I must leave the monastic house and help the poor by living among them. It was a command.
I clearly felt that Jesus wanted me to serve Him among the poorest of the poor, among the abandoned, among the slum dwellers, among the abandoned, among the homeless. Jesus invited me to serve Him and follow Him in real poverty, to live a life that would make me like those in need - those in whom He is present, in whom He suffers, in whom He loves.
* * *
When I outlined the essence of the matter to my superiors and the bishop of Calcutta, they felt that this was the will of God, that God wanted this. I received their blessing - the blessing of obedience.<...>
* * *
As I left the Loretan Sisters and made my first trek through the streets of Calcutta, a priest approached me. He asked me to donate money to a fundraiser for the Catholic press. At the beginning of the day I had five rupees, and four of them I distributed to the poor. After some hesitation, I gave the priest the only rupee I had left. And in the evening the same priest came to me and brought me an envelope. He said that one person gave him this envelope for me because he heard about my plans and wanted to help me. The envelope contained fifty rupees. At that moment, I felt that God was blessing my work and would never leave me.
* * *
Soon after I left the Loreto Congregation, I found myself on the street. I had no roof over my head, no comrades, no helpers, no money, no income, no promises, no guarantees, no security.
Then I began to pray: “My God, You, only You. I trust in Your call, in Your inspiration. You won't let me down."
I needed a space to house the disadvantaged. And I started looking.
I walked and walked until I had no more strength left to walk.
Then I better understood the exhaustion of a truly poor person, who is always in search of at least some food, medicine, everything necessary.
I remembered the material security that I had in the monastic home of the Loreto sisters. This was a temptation, and I began to pray like this:
“God, by my free choice and by Your love, I desire to remain here and do Your will. No, I can't go back. My community is the poor. Their security is my security. Their health is my health. My home is the home of the poor: not just the poor, but the poorest of the poor. Those whom they try not to come close to, so as not to catch some kind of infection, for fear of getting dirty, or because they are covered with pus and scabs. Those who don't go to prayer because they can't go outside naked. Those who don’t even eat anymore because they have no strength left. Those who fall in the streets, realizing that they are dying, while the living pass by without noticing them. Those who no longer cry because they have no tears left. Those who are untouchable."
I was sure that the Lord wanted me to be exactly where I was. I was confident that He would help me find a solution.
* * *
In March 1949, on the Feast of St. Joseph, I heard a knock on the door.
I opened it and froze. My heart began to beat faster. I saw the fragile figure of a girl looking at me. I heard: “Mother, I have come to join you.”
“It will be a difficult life. Are you ready for this? - I asked the girl.
“I know it will be difficult. “I’m ready for this,” the girl answered. And she entered the house.
Then I turned to our Lord and began to thank Him: “My dear Jesus, how kind You are! So You send them! You are faithful to the promise You made to me. Lord Jesus, thank You for Your goodness!”
The first sisters who joined me were my students whom I taught at the Loreto Congregation.
Since 1949, girls began to come one after another. They wanted to give everything to God and were in a hurry to do it. They exchanged their expensive saris for modest cotton ones. They came fully aware of the difficulties.
When a girl belonging to a very noble caste comes to help an untouchable, we can talk about a revolution - the biggest, most powerful revolution: a revolution of love!
* * *
I took the vows of the new congregation - vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and mercy.
The congregation was established when our number approached twelve.
With a feeling of complete faith in the help, protection and goodness of God, I began to pray to our Lord from the depths of my heart:
“Father, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also will glorify You. Father, glorify Your Son, and may He be glorified through Your unworthy instruments, for for His sake, for His glory we are here, we work and suffer and pray. Everything we do, we do for Jesus. Our life has no meaning if it is not entirely for Him. May people come to know Him and thereby achieve the eternal life that He has given to us.
This is eternal life, Father, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
May we bring this eternal life to the poor, deprived of all comfort, all material property. May they know You, may they love You, may they find You, may they partake of Your life, God, Father of all people and my Lord Jesus Christ, Source of truth and goodness and happiness.
May we bring to You those we meet, those we work for, those who help us, those who die in our arms, those we accept, as Jesus accepted the children he blessed, the poor he healed , the sufferers whom he helped.
Father, I pray to You for these sisters whom You have chosen to serve You and belong to You. They were Yours and You gave them to me. You want me to bring them to You. You want them to display the image of Your Son, Your perfect image, so that people will know that You sent Him. So that, seeing their deeds, people would recognize that Christ was sent by You.
You gave them to me and I give them to You.
You took them out of the world and from the spirit of this world, so that they could live in the world as brides of Jesus, not belonging to the world and not following its wicked ways.
Holy Father, I pray for them that they will be consecrated to Your holy name, sanctified to You, kept for Your service, sacrificed to You. For this, I dedicate myself to You, I dedicate myself as a sacrifice to You with Jesus Christ, a sacrifice of self-sacrifice.
All-merciful Father, I pray not only for these my sisters, but for all who will join them and for those who through them will be attracted to You and believe in You.
Father, may all my sisters be one, just as You and Jesus are one, may they live by Your spirit; that the love with which You loved us may be in them, and Jesus in them.”
Translated from English by Peter Sakharov
During my very first meeting with Mother Teresa at the entrance to Nirmal Hriday (at this moment she is looking at my business card)
Entrance to Nirmal Hriday
Chapel