Teachings of Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa, with her baptismal name of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on August 26, 1910 at Skopje, at the time part of Albania and presently the capital of Macedonia. Attending a public school, she regularly participated in the catechism classes and the choir in her Jesuit-run parish besides being active in a Catholic youth organization, Daughters of Mary.

Once she mentioned: "At the age of 12, I first knew I had a vocation to help the poor. I wanted to be a missionary." At 15 she was inspired to work in India by reports sent home to Skopje by Jesuit missionaries in Bengal, India. In 1928 she applied for admission to Irish branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Loreto Sisters, already at work in India. On September 26 of the same year she arrives at the Mother House of the Sisters in Dublin, Ireland. After two months of intensive English language training she leaves Ireland by ship and arrives at Calcutta, India, on January 6, 1929.

After two years of novitiate at Darjeeling in the foothills of the Himalayas, she takes her temporary vows as a nun of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto on May 24, 1931. Then she takes up her first assignment as a teacher of geography and history at St. Mary's High School at Entally, Calcutta. On May 24, 1937, she professes her final vows and continues her teaching and then becomes the Director of Studies at the same school that gave education to girls, mostly from well-to-do families.

On September 10, 1946, Sister Teresa was on a train journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling for participating in her community's spiritual exercises. While praying quietly in the train she got the divine inspiration to work for the poor. She says, "... I clearly felt a call within my calling. The message was very clear. I had to leave the convent and consecrate myself to helping the poor by living among them. It was a command. I knew where I had to go, but I did not know how to get there."

After exploring the possibilities, Sister Teresa applies for the permission of Pope Pius XII to live outside the convent and start a new congregation of nuns to work exclusively for "the poorest of the poor." Ultimately on August 16, 1948, she leaves the Loreto Convent wearing a white sari with blue borders. At the time she had only five rupees (Indian currency valuing a little more than a U.S. dollar) in her pocket! After taking a three-month intensive course on nursing under the American Medical Missionary Sisters at Patna, she starts her work among the poor of Calcutta slums. In 1948, she also applies and receives the citizenship of India. On March 19, 1949, an old student of Sister Teresa becomes the first candidate and later the first nun of her new congregation. Other girls from Calcutta began to follow her. On October 7, 1950, Pope Pius XII officially gives recognition to the Order of the Missionaries of Charity.

On August 22, 1952, she opens the Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart), a home for the dying destitutes at Calcutta. The following year she starts her first orphanage. She then starts other types of institutions including leper colonies in India. Before her death, the work of the Missionaries of Charity was spread in more than 120 countries.

In 1963, Mother Teresa co-founded the Missionary Brothers of Charity, with Father Andrew Travers-Ball, S. J., of Australia. Now there are more than 500 members in this Order.

Since 1983, Mother Teresa suffered several bouts of illnesses and accidents. On March 13, 1997, she hands over the leadership of the Missionaries of Charity to Sister Nirmala, an Indian nun. Ultimately on September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa dies after suffering lung, kidney and heart problems in Calcutta. The Government of India accorded her a state funeral on September 13, 1997. The Missionaries of Charity at the time had more than 4,000 nuns working in about 600 homes in more than 120 countries in five continents.

Since 1962 until her death, Mother Teresa received dozens of honors, awards, and prizes for her work -- most notable ones being: Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines (1962), Pope John XXIII Peace Prize from Pope Paul VI (1970), Templeton Prize from Britain (1973), The Sword of Honor from the Prime Minister of the Yemen Arab Republic (1974), Ceres Medal from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (1976), Nobel Peace Prize (1979), Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India) -- the highest civilian award of India (1980), Order of Merit awarded by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1983), Order of Australia (1983), The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award (1985), Leo Tolstoy International Award from the Soviet Union (1991), UNESCO Education for Peace Prize (1993), Honorary U.S. Citizenship (1996), and the Congressional Medal of Freedom, U.S.A. (1997).

Mother Teresa was not only a worker of love but also a speaker and teacher of love. Wherever she went, she spoke on her work as well as on issues related to her work. This preaching of the Good News in a simple language touched the hearts of millions of people. We present below a selection of her teachings as a tribute to Mother Teresa, the greatest modern Christian missionary in the world.

"Abortion is murder in the womb. A child is a gift of God. If you do not want him, give him to me. I will look after him. but do not murder him."

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child -- a direct killing of the innocent child -- murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

"By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."

"Put your love for God into living action, always remembering that it is not what you do, but what you are, and how much love you put into the doing, and have undivided love for God and each other."

"Today, people with AIDS are the most unwanted and unloved brothers and sisters of Jesus; so let us give them our tender love and care and a beautiful smile."

"It's we who, with our exclusion and rejecting, push our brothers and sisters to find refuge in alcohol and become drunks. They drink to forget the deprivation of their lives."

"Many people hope to change the world by changing institutions; rather we must change the world by changing ourselves."

"A child is the greatest of God's gifts to a family, because it is the fruit of the parents' love. It is so wonderful to that God has created that child! To think also that God has created you and me -- that poor person in the street, that hungry person, and that ragged person. He has created us all in his image, for love."

"Every child has been created for greater things -- to love and to be loved -- in the image of God. That's why people must decide beforehand if they really want to have a child. Once a child is conceived, there is life, God's life. That child has a right to live and be cared for."

"Today, the little unborn child has become the target, the destroyer of peace and love, because the mother herself kills her own child. We must not be afraid of the little, unborn child. We must encourage the joy of loving in the mother's heart."

"Yet today we look over the world and see that little unborn children have become the target for death and destruction. They are being destroyed and exterminated!... Mothers are afraid their little unborn children will become a burden, the most beautiful creations of God's love....Just imagine, if my mother hadn't wanted me, you would not have Mother Teresa. I would not have this opportunity to share with you if my mother had had me destroyed."

"A nation that destroys the life of an unborn child, who has been created for living and loving, who has been created in the image of God, is in a tremendous poverty."

"It is humiliating to ask people to change their religion as it is something that cannot be bought and sold. At the most what one can change is the hearts of the people for the better."

"No one can force [anyone for conversion] ... no one can force anybody...I always say: If tomorrow God gives you the desire to know the Christian faith, then you are bound in conscience to look for it. But nobody can force you. Not even God himself can force you."

"Of course, I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you've found God, it's up to you to decide how to worship him."

"No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work."

"People who fear death are the ones who believe this is the end. I have not known anyone to die in fear if that person has witnessed the love of God. The person has to make peace with God, as do we all."

"We give the dying tender love and care -- everything possible that the rich get for their money -- we give them for the love of God."

"Education becomes meaningful only when the message of knowledge is spread to the people in its real form."

"The education which teaches respect and dignity for human lives, regardless of the wide disparities existing among individuals, is the greatest education for the fellow human beings."

"It is faith in Jesus in the Eucharist that enables them [the Missionaries of Charity] to find Him also hidden in the hearts of the poor."

"In Holy Communion we have Christ under the appearance of bread. In our work we find Him under the appearance of flesh and blood. It is the same Christ: I was hungry, I was naked, I was sick, I was homeless."

"Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus go together. We try to have our lives woven with the Eucharist so that we are more united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus."

"Testimony is the first source and the fundamental content of evangelization."

"Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best."

"God does not demand that I be successful, God demands that I be faithful. Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer."

"The family is a precious and beautiful gift of God, and let us make sure that we never destroy this beautiful gift but keep the family united through prayer, love and sacrifice."

"Mothers are at the heart of the family. Children need their mothers. If the mother is there, the children will be there, too. For the family to be whole, the children and the mother also need the father to be present in the home."

"Teach your children to love one another. Teach your children to have respect for each other. Teach your children to share. Teach your children, because nowadays, many schools do not teach these things."

"When families are broken or disunited, many children grow up not knowing how to love and pray. A country where many families have been destroyed like this will have many problems. I have often seen, especially in the rich countries, how children turn to drugs or other things to escape feeling unloved and rejected."

"We need lots of love to forgive. But we need much more humility to ask for forgiveness. I want you to share the joy of loving."

"Forgiveness offers us a clean heart, and people will be hundred times better after it."

"If in your family, your young daughter or son has done something wrong, forgive them. Show them the forgiving heart of God."

"I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not come. We have only today to love Jesus."

"If sometimes our poor people have had to die because of starvation, it is not because God didn't care for them, but because you and I didn't give."

"Our intellect and other gifts have been given to be used for God's greater glory, but sometimes they become the very god for us. That is the saddest part. We are losing our balance when this happens. We must free ourselves to be filled by God. God cannot fill what is full."

"There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore, it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God. I've always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic."

"I don't think there is anyone who needs God's help and grace as much as I do."

"The important thing is to follow God's way, the way he leads us to do something beautiful for him."

"Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than your own weakness."

"I am like a little pencil in his [God's] hand. That is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used. In human terms, the success of our work should not have happened, no?"

"Happiness is the sign of a generous person. It is often the mantle of self-sacrifice. Joy is the surest way to announce Christianity to the world."

"You have to be holy in your position as you are, and I have to be holy in the position that God has put me. So it is nothing extraordinary to be holy. Holiness is not the luxury of the few. Holiness is the simple duty for you and for me. We have been created for that."

"Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family. Be holy; let us pray."

"The Church never needed holiness as today. And the Religious are called to be instruments of holiness."

"If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are."

"Since we have that inner freedom derived from Jesus, we are able to give that undivided love to all whom we serve."

"Jesus is my God. Jesus is my Spouse. Jesus is my Life. Jesus is my only Love. Jesus is my All in All. Jesus is my everything."

"By blood I am Albanian. My citizenship is Indian. I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the heart of Jesus."

"I beg you to make a strong resolution to always write the truth, never write anything sensational. In this way you can show your love for God."

"At the moment of death we will not be judged according to to the number of good deeds we have done or by the diplomas we have received in our life-time. We will be judged according to the love we have put into our work."

"Be kind, show kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile...to all who suffer and are lonely, give always a happy smile..."

"Speak tenderly to them [the poor]. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well."

"Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science, or eloquence. Holiness grows so fast where there is kindness. The world is lost for want of sweetness and kindness. Do not forget we need each other."

"The laity have their part to play. What we [priests and the Religious] can do they cannot do. But they should be given a chance. A beautiful part of the Church is coming forward and giving them a chance. They too need the gift of bread of life."

"Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is a beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is life, fight it."

"Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing."

"As far as I am concerned, the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved."

"In the West, one of the greatest problems is loneliness. People die alone."

"The only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love."

"Do not be afraid to love as God loves. Love deeply with tenderness and concern."

"The love you put into the giving is the most important thing. If you want a happy family, if you want a holy family, learn to share. Give your hands to serve and your hearts to love."

"For those not loved, I give love; for those discarded, I give shelter and care."

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."

"The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love; hungry to be wanted, to be loved."

"Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own."

"The biggest disease today is not leprosy or TB but the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for, and deserted by everybody. The greatest evil is the lack of love."

"The world is upside down today because our family lives are less and less becoming a home for friends, a home for sacrifice, a home of peace and joy, and of being together. "

"Every day, every hour, every single minute, God manifests Himself in some miracle."

"I wanted to be a missionary...to go out and give the life of Christ to the people."

"I prefer to make a mistake because I am too kind than to perform miracles without any kindness."

"Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing; nakedness is lack of human dignity, and also that beautiful virtue of purity, and lack of that respect for each other."

"We are teaching Natural Family Planning to the beggars -- you would be surprised what these good people can do. They came to our house to thank us. As poor and disfigured as they are, the lepers, disabled and sick, all said to me, 'we have come to thank you for allowing us to plan our family without committing sin.' Among these people were Christians and non-Christians...If people in the slums of Calcutta and other parts of the world can successfully space their families without committing sin or destroying the wonderful gift of life, you people here in America who have been blessed with so much kindness from God can do the same."

"If I thought in terms of crowds, I would never begin my work. I believe in the personal touch of one to one."

"I believe in person to person. Every person is Christ to me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment."

"The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace."

"If we see good in each other, there will be peace and nothing can come between us."

"Love comes out of a clean heart. The doctors must have a clean heart to love, clean eyes to see, and clean hands to touch the sick people. A doctor can never say, 'I have no time.'"

"To the sick people doctors are like God from whom they expect the love, compassion, and tender touch. Patients not only expect medicine or the treatment from a doctor but love and sympathy as well."

"The trouble is that rich people, well-to-do people, very often don't really know who the poor are; and that is why we can forgive them, for knowledge can only lead to love, and love to service. And so, if they are not touched by them, it's because they do not know them."

"The poor are very great people. they can teach us so many beautiful things...These poor people may be have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich."

"Go to the poor with a smile. If you don't go with joy in your heart, then why go at all?"

"The poor don't need pity; they need love and compassion. If you don't know them, you don't love them and don't serve them."

"We talk very much about the poor, but very little to the poor. I have been told I spoil the poor by my work. Well at least one congregation [Missionaries of Charity] is spoiling the poor because everyone else is spoiling the rich."

"When we cleanse the wounds of the poor, we are cleansing the wounds of Christ."

"There is no comparison of poverty in one place to another. Even in India, I don't compare the poor of Calcutta with the poor of Bombay. Poverty is quite different."

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die [by abortion] so that you may live as you wish."

"In the developed countries there is a poverty of intimacy, a poverty of spirit, of loneliness, of love. There is no greater sickness in the world today than that one."

"Poverty in the undeveloped countries of the world would be removed faster if we all began to share. I want people to give until it hurts."

"The family that prays together, stays together. And if we stay together, we will love one another. If we have prayer in our lives, there will be no cause for fear. Then the very love of Christ will penetrate and strengthen each of us."

"Prayer feeds the soul -- as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul -- and it brings you closer to God. It also gives you a clean and pure heart."

"It is not possible to engage in the direct apostolate without being a soul of prayer. We must be aware of oneness with Christ, as He was in so far we permit Him to work in us and through us, with His power, with His desire, with His love. We must become holy, not because we want to feel holy, to be all love, all faith, all purity for the sake of the poor we serve. And once we have learnt to seek God and His will our contacts with the poor will become the means of great sanctity to ourselves and to others."

"Love to pray -- feel often during the day the need for prayer and take the trouble to pray. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is 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."

"Pray for me that I do not loosen my grip on the hands of Jesus, even under the guise of ministering to the poor."

"Give us holy priests, and we Sisters and our families will be holy! Without priests, we have no Jesus. Without priests, we have no absolution. Without priests, we cannot receive Holy Communion....How pure the hearts of priests must be to be able to say, 'This is my body.' How pure their hands must be to grant absolution at any time! When we go to confession we go as sinners full of sin. And when we come back from confession, we come back as sinners without sin. How great for priests to have been chosen by Christ to guide our people!."

"Let us remember that love, in order to survive, must be nourished by sacrifices."

"You must give what will cost you something. This then is giving not just what you live without but what you can't live without or don't want to live without....Then your gift becomes a sacrifice."

"If we really understand the Eucharist, if we really center our lives on Jesus' body and blood, if we nourish our lives with the bread of the Eucharist, if will be easy for us to see Christ in that hungry one next door, the one lying in the gutter, that alcoholic man we shun, our husband or our wife, or our restless child. For in them, we will recognize the distressing disguises of the poor : Jesus in our midst."

"I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord Himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?"

"To be able to love one another, we must pray much, for prayer gives a clean heart and a clean heart can see God in our neighbor. If now we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten how to see God in one another. If each person saw God in his neighbor, do you think we would need guns and bombs?"

"We choose that. That is the difference between us and the poor. Because that will bring us closer to our poor people. How can we be truthful to them if we lead a different life? If we have everything possible that money can buy, that the world can give, then what is our connection to the poor? What language will I speak to them? What language? Now if the people tell me it is so hot, I can say, 'You come and see my room.'"

"A Sister who does not pray cannot remain with us -- she might as well go. Through prayer you will believe and through belief you will love -- through love you will serve."

"Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart."

"Don't look for big things, look for small things and think what you can give to the society."

"There are many people who can do big things, but there are very few people who will do the small things."

"Smile at each other; smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other."

"Without our suffering, our wok would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the Redemption..."

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."

"No one was a better priest than Mary. And yet she remained only the Handmaid of the Lord. See, no one could say...this is my body, as she could, because the body of Jesus was in her. Beautiful no!"

"They [the poor] ask us to teach them the Word of God. People are hungry for God. They long to hear his Word."

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."