If you ask who in the destructive 20th century was a symbol of mercy, then most people do not hesitate to answer, "Mother Teresa." This small, wrinkled, smiling old woman with strained, disproportionately large hands for many children, beggars, the elderly, terminally ill people became a real mother. She was able to show by her example that love is not an experience or an explosion of emotions. It is a verb, action, everyday work, renunciation of oneself.
She carried the light of divine Jesus love without words and instructions, but only an example of her life, beneficent action and the fullness of the Divine presence in her heart.
Mother Teresa: biography
This amazing woman was born in the Albanian city of Skopje in the late summer of 1910. The family of little Agnes Gongja Boyagiu (that was the name of the future mother Teresa) was very wealthy. Agnes grew up as an obedient, attentive, musical, and creative girl. Even then, she dreamed of serving people: to work as a teacher or to go as a missionary to Africa, or to bring light through the composition of poems and stories.
Mother accustomed Agnes and the rest of her children to mercy and compassion, often repeating that there are many adults and children around who have nothing to eat, nothing to dress, and nowhere to live. With the whole family they visited the sick, donated food and clothing to the poor, and gave money for treatment. Prayer and labor were core values in the Boyagiu family.
By her twelve years, Agnes was convinced that she should devote herself to the service of God. However, living within the four walls of the monastery and caring only for the salvation of her soul seemed to her sheer egoism. Therefore, at the age of eighteen, she joined the Order of the Loretta Sisters, studied English and soon sailed to Calcutta to show divine love and mercy for people with deeds.
Biographers are very fond of quoting the correspondence of Mother Teresa with her brother, in which she says that the brother-officer serves the king, who has two million subjects - and this is significant work. And she becomes in the service of the King of the whole world.
It was in India that a young nun began her work - in a country with incredible poverty and ruthless poverty. Calcutta in the 30s of the last century was a terrifying sight for a European. Poisonous snakes, miserable huts side by side with magnificent palaces, mountains of garbage in which hundreds of thousands of people lived and died, in which they were born.
And in such an environment, Mother Teresa spent almost sixteen years teaching girls geography and history, organizing schools for street children.
In 1948, she received permission from the Vatican to become a free missionary nun and leave her order. The young woman changed her dress for a cheap white sari with a blue stripe around the edge and went for the Lord's call to serve Him in the poorest areas of Calcutta.
In the monastery she did not feel anything - there was always food, shelter and overnight. And now the nun’s life has changed radically - she had to sleep on the floor in the slums, eat what she had to. But in every poor, sick, dying person, she saw and loved Jesus.
Mother Teresa completely surrendered to the power of the Will of God, realizing the words of Scripture. Its voluntary mission was the most sad and terrible of all possible - helping dying people so that they could worthily and joyfully move into another world.
So, the nun founded the House for the Dying Poor, in which all sick and suffering people were accepted, even those close to them refused. Eaten by rats and ants, covered with abscesses and scabs, ugly and not very similar to sentient beings - they all found here a sweet word, care and love.
This little woman looked after the suffering poor in the last hours of their earthly life, so that they could "die beautifully like angels."
Mother Teresa began each new day with a long prayer to purify first her soul from anger and selfishness, and then with joy and blessing go out to the service of people.
At first, only twelve sisters helped her, but gradually the movement grew around the world. More than three hundred thousand employees in eighty countries now brought help and the light of love to orphanages, leper colony, and AIDS clinics. Such gigantic work could not be ignored, and in 1979 the humble poor nun from Calcutta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It is significant that the funds that were traditionally spent on a banquet, Mother Teresa asked to transfer “to her people” - this is how she called the sufferers for whom she worked.
She continued her ministry in various “hot spots”: South Africa, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Beirut, Spitak, Chernobyl. She always and in all circumstances behaved without fear of dangers, did not bow to those in power, but acted as a true man of God. So she felt herself - with a pencil in the hands of God, who writes a letter of love to the whole world.
Often, Mother Teresa was accused of simply patching holes, that the cause of poverty and misery remains, and her actions are drowning in the ocean of world problems. She replied that the Lord did not call her to be successful, but called to be faithful. So she sincerely performed the words of Scripture that we need to take care of “these little ones” - those who are suffering and needy, expressing with every action love for Jesus.
She was not at all afraid of death, because it was just a return home, where her beloved Lord and many people with whom she had said goodbye were waiting for her. At the same time, Mother Teresa loved earthly life and believed that every day is a holiday. Her famous statement about life can now be found everywhere - from the restaurant menu to the walls of AIDS centers.
Mother Teresa passed into eternal life in September 1997, when she was 87 years old. Nationwide mourning was declared in India, and more than one and a half million people came to see off their beloved nun on the last journey.
She did not seek reverence and glory, but sincere love, which so generously proceeded from her heart, sparked millions of people with reciprocal love and hope. This little wrinkled old nun was able, with her whole life, to remind the world that Christian charity is not surplus wealth or money donations. This is the creation of good by the forces of one’s own soul and one’s own life.
Mother Teresa: sayings
“We must take a step towards each other to share the joy of love. But we cannot give what we ourselves do not have. That's why you need to pray. And then prayer will give us a pure remedy. ”
“Do you want to interview me? Talk to God better. ”
“Who is Jesus for me? This is the Word to be spoken. This is Light, Peace, Love ... This is hungry, which must be fed .. Homeless. Alone. Sick! Unwanted! Cripple! Blind! Prisoner! ... I love Jesus with all my heart, with all my being. I gave everything to him, even my sins ... "
“Yesterday already gone. And tomorrow has not come yet. We only have Today. So let's get started! ”