Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia, Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father’s construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.
During her years in public school, Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18, she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people.
In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”
After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community, and undertake her new work, Sister Teresa took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals–the ordinary dress of an Indian woman–she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits.
The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, and the use of buildings. In 1952, the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging, and street people.
For the next four decades, Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home. Blessed Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.
bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORDwill answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: "Here I am!"
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the accusing finger, and malicious speech;
If you lavish your food on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then your light shall rise in the darkness,
and your gloom shall become like midday;
Then the LORDwill guide you always
and satisfy your thirst in parched places,
will give strength to your bones
And you shall be like a watered garden,
like a flowing spring whose waters never fail.
Writings
(Year B).Dear Co-worker of Christ,You had said “Yes” to Jesus — and He has taken you at your word. — The Word of God became Man — Poor. — Your word to God — became Jesus — poor and so this terrible emptiness you experience. God cannot fill what is full. — He can fill only emptiness — deep poverty — and your “Yes” is the beginning of being or becoming empty. It is not how much we really “have” to give— but how empty we are — so that we can receive fully in our life and let Him live His life in us. In you today — He wants to relive His complete submission to His Father — allow Him to do so. Does not matter what you feel — as long as He feels alright in you. Take away your eyes from your self and rejoice that you have nothing — that you are nothing — that you can do nothing. Give Jesus a big smile — each time your nothingness frightens you. This is the poverty of Jesus. You and I must let Him live in us and through us in the world. Cling to our Lady — for she too — before she could become full of grace — full of Jesus — had to go through that darkness “How could this be done? — ” But the moment she said “Yes,” she had need to go in haste and give Jesus to John & his family. Keep giving Jesus to your people not by words but by your example — by your being in love with Jesus — by radiating His holiness and spreading His fragrance of love everywhere you go. Just keep the joy of Jesus as your strength. — Be happy and at peace. — Accept whatever He gives — and give whatever He takes with a big smile. — You belong to Him — tell Him I am Yours & if you cut me to pieces every single piece will be only all Yours.(Letter to a priest)
Musical Selection
The Lord hears the cry of the poor
Blessed be the Lord
The Lord hears the cry of the poor
Blessed be the Lord
I will bless the Lord at all times
With praise ever in my mouth
Let my soul glory in the Lord
Who will hear the cry of the poor
The Lord hears the cry of the poor
Blessed be the Lord
Let the lowly hear and be glad
The Lord listens to their plea
And to hearts broken God is near
Who will hear the cry of the poor
Collect
O God, who called blessed Teresa, virgin,
to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on the cross
with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor,
grant us, we beseech you, by her intercession,
to minister to Christ in our suffering brothers and sisters.
