LESSONS FROM ST. TERESA OF CALCUTTA
Unlike so many saints who are fixed in my mind with holy-card haloes and serene smiles, my mental images of Teresa of Calcutta are fresh and vivid. Posed in iconic photos with President and Mrs. Reagan or with Princess Diana, alive in clips on CNN or YouTube, she’s the spiritual mother I watched become a saint before my very eyes. Although I never met her in person as did my childhood pastor, Fr. Collins, or my friend and fellow author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, I felt—as you probably did—as though I’d lost a personal friend when God called her home to heaven in 1997. And yet in those first moments when I heard of her death, I knew already that she was a saint, and I have been in quiet conversation with her ever since.
Teresa was a humanitarian hero who eschewed the spotlight. Any praise she received she deferred to God. Any support given her she turned over immediately to the poor she served. Her selfless manner taught me that serving others—especially those no one else wants to love—is the closest I will ever come to personally serving Christ. And when I’m tempted to have one of those “look what I’ve done” moments where I toot my own horn, Mother Teresa’s quiet sense of humility reminds me to shine the spotlight on the Heavenly Father whose grace makes it all possible.
Sometimes, it’s tempting to get so caught up in “saving the world” that I neglect the needy living right under my own roof. Teresa recognized this phenomenon when she wrote, “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” Love them when their runny noses, dirty diapers, and croupy coughs keep you constantly wiping something. Love them when they’ve had a bad day at work and want to talk about it nonstop, or won’t open up to you about it. Love them when they forget to say please and thank you, when they throw their dirty underwear on the floor, when they break curfew, or when they break your heart by making the wrong choice. Love them for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health. In loving them, you love Christ. We all want to make a difference in the world. Teresa has taught me above all else that as a wife and a mom, the greatest chance I have of doing this is to make a difference in my very own home. While I watched her life play out, larger than life on the evening news, I simply knew that Teresa must have a direct line to God. How could she endure all the pain, the suffering, the indignity, and the loss she faced every day without direct intervention from God? As we’ve learned since her passing, like John of the Cross, she faced her own “dark night of the soul.” Her feelings of loss of the tangible presence of God were even greater for having known firsthand the glory of his voice on her heart. But her formula for persevering has become my own prescription for times in the spiritual desert, fueling my work through daily prayer and the Eucharist and fostering a tremendous devotion to our Blessed Mother in the Rosary. For those days when I feel my prayers fall on deaf ears, when I am tired to the bone, or when I simply doubt the path I’m walking, I have a companion in the tiny sister, mother, and saint who believed in loving Christ with her whole being, one soul at a time.
TRADITIONS
In 1996 by an act of Congress and President Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa was made an honorary citizen of the United States, only the seventh person in US history to receive this honor. On September 5, 2010, the thirteenth anniversary of Teresa’s death, the US Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating her life.
TERESA’S WISDOM
It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.
THIS WEEK WITH SCRIPTURE
SUNDAY: MARK 10:43–44
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. Humble me, Lord, to serve you through my service to others.
MONDAY: ROMANS 14:19
Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another. Prince of Peace, instill hope in our world that so desperately needs your love.
TUESDAY: ISAIAH 53:6
We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Thank you, Jesus, for bearing my guilt. Help me to offer contrition by being your love in this world and especially in my own home.
WEDNESDAY: PSALM 88:2–3
Lord, my God, I call out by day; at night I cry aloud in your presence. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry. Comfort to the afflicted, hear my cry.
THURSDAY: 2 CORINTHIANS 1:5
For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. Your encouragement overflows. Let me channel it to those in most need of your love.
FRIDAY: JEREMIAH 29:12
When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. Living Water, thank you for knowing the prayers of my heart.
SATURDAY: MATTHEW 25:40
Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. Help me, Father, to serve the least, to love the best, and to be your hands in my home and in this world.
SAINT-INSPIRED ACTIVITIES
FOR MOM
The Lay Missionaries of Charity work for the sanctification and salvation of all souls, beginning in their own families. Make simple efforts to transform your home into a sanctuary through prayer, loving service, and dialogue. Learn more about the Lay Missionaries of Charity at www. laymc.com.
WITH CHILDREN
St. Teresa said, “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” Focus as a family on spreading Christ’s love to one another by being intentionally joyful at home. Take extra care to smile at each other, seeing the face of Christ in each member of your family.
SOMETHING TO PONDER
What keeps you from seeing the face of Christ in your spouse and your children? How can you better love Jesus by serving them in little ways every day?
Lisa M. Hendey is the founder of the award-winning CatholicMom.com. She is the bestselling author of multiple books for adults and children, including The Handbook for Catholic Moms, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms, The Grace of Yes, I’m a Saint in the Making, and the Chime Travelers fiction series.
This excerpt from A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms is reprinted with permission of Ave Maria Press.
