Mother Teresa's "Story"

I'm sure most of this is published elsewhere but I'll put it here as well. On Saturday night a group of us got to listen to a Jesuit monk tell us the story of Mother Teresa's call to found the Missionaries of Charity. Father Abello is a Canadian born PhD physicist who has lived in India since joining the Jesuit order and was a close adviser and confidant to Mother Teresa for the last 10 or 15 years of her life. The group of 7 or 8 of us gathered on the roof of a hotel while geckos roamed the walls and heard this story...

Mother Teresa served in Kolkata with the Loreto Sisters from 1927 through to 1947. In this year she was taking a train from Kolkata to nearby Darjeeling. She had a powerful vision of Christ telling her audibly that he mourned for the poor and destitute on the streets of Kolkata. He asked her to raise up an order of nuns to be his hands and feet amoung the poorest of the poor.

Mother Teresa followed his request and started by approaching a leader of a Hindu temple called Kaligahd. The temple had an annex that because of its location and size was one of the most suitable buildings in which to shelter the most destitute of the city. The Hindu priest gave it to her. His decision was met with resistance from the general Hindu community. How could he let Christians into a temple to care for "untouchables". He replied that if a group of Hindus would come care for these people he would immediately kick the Christians out. Of course the Sisters stayed. Kaligahd (The Home for the Dying) is still caring for the dying and destitute today.

Later when Mother Teresa's order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity, began to grow they needed a building for a convent. Mother approached a Muslim man who owned a centrally located building and asked him to give it to the Sisters. He replied that he would pray about it and then and hour later gave her the deed. God has continued to provide for the Sisters who do not fundraise but rely entirely on God to provide for both them and those they care for.

Father Abello told us about the reasons Mother had for accepting volunteers to work along with the Sisters. First of all she believed that volunteers were able to be a different example of Christ to the patients. Patients would often ask the volunteers why they came from the "heaven" of the western world to care for them in the "hell" of the slums of India. This gave volunteers opportunities to speak of Christ that the Sisters didn't have. The second reason Mother accepted volunteers was for their own growth. They could take back what they saw and learned to their own contexts and hopefully ask some critical questions about simple living and where poverty is hiding in each country around the world.

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels
Forever and ever
Amen
-14th Century Prayer - Said daily at the conclusion of mass at the Mother House