Saints: Mother Teresa

Founder of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in 1910. She joined the Sisters of Loretto in Ireand in 1928 and in 1929 she was sent to Calcutta to teach in a school whose students were born to wealth.

Teresa was attracted to the very poor, and twenty years after arriving in Calcutta she was given permission to leave her Order. Her own Order, the Missionaries of Charity (sisters) received approval in 1950. In 1963 the Missionary Brothers of Charity was founded as an order, and in 1969 the International Co-Workers of Mother Teresa was founded. Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work among the poorest of the poor, the victims of hate, the deprived, the diseased and dying.

Here is a prayer that every Missionary of Charity says in the mornings before beginning the work day:

Dear Lord, the Great Healer, I kneel before You,
Since every perfect gift must come from you.
I pray, give skill to my hands, clear vision to my mind,
kindness and meekness to my heart.

Give me singleness of purpose,
strength to lift up a part of the burden
of my suffering fellow men,
and a true realization of the privilege that is mine.

Take from my heart all guile and worldliness,
That with the simple faith of a child, I may rely on you. Amen.

When Teresa died in 1997 news of her death was overshadowed by news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. I like to think that Teresa enjoyed slipping out of this world in relative obscurity.


In peace,

Linda+

The Rev. Linda McCloud
Founding Pastor
The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek
www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org
http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com