Love to pray

Mother Teresa on Prayer

 

Love  to  pray, gradually increase the number of times you pray during

the day. It is a matter of practice, as you spend more time praying,

you will pray better.

Prayer  enlarges  the  heart  until  it's  capable  of  containing God's  gift of  himself . Ask  and  seek  and  your  heart  will  grow  big  enough  to receive  Him  and  keep  Him  as  your  own.  Once  we  have  met  the  living  God , and  we  have  been  attracted  by  His  goodness, we find  ourselves  increasingly  drawn  into  prayer.

What  before  was  a  simple  duty, now  becomes  a  delight.

Mother Teresa was convinced that prayer was something simple, easily accessible, life giving and that prayer transformed us in a way, as no amount of effort at self improvement ever could.

 

Mother Teresa would spend time simply being present with the poor

Mother  Teresa's  own  desire to  live with  the  poor, led her  to  dwell  in  their  midst  to 

share  their  poverty . 

Beyond  whatever  material  assistance she  gave  to  the  poor , she  made  it  a  point 

to , first  of  all , sit with  them, listen to  them  and  comfort  them.

She  would  spend  time  simply being  present  with  the  poor, face to  face  and  heart  to  heart with those  who  had  no  one -  knowing that  no  amount  of  blankets  or  bricks  could  warm the  human heart, nor any government  program  could give  the  gift of  belonging

Mother Teresa to her donors who give generous checks to her:

Mother Teresa to her donors who give generous checks to her

Mother Teresa to her donors who give generous checks to her:

"I hope that your contribution is not from your surplus but it is the fruit of a sacrifice made for the love of God. 

M. Teresa pen

God loves a cheerful giver

Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under pressure, for God loves a cheerful giver. He gives most who gives with joy. If in your work you have difficulties accept them with joy, with a big smile.

The best way to show gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with Joy.

Mother Teresa

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind.

 

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind.
But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa on Family members:

Mother Teresa on Family members:
Peace and war start within our own house. Let us start by loving our own family members. Familiarity breeds contempt and so sometimes it is hard for us to even smile at one other. It is easy to love those who live far away, but it is not always easy to love those who live right next to us. But Mother Teresa says we must love our family members.

For example:
It is easier to offer food to feed the hunger of a homeless person on the street, but it is difficult to comfort the loneliness of aging parents living with us, who do not feel loved.

"If our poor die of hunger, it is not because God does not care for them. Rather, it is because we are not generous enough."

Mother Teresa said "If our poor die of hunger, it is not because God does not care for them. Rather, it is because we are not generous enough."

Imagine this situation:
After dinner, we may have excess food and we may throw it in the garbage because:
1) We do not know that there may be a hungry person in our neighborhood.
2) We do not know or we may have forgotten that there is a person that we know who is lonely (lives alone, or family is out of town) and that lonely person can consume some excess food.
3) In fact we may be busy looking forward to our favorite TV show whereby the  thought of giving away the excess food does not cross our mind. 

Mother Teresa on Compassion

Mother Teresa on Compassion
Have a deep compassion for people.
To be able to have a heart full of compassion, we need to pray.
Especially be kind and loving to the poor. We think we do so much for the poor, but it is they who make us rich. We are in debt to them.

Imagine a situation:
We help a poor person with a small amount of money or small quantity of food, the small portion maybe insignificant for us, but for the poor person, that much less money or food he has to arrange, whereby he may bless us in his heart, which makes us rich.

Mother Teresa on Sin and Forgiveness:

Mother Teresa on Sin and Forgiveness:
When we realize that we are all sinners needing forgiveness, It will be easy for us to forgive others.
We have to be forgiven in order to forgive.
Unless we understand this, it will be very hard for us to say the words "We forgive you" to anyone who comes our way

The more you care about the powerless, the more power you have.

Mother Teresa principle:
The more you care about the powerless, the more power you have. The more you serve people with no influence, the more influence God gives you. The more you humble yourself, the more you are honored by others.

This is how I have understood this principle:
We sympathize with powerless people but when it is in our own family, our own career or our own reputation is at stake, then we do not take the risk and we normally support the people with power.

Often the odds are against the powerless people, they are likely to lose. Even if they are right and in our hearts we support them, but supporting the powerless is to risk failure, disapproval, end of a career, end of promotion etc. So we love the powerless, but we tend to follow the powerful people, we do what is respectable.

However, not every powerless person is right and not every powerless person's issues are important. But some are. From time to time we will discover a powerless person who needs the kind of help we can give, because of our position and our belief we should help that powerless person.
Later on when we look back at our life, we may conclude that fighting for a few powerless people was one of the most meaningful things we ever did.

Mother Teresa's BBC interview

In 1968, Mother Teresa visited England and the BBC requested a TV interview of Mother Teresa.

The interviewer was Malcom Mudderidge, of BBC TV

During the interview, Mother Teresa was very nervous in front of the cameras and somewhat faulty in speech. The Interview was a disaster and the producers doubted for a while if it was worth showing except for late at night.

Finally it was shown on Sunday evening. The interview had an extraordinary effect on the viewers.  Something about the woman whose answers to a highly professional interviewer were so perfectly simple and perfectly truthful that the interviewer felt uneasy and had difficulty continuing the interview for the allocated half hour seemed to have touched the nation.

Malcolm himself had been profoundly impressed by Mother Teresa, he said "It was for me one of those special occasions when a face given to unknown seems to stand out from all other faces as uniquely separate and uniquely significant".

 

In fact the response to the interview proved to be greater than any other comparable program.

Contributions and letters poured in from rich, poor, educated, uneducated, young and old.

One woman wrote "this woman spoke to me as no one ever has and I feel I must help her".

Another man wrote "The words of Mother Teresa touch my heart like an arrow".

By public demand they had to air the interview several times.

Miracle in Manhattan

Miracle in Manhattan

A miracle which jolted the imagination of America

In Greenwich village on the east side of Manhattan Mother Teresa opened a hospice care for the aids victims whose family and friends had shunned them leaving them to face an inevitable and agonizing death.

 The miracle began with Mother Teresa's visit to New York Sing sing prison and an encounter with Antonio Ribeiro, Jimmy Natos and another prisoner. These prisoners were serving sentences for crimes of violence.

Mother Teresa met them in their cell and looking at their condition, she immediately took action, she contacted the then New York Governor Mario Cuomo and pleaded to him to release the prisoners and let these men die in peace.

Governor Cuomo had received several appeals in the past to release these prisoners due to their failing health conditions, but he had refused. But on hearing a plea from Mother Teresa, the unshakeable Governor Cuomo had a change of heart and within 24 hours signed a release order, releasing the prisoners. The 3 prisoners were immediately transferred to Manhattan hospital temporarily and then transferred to a new hospice care which Mother Teresa set up for them.

 Mother Teresa particular gift of opening doors was brought into full play.

Listen in Silence

Listen in Silence because

If your heart  is full of other

Things you cannot hear the

Voice of God

  MotherTeresa

Mother Teresa on young boys girls given to drugs

Mother Teresa wrote "I was surprised to see so many young boys & girls given to drugs. And I tried
to find out why. And the answer was: Because in the family there is no one to receive them.

Our children depend on us for everything i:e their health, their mission, their nutrition, their security etc.

For all of this they look to us with trust, hope and expectation.

Hence, don't neglect your family. Be at home. If today so many young people are misled, it is because the grandparents are in some institution, mother is so busy that she is not there when the child comes home from school.

There is nobody to receive them or play with them and they go back into streets where there are drugs
& drinks; so many other things.

It is the same everywhere.

Everything depends how much we love one another.

Humility by Mother Teresa



Humility by Mother Teresa
•We should have a humble and meek heart.
•We learn humility through  accepting humiliations cheerfully.
•Do not let any chance pass you by.  It is easy to be angry, self centered, selfish and condescending, but we  have been created for greater things.

 

Mother Teresa on difficulties, worry

In the face of all difficulties, doubts and objections, Trust in Him, He will not let you down.

 If God does not grant the means, that shows He does not want you to do that particular work.

 If  He wants it done, He will give you the means. Therefore do not worry

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa on difficulties, worry

Violence of the tongue is very real

The quickest and the surest way towards thoughtfulness is the tongue. Use the tongue for the good of others, you will also speak well of others. 

Violence of the tongue is very real, sharper than any knife, wounding and creating bitterness that only the grace of God can heal. So the tongue must be absolutely clean to speak words of comfort,  faith and Love

Violence of the tongue is very real

God has placed a certain soul in our way by Mother Teresa

The very fact that God has placed a certain soul in our

way is a sign that God wants us to do something for him

or her.

 

It is not a chance; It has been planned by God.

We are bound by conscience to help him or her

Judging people

Judging people:

We never ask people why they are on the street or in their present situation:

We don't need to know their history.

We don't judge people for whatever situation they are in, because all they want is someone to love and care and they are satisfied.

Said Sister Dolores, one of the sister of Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa said "I fear just one thing: money! Greed - the love of money"

Mother Teresa said "I fear just one thing: money! 

Greed - the love of money"

When Mother has a real problem: like finding a roof for lepers, a home for children(1), she goes to ask. 

And for every big donation of money she always has an immediate application in building a home, a hospital, 

a shelter... But never Mother Teresa does fund raising. The sisters know it very well: when there is no food, 

a need for a bigger place or need for money to be able to build or buy a house for the poor, Mother invites 

all the sisters to pray and often organizes adoration to put the matter in Gods' Hands.

 At the same time Mother is scrupulously looking and  checking how every single penny in a convent is spent. The sisters have to answer this every time she comes  to visit. Every cent is a gift for the poor.

Mother herself believes that she will have to answer to Jesus for every single penny people gave her, for every word she spoke, for every act she put. Because she wants her surrender to God, her trust in Him and her love for Him, so pure, so perfect, so beautiful... 

There should not be a spot, a hidden gesture, a wasted minute, a spoiled penny... Only when we can imagine a love so deep and honest, a devotion so pure, we can understand how deeply Mother was involved to a good use of the money people gave her. When we read this words of her, we can understand her 

better maybe: "I fear just one thing: money! Greed - the love of money - was what motivated Judas 

to sell Jesus." (M. Teresa)