"I thirst!" -- Mother Teresa's Calling Within a Calling

Years after Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was called to religious life with the Sisters of Loreto, she received another calling from the Lord, to go out and serve the "poorest of the poor."

Excerpt’s from “Mother Teresa's Secret Fire”
What Forged Her Soul Was an Intimate Encounter With Divine Thirst
by Father Joseph Langford, MC
(Together with Mother Teresa, Father Langford is a co-founder of the priestly branch of the Missionaries of Charity.)

The Train to Darjeeling: Another Reading

On the morning of Sept. 10, Sister Teresa Bojaxhiu left Calcutta’s Howrah Station, bound for Siliguri, in the northern plains of West Bengal. She would disembark in Siliguri and board what was affectionately called the "toy train," so nicknamed for its tiny dimensions, and from there continue on the last leg of her journey. . . .

Inspiration Day

As the train ascended into the clean, cool mountain air, Sister Teresa would have looked out her window onto lush thickening forests. Trains were slow in that day, not because the engines were weak, but because the track was unreliable. A trip of several hours could turn into days, as late-summer heat could buckle rails and add hours to the journey. But, when moving, a passenger’s mind could ride the rhythm of the train’s progress and easily move into prayer.

Somewhere on this ordinary journey, in the heat, in the gathering shadows, in the noisy, crowded car, something extraordinary happened. At some unknown point along the way, there in the depths of Mother Teresa’s soul, the heavens opened.

For decades, all she would tell her Sisters of that life-changing moment was that she had received a “call within a call,” a divine mandate to leave the convent and to go out to serve the poor in the slums. But something incomparably greater and more momentous had transpired as well. We now know, thanks to early hints in her letters and conversations, and her own later admissions, that she had been graced with an overwhelming experience of God -- an experience of such power and depth, of such intense “light and love,” as she would later describe it, that by the time her train pulled into the station at Darjeeling, she was no longer the same. Though no one knew it at the time, Sister Teresa had just become Mother Teresa.

For the still young nun, barely 36 years old, another journey was beginning; an inner journey with her God that would turn every aspect of her life upside down. The grace of the train would not only transform her relationship to God, but to everyone and everything around her. Within eight short days, the grace of this moment would carry her and her newfound inner fire back down the same mountainside, and into a new life. From the heights of the Himalayas she would bring a profoundly new sense of her God back into the sweltering, pestilent slums of Calcutta -- and onto a world stage, bearing in her heart a light and love beyond her, and our, imagining.

From then on, Mother Teresa would simply refer to September 10th as “Inspiration Day,” an experience she considered so intimate and ineffable that she resisted speaking of it, save in the most general terms. Her silence would prevail until the last few years of her life, when she at last was moved to lift the veil covering this sacred moment.

Putting It All Together

As I worked on our constitutions in the Bronx, I began to ask myself if there might be a connection between Mother Teresa's experience on the train and Jesus’ words, “I thirst.” Could they both be part of the same grace; could it be that Mother Teresa’s encounter on the train was, at its core, an encounter with Jesus’ thirst? If that were the case, the words on the wall would simply be her way of telling us, without training the spotlight on herself, yet in a way we would not forget, the essence of what had happened that grace-filled day on the train.

As I prayed and thought over it in those months, I became more persuaded that the grace of the train had been, at least in part, Mother Teresa’s own overpowering experience of Jesus’ thirst. The only thing left to complete my quest was to seek her confirmation.

On her next visit to New York, in early 1984, I finally had both reason and opportunity to ask her about the experience of the train. A few days into her visit, when I was alone with her in the front garden outside our house in the Bronx, I told her of what had been my long search to better understand her “inspiration,” and my desire to describe it accurately in our community’s constitutions. I explained to her that, for me, the only thing that made sense of her placing “I thirst” in her chapels, was that it grew out of her own experience of the thirst of Jesus -- and most importantly, that her encounter with the divine thirst had been the heart and essence of September 10th. . . .

I waited in silence for an answer. She lowered her head for a moment, then looked up and said, “Yes, it is true.” Then after a pause, she added, “And one day you must tell the others . . .”

Here, finally, was the core of Mother Teresa’s secret. In the end, it had not been some dry command to “work for the poor” that had made Mother Teresa who she was. What had forged Mother Teresa’s soul and fueled her work had been an intimate encounter with the divine thirst – for her, for the poor, and for us all. . . .

In the most indirect and humble of ways, not unlike the Virgin Mary, Mother Teresa had wished to exalt the goodness of the God she had met on the train, and the divine message that, after changing her life, held the power to change our own. She had always known, as I later realized, that her message was meant for us all – for the neediest and furthest away first of all. And the message of Jesus’ thirst, of his longing to love us, silently conveyed in her works of love as much as by her few and gentle words, was bearing fruit all around her and all around the world. Already, in the time I had known her, I had seen with my own eyes how her unspoken message could touch, and heal, and change lives.

Her Message Launched

Mother Teresa’s understanding of the thirst of God was entirely simple, yet deep, powerful and engaging. She learned that God not only accepts us with all our misery, but that he longs for us, “thirsts” for us, with all the intensity of his divine heart, no matter who we are or what we have done.

But how can God “thirst” for us if there is no lack in God? While thirst can imply lack, it also has another sense. In Mother Teresa’s lexicon, thirst signifies deep, intense desire. Rather than indicating lack, the symbol of divine thirst points to the mystery of God’s freely chosen longing for man. Simply put, though nothing in God needs us, everything in God wants us -- deeply and intensely, as he shows throughout Scripture.

Mother Teresa’s insights reveal something important, even essential, in the depths of God’s being. Mother Teresa insists that the thirst of Christ reveals something not only about Jesus, but about God himself. Jesus’ thirst points us toward a great mystery in the very bosom of the Godhead -- what Mother Teresa describes as “the depths of God's infinite longing to love and be loved.” As ardent a statement as this is, her insights are confirmed by no less a source than the Fathers of the Church. The great St. Augustine would write that “God thirsts to be thirsted for by man.” In our own day, Benedict XVI would affirm that “the thirst of Christ is a gateway into the mystery of God.”

The mystery of God’s thirst for us was the one great light Mother Teresa held high in the night, hers and ours. . . .

Sharing the Darkness of the Poor

As difficult and painful as her dark night became, Mother Teresa never allowed herself to become “lost” in her darkness. She never rebelled against it, nor against the God who laid it on her shoulders, nor against the poor of Calcutta with whom and for whom she bore it. On the contrary, she gradually came to understand its deeper meaning, and even to willingly embrace it for the sake of her God -- who had borne that same agony for her sake, in Gethsemane.

Even while tending to the physical and material needs of the poor, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, Mother Teresa’s primary focus was their “salvation and sanctification,” their inner advancement toward divine union, as their highest dignity and long-term vocation. She was not sent simply to work for material betterment, a point even her admirers often miss. Calcutta’s poorest, living and dying on the streets, enjoyed neither sufficient material goods, nor the goodness of their fellow man. Since they were left with nothing and no one to mirror to them the face of God, Mother Teresa was sent to show them in his name, in concrete works of love, how beloved of God they were. For love’s sake, she herself would bear a portion of their interior pain. She would give of herself, in this life and the next, to “light the light of those in darkness on earth.” The more the truth of her victorious faith is known, the more she will be an inspiration to those who are learning to find their peace, to make their contribution, and to cling to their God, as she did, in the night. . . .

Lessons in the Night

Darkness need not be the opposite, the enemy of light. When seeded with God's grace, darkness becomes its catalyst. Night becomes womb to day. It is the power of love, of God's own nature as love, that works this alchemy. When embraced for others, when transformed by love, darkness indeed becomes light. . . .

Turning the Darkness to Light

We are each called and equipped by God to not only survive our personal Calcutta, but to serve there -- to contribute to those around us whose individual Calcutta intersects our own, just as Mother Teresa did, if on a different scale. If she could face the worst of human suffering in such immense proportions, and do so despite bearing her own pain -- then there must be a way that we can do the same in the lesser Calcutta that is ours. We must never forget, distracted by the demi-problems of our routine existence, just how important our one life is in the plan of God, and the great amount of good we can yet contribute.

How important can our one small, unspectacular life be? Consider this: the good that each of us can accomplish, even with limited resources and restricted reach, not even a Mother Teresa could achieve. The family, friends and coworkers whom we alone can touch, with our unique and unrepeatable mix of gifts and qualities, not even Mother Teresa could reach. No one else on the planet, and no one else in history possesses the same network of acquaintances and the same combination of talents and gifts as each of us do.

There is no need, then, to travel to far-off lands to contribute to Mother Teresa’s mission, or to follow her example. Wherever we are, with whatever talents and relationships God has entrusted us, we are each called not to do what a Mother Teresa did, but to do as she did -- to love as she loved in the Calcutta of our own life.

Mother Teresa on Peace

Blessed Mother Teresa
Address to the United Nations
October 26, 1985

We have gathered together to thank God for the 40 years of the beautiful work that the United Nations have put in for the good of the people, and as we begin the year of peace, let us say the prayer, you have all got one, we say the prayer together for peace. For works of love are works of peace. We say it together so that we may obtain peace and God can give us peace, by uniting us together.

Make us worthy Lord to serve our fellow men throughout the world,
who live and die in poverty and hunger.
Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread
and by our understanding love give peace and joy.

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace.
That where there is hatred I may bring love,
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony,
That where there is error I may bring truth,
That where there is doubt I may bring faith,
That where there is despair I may bring hope,
That where there are shadows I may bring light,
That where there is sadness I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort that to be comforted,
To understand than to be understood,
To love than to be loved.
For it is by forgetting self that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven,
it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
Amen.

We have asked our Lord to make us channels of peace, of joy, of love, of unity, and this is why Jesus came: to prove that love. God loved the world so much that he gave Jesus his son to come among us, to give us that good news, that God loves us. And that he wants us to love one another as he loves each one of us. That he has created us for that one reason: to love and to be loved. No other reason. We are not just a number in the world. We are children of God.

Last time I was in China they asked me “what is a communist to you?” I said “a child of God, my brother my sister.” And exactly that is what you and I are meant to be: brother, sister. Because the same loving hand of God has created you, created me, created man of the street, created that leper, that hungry man, that rich man, for that same purpose: to love and to be loved. And this is what you and I have come together today to find the means of peace.

How does peace come? Through works of love. Where does it begin? At home. How does it begin? By praying together. For family that prays together stays together. And if you stay together, you will love one another as God loves each one of you. For Prayer gives a clean heart and a clean heart can see God. And if you see God in each other, if we have the joy of seeing God in each other, we will love one another. That’s why no color, no religion, no nationality should come between us. For we are all the same children of the same loving hand of God, created for greater things: to love and to be loved. Only we must experience that joy of loving.

I never forget, some time back, two young people came to our house and they gave me lots of money. And I asked them “where did you get so much money?” And they said “two days ago we got married. Before marriage, we decided we will not buy wedding clothes. We will not have wedding feast. We will give you that money.” And I know that in our country, in a Hindu family, what that means, not to have wedding clothes, not to have a wedding feast. So again I asked, “but why? Why did you do like that?” And they said “we loved each other so much that we wanted to share the joy of loving with the people you serve.” How do we experience the joy of loving? How do we experience that? By giving until it hurts.

When I was going to Ethiopia, little children came to me. They heard I was going there. And they came. They had come to know from the sisters how much the children are suffering in Ethiopia. And they came and each one gave something, very, very small money. And some, whatever they had, they gave. And a little boy came to me and said “I have nothing, I have no money, I have nothing. But I have this piece of chocolate. And you give that, take that with you and you give it to the children in Ethiopia.” That little child loved with great love, because I think that was the first time that he had a piece of chocolate in his hand. And he gave it. He gave it with joy to be able to share, to remove a little the suffering of someone in far Ethiopia. This is the joy of loving: to give until it hurts. It hurt Jesus to love us, for he died on the cross, to teach us how to love. And this is the way we too must love: until it hurts.

We have many beautiful people; you have seen in the pictures, our poor people, our great people. I have been with them for so many years and I have never yet heard a complaint. Some days back, I picked up a man from the streets, eaten up alive with worms. I took him to our home. And what did this man say? “I lived like an animal in the streets, but I will die like an angel. Loved, and cared.” It took us three hours to clean him, to remove every bit of those worms that were eating him alive. And not a word from him. And just before, while we were still praying with him, praying for him, he looked up at sister and said “Sister, I am going home to God.” And he died. There was such a wonderful, beautiful smile on his face. He went home to God. I’ve never seen a smile like that. And yet there was this man, eaten alive, no complaint, no cursing, and just “I am going home to God.” And what a beautiful way of going home to God. With a clean heart, with a pure heart, filled with joy. Filled with that tenderness and love that he received from the sisters who looked after him.

Yes, this is what you and I, today, if we really stand for why we have come here today, to begin that year of peace, we must begin at home, we must begin in our own family. Works of love begin at home and works of love are works of peace. We all want peace, and yet, and yet we are frightened of nuclear wars, we are frightened of this new disease. But we are not afraid to kill an innocent child, that little unborn child, who has been created for that same purpose: to love God and to love you and me.

This is what is such a contradiction, and today I feel that abortion has become the greatest destroyer of peace. We are afraid of the nuclear wars because it is touching us, but we are not afraid, the mother is not afraid to commit that terrible murder. Even when God Himself speaks of that, He says “even if mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you on the palm of my hand, you are precious to me, I love you.” These are God’s own words to you, to me, to that little unborn child. And this is why if we really want peace, if we are sincere in our hearts that we really want peace, today, let us make that strong resolution that in our countries, in our cities, we will not allow a single child to feel unwanted, to feel unloved, to throw away a society. And let us help each other to strengthen that. That in our countries that terrible law of killing the innocents, of destroying life, destroying the presence of God, be removed from our country, from our nation, from our people, from our families.

And so that today, when we are praying, let us bring again and again prayer in our life. For prayer will give us strength. Prayer is something that will help us to see God in each other, to help us to love one another as He loves each one of us. This is something that you and I must bring to the world. The whole world is looking up at you. You have gathered here, from all the nations to find the ways and means of peace. For sure, works of love are works of peace, and they begin in our family. Much suffering, much destruction has come from the home, from the family. By destroying the unborn child, we are destroying the presence of God. We have destroyed love. We have destroyed the most sacred thing that a human being can have: the joy of loving and joy of being loved.

And so today, when we have gathered here together, let us carry in our hearts one strong resolution: I will love. I will be a carrier of God’s love. For that is what Jesus came to teach us: How to love one another. And to bring Him to love at home, in our own family, in our own... to those that are unwanted. Maybe in our own family we have the lowly.

We all speak of the terrible hunger. What I have seen in Ethiopia, what I have seen in other places, especially these days in terrible places like Ethiopia, but the people in hundreds and thousands are facing death just for a piece of bread, for a glass of water. People have died in my own hands. And yet we forget, why they and not we? Let us love again, so let us share, let us pray that this terrible suffering be removed from our people. Let us share with them the joy of loving, and where does love begin? Again I say in our family, in our home. Let us bring love, peace and joy through prayer. Let us bring prayer, pray together, for prayer will give you a clean heart. I will pray for you that you may grow in this love of God, by loving one another as He loves each one of you, and especially that through this love, you become holy. Holiness is not a luxury of the few. It’s a simple duty for each one of us. For holiness brings love, and love brings peace, and peace brings us together.

And let us not be afraid for God is with us if we allow Him, if we give Him the joy of a pure heart. Let us pray, let us pray for each other. And you pray for us also, that we may continue God’s work with great love.

You have seen those young sisters, consecrating their lives totally to the service of the poorest of the poor. These young sisters take care of 158,000 lepers, in the Middle East, in Africa and India, and so much joy, new life has come into their lives. Why? Because there is somebody who loves them, somebody who wants them, somebody who will give them tender love and care. I was asked the other day, “What are you going to do in this place? We have everything. The government gives us everything. What will you do here?” I only said “I will give tender love and care.” No money can give that. So you and I, let us begin with that tender love and care in our own home. For this is what we have been created for. This is what Jesus came to teach us, to love one another as He loves each one of us. We have many poor people around the world, but I find that the poverty of loneliness, the poverty of being unwanted unloved, uncared, just left, a throwaway of society, is a very difficult and very, very burdensome poverty, very difficult to remove.

I have picked up from the streets hungry people, and by giving them to eat, by giving them a bed to sleep, I have removed the suffering, but for the lonely, the shut-ins, the unwanted, it’s not so easy. And so there you and I must come forward, and share the joy of loving, but we cannot give what we don’t have. That’s why we need to pray. And prayer will give us a clean heart, and a clean heart will allow us to see God in each other. And if we see God in each other, we will be able to live in peace and if we live in peace, we will be able to share the joy of loving with each other and God will be with us.

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Open Discussion on the film "Mother Teresa"

Thank you to everyone who attended the inaugural event of Cinema Catechism! I'm very pleased - it was a resounding success!

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What questions, comments, criticisms, do you have of the film?

What are your thoughts on the film "Mother Teresa" overall? What do you think of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta herself?


About the Movie –

What do you think of the portrayal by Olivia Hussey, who is best known for playing the Blessed Virgin Mary in Jesus of Nazareth?

In interviews, she has said that she had wanted to do this film for a long time, and she was concerned with capturing the spirit and mannerisms of Mother Teresa.

Was there too much emphasis on scandal? Is the film unfair in this respect?

Was the story a bit choppy or disjointed, as some critics have said?

The movie was originally a mini-series on Italian television, running about another 60 minutes, which were edited out for the American DVD release.

What is your favorite scene?

Does the movie instill in you a desire to become a missionary?

About Mother Teresa –

Is there a danger in looking to Mother Teresa as a model? Is she so far above us, so great, that people won’t even try to emulate her?

Mother Teresa, following St. Therese, said that it wasn’t necessary to do “great” things, only to do small things with great love.

The U.S. is not Calcutta, we do not have that severe poverty here, so is there nothing for us to do then?

Mother Teresa often said that the greatest poverty is marginalization, to be unwanted. And, as Pope Benedict wrote in Caritas in Veritate 53, there is a crucial need for true communion in human development. There are many unwanted and unloved even here in this "land of plenty." We must learn to see in truth – (1) to actually be able to see the unwanted and unloved, to realize that they exist and might even be right next to us, and (2) to see Jesus in them. Maybe not as widespread as Calcutta, but we do have material poor here, and we need to learn to see them too.

Notice the things Mother Teresa did NOT do –

Mother Teresa did not engage in express proselytizing, explicitly trying to convert people. If we are called to be a witness for Christ, what are we to say of that?

Mother Teresa said it was up to God to convert people, she merely needed to bring Jesus to them and them to Jesus.

Mother Teresa did not turn to government as the answer. But with its unequaled financial power, shouldn't government be the answer for the provision of social services?

Mother Teresa saw her service to the poorest of the poor as an individual calling, a personal calling. We are each of us called, to personally give love ourselves, not to shift that responsibility off to someone or something else. Mother Teresa preferred the simple, the personal over the impersonal organization, which is consistent with the Church's teaching on subsidiarity. At the same time, Mother Teresa did not advocate working in isolation, but instead utilized and relied upon the assistance of others, that is, the principal of solidarity. (Caritas in Veritate 71) But she understood that it is not enough to have someone else do it. She was of the mind that if the individual person did not do it, did not personally give that drink to a thirsty Jesus, and did not do it today, that the poor would not be there tomorrow.

What other questions, comments, criticisms, do you have of the film? What are your thoughts on Mother Teresa, the Missionaries of Charity, and their mission of love?

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Mother Teresa - a Model of Love and Truth

Here are the class notes for September 9, 2010 --

Our theme for Cinema Catechism for Fall 2010 is "Love and Truth."

Love and Truth are the two pillars upon which the entirety of the faith can be understood. We are a faith that seeks understanding, both for ourselves and to better explain it to non-believers, and Love and Truth really are the answer to every question –

Why the Cross? Love and Truth
Why or How the Trinity? Love and Truth
Why the Immaculate Conception? Love and Truth

And when it comes to explaining Church moral teachings –

Why the teaching on contraception? Love and Truth
Why the Ten Commandments? Love and Truth

It is not surprising that Love and Truth should be the answer to every question because God is Love and God is Truth. (CCC 214-221)

If that is the truth of God, what is the truth of man?

The truth of man is that he is made male and female. And what does this truth of the human person tell us, as further revealed in scripture? Why do we exist, why are we here, what is the meaning of life?

We are social beings, made for relationship. The meaning and purpose of life is to love and be loved in truth. (CCC 355-84) Not merely as a matter of gratuitous charity, but as a matter of truth and justice, recognizing others as being children of God.

We are also called to “be perfect.” God is perfect complete Love and Truth. And so we are called to love as God loves, as Jesus loves us.

What is this Love of God? Not only philia, the brotherly, fraternal, friendship kind of love, but –

• Agape – the subordinate, sacrificial, total gift of self, unmerited and unconditional (See, Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est)

• Purified Eros – love naturally seeks an “other,” this is the thirsting kind of love, a joyous, passionate, ascending, intimate kind of love, longing to be with the other (Id.)
  

• “Spousal” type of love – examples are husband and wife, God and Israel, Jesus and the Church; this is a love that is both (a) unifying, communion, and (b) fruitful, creative. Love bears fruit. There is a spousal meaning in the human body, so we are all called to this type of love, a loving communion of persons, one in the Lord. (See, Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, Letter to Families, Wednesday Audiences on the Theology of the Body)

We all need love, all of us. Most especially those who have nothing else. To be without love is the worst possible thing. To separate yourself entirely from love, that is, to separate yourself from God, is called Hell. To not know love or to lose love here in this world is to catch a glimpse of Hell.

This was the calling of Mother Teresa, to love. She was and is a model of Love and Truth. Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents, upon entering the Sisters of Loreto, she took the name Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She was sent to India, where she taught for many years. But she was called to something else.

On September 10, 1946, while on a trip to a retreat, she received a “calling within a calling.” The Lord called her to serve the poorest of the poor.

Mother Teresa often said that the worst kind of poverty is to be unloved and unwanted. (cf. Caritas in Veritate 53) Often that includes the material poor, who are marginalized and ignored, but it also includes the dying, the disabled, and even people of material means.

This vocation of loving the unloved included, in a special way, Truth -- being able to truly see, to see as God sees, to see the face of Jesus in others. In loving others, she loved Him, her spouse. (Homily of Pope John Paul II, Beatification Mass for Mother Teresa)

And in bringing the love of Jesus to the poor, she brought hope to those who had none and, for not a few, this led to faith, to them knowing Jesus in the heart.
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"Mother Teresa" is pious, inspiring viewing

Review of Mother Teresa
by Catholic News Service

Told with visual eloquence, this reverent film movingly dramatizes the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Olivia Hussey), from her years as a young nun teaching at a girls' convent school in India; to serving the suffering in the slums of Calcutta; to founding the Missionaries of Charity; to becoming an ambassador of hope and compassion, and concluding shortly before her death in 1997. Filmed on location in Sri Lanka and Italy, the movie chronicles her congregation's growth to an international charitable organization. . . . Director Fabrizio Costa eschews gauzy hagiography, lovingly painting this extraordinary woman in flesh-and-blood hues, resulting in a deeply human portrait of a modern-day -- if not yet officially recognized -- saint. . . .

Read the entire review here.

Review of Mother Teresa
by Steven D. Greydanus

Almost thirty years ago Olivia Hussey played the most venerated woman of all time, the Virgin Mary, in Zeffirelli’s “Jesus of Nazareth.” Now she portrays the most revered woman of the twentieth century in the reverential, Italian-made English-language production Mother Teresa.

Hussey’s earnest performance brings to life Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s determination, simplicity and idealistic faith, from her early growing absorption with the desperate condition of the poverty-stricken and dying in the streets of Calcutta through the difficulties that faced her efforts to establish a new congregation and its various projects, and beyond. . . .

Despite its limitations, Mother Teresa is pious, inspiring viewing, most worth seeing for Hussey’s effective portrayal of the beati’s dogged personality, idiosyncratic leadership and administrative style, and total self-abandonment to serving Jesus in the poorest of the poor.

Read the entire review here.

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Coming Soon - Mother Teresa

Cinema Catechism: A Study of the Faith through Film begins Thursday, September 9, 2010, with the showing of the feature film Mother Teresa, starring Olivia Hussey, together with a discussion of the theme of Love and Truth.

Cinema Catechism is a new program of religious education that seeks to combine catechesis with film, and other offerings this fall include the feature films:

The 13th Day - about our Lady of Fatima and the messages she gave to the three children, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta.

The Scarlet and the Black - starring Gregory Peck as Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, an official with the Holy Office, who hid escaped Allied POWs and Jewish refugees in and around Rome during the Nazi occupation. With Christopher Plummer as the Nazi commander and John Gielgud as His Holiness Pope Pius XII, filmed in Rome and the Vatican.

Guadalupe - about a contemporary family from Spain learning about St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe.


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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

One hundred years ago, on August 26, 1910, Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born into the world to Albanian parents in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire, now part of the Republic of Macedonia. Thirteen years ago, on September 5, 1997, she was born into heaven.

Having been called to religious life, the young lamb Agnes took the name "Mary Teresa," after St. Thérèse of Lisieux, upon joining the Sisters of Loreto. After learning English in Ireland, Sister Teresa was sent to India, which was then part of the British Empire, where she made her first profession of vows in May 1931. She then taught at St. Mary's School for Girls in Calcutta, becoming principal as well in 1944. Upon taking her final profession of vows in May 1937, Sister Teresa became a spouse of Jesus for all eternity and, from then on, she was called "Mother Teresa."

Mother Teresa of the Sisters of Loreto was a beloved teacher, but she was called to something else. She received a "calling within a calling."

On September 10, 1946, on a train ride to a retreat in Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received her "inspiration." The Lord, in His deep thirst for love, had called her to go out into the world to serve the poorest of the poor. She was initially denied permission to leave the convent since this was not part of the mission of the Sisters of Loreto. She was offered to be released from her vows, but Mother Teresa, being a spouse of Jesus for all eternity, of course declined.

However, on August 17, 1948, Mother Teresa did receive permission to enter the world of the poor. She then put on for the first time the familiar white and blue sari, and began to minister to the poor of Calcutta. In October 1950, she received permission to establish a new religious community, the Missionaries of Charity. Soon other women religious put on the white and blue sari, and Mother Teresa began to send her sisters to other parts of India and then to other countries.

In time, Mother Teresa and her sisters became known to the whole world for the love that they showed to the lowest of the low.

Upon her death in 1997, she was buried at the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, and her tomb immediately became a place of pilgrimage and prayer. On October 17, 2003, Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, longing to love Jesus as He had never been loved before, you gave yourself entirely to Him, refusing Him nothing.

In union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, you accepted His call to satiate His infinite thirst for love and souls and become a carrier of His love to the poorest of the poor.

With loving trust and total surrender you fulfilled His will, witnessing to the joy of belonging totally to Him. You became so intimately united to Jesus your crucified Spouse that He deigned to share with you the agony of His Heart as He hung upon the Cross.

Blessed Teresa, you promised to continuously bring the light of love to those on earth; pray for us that we also may long to satiate the burning thirst of Jesus by loving Him ardently, sharing in His sufferings joyfully, and serving Him wholeheartedly in our brothers and sisters, especially those most unloved and unwanted.

Amen.

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