Mother Teresa

So, I've never really studied up on Mother Teresa and I have to confess that I really don't even know that much about her. I've had several people bring her up in the past few weeks (including our pastor this past Sunday)-- so, I decided to look her up.

If you have never read anything about her, just go to Wikipedia and see what it says. There is so much to know. She was a nun, but decided to give up the convent life to live and take care of the poor. Now I know that living in a convent doesn't sound that great to us, but that is all she knew and it was a safe place. Can you even imagine. There were days she would go without food and would be forced to steal to save herself from starvation. She would walk for days looking for a place to live until her whole body ached. And through it all, she only had to say a word to be back in the convent. I love this excerpt from Wikipedia talking about one particular incident:

"Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She wrote in her diary:

'Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.'"

I could go on for a while, but I'll leave it up to you to research her life if you're interested. I am a pretty selfish person. I rarely look at these kinds of things and therefore I feel like I fail to learn anything about who our God really is. Most of the time I avoid the news and matters that are "depressing" because I just don't want to feel bad. And although I do not intend on going out looking for all the sadness in the world, I DO intend on making it a point to learn from the lives of others. What Mother Teresa did for mankind was beautiful. She depicts the kind of selflessness I would love to have. And even though surrounded by death and sadness she seemed to always have hope, faith and love. I want to live like that.

"Holiness is not the luxury of the few; it is a simply duty, for you and for me, because Jesus has very clearly stated, 'Be ye holy as my father in heaven is holy.' So let us pray for each other that we grow in love for each other, and through this love become holy as Jesus wants us to be for he died out of love for us."-- Mother Teresa