Mother Teresa a beloved Saint founder of the missionaries of Charity and Noel Peace Prize winner was born Agnes gja boyu in Northern Macedonia in 1910 the youngest child in an Albanian family she grew up Faithfully Catholic and first felt the call to serve God at age 12 in 1928 after she turned 18 young Agnes left home to study with the sisters of Loretta in Ireland not knowing that this would be the last time she ever saw her family after learning English in Ireland she joined the sisters of Loretta missionaries in darjiling India as a noviciate
on May 24th 1931 young Agnes took her initial vows to become a sister of Loretta and in 1937 she became a sister adopting a new name with her new life mother Mary Teresa for almost 20 years until 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St Mary's High School in Kolkata while she enjoyed growing deeper in her vocation she couldn't help find her mind and heart being drawn past the schools in Convent and into the city streets Kolkata an already poor and overcrowded city was still reeling from the Bengal Famine of 1943 and Mother Teresa felt drawn to
leave the Comforts of the convent and not only go and serve the poor but live amongst them too the desires of her heart and the path god Set before her came together on a train ride to a retreat in darjiling in 1946 when she was was 36 years old Mother Teresa received what she referred to as a call within a call to leave the sisters of Loretta and devote herself fully in service of the poorest of the poor speaking of this call she said I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living
among them it was in order to fail would have been to break the faith 2 years later she received the blessing of her superiors to leave her teaching position and to create the missionaries of Charity in order of sisters that not only worked in the slums but lived in them too she never hesitated in speaking the truth of her heart saying our poor people are great people a very lovable people they don't need our pity and sympathy they need our understanding love and they need our respect we need to tell the poor that they are
somebody to us and that they too have been created by the same loving hand of God to love and be loved the first iteration of the missionaries of Charity was informal and humble she designed their habit a white sorry with three blue stripes to symbolize the sister's vows of poverty Chastity and obedience she didn't have any training or resources which would have been enough to stop just about anyone else from even trying to make a difference but in her humility she began her Ministry and God provided she was granted Indian citizenship and received medical training
soon after she was joined by other women who felt a similar call to serve and they began opening open a schools and hospitals they had no donors they had no Aid the sisters would only beg and pray for the food and medical supplies they needed to help those around them Mother Teresa was overcome by the suffering around her writing 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 achd I thought how much they must ache in body and soul looking for a home Home Food and Health then the comfort of Loretto 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 what be holy in my regard I did not let a single tear come despite these hardships in 1950 Mother Teresa received permission from the holy
sea to make the missionaries of Charity in officially recognized order they began to grow number accepting droves of new novitiates while also opening hospices schools and shelters the missionaries knew they wouldn't be able to save everyone but they cared deeply about allowing people to die with dignity insisting that everyone was spiritually accompanied through their death by the sacred text and practice of their own religion Mother Teresa was revered as a holy Woman by all types of people with all types of faiths and backgrounds describing this her friend Father Paul said since Hindus Muslims and Christians
all take her for for a woman of God and a holy person they all wanted to get a blessing in India to get a blessing means to be touched on the head individually many people prostrated themselves and then got a blessing she gave each one a Miraculous Medal whether they were Christian or Hindu or Muslim everyone was so happy they got a Miraculous Medal from her in 1952 the missionaries of Charity opened a home for people with Leprosy a highly contagious skin and nerve disease the home Shanti nagar not only housed and served those suffering
from leprosy but also acknowledged their dignity by giving them the means to work over the years Shanti nagar became in many ways a self-sufficient Colony as its residents raised animals grew Bountiful Gardens and even became responsible for the dying and weaving of the missionaries of Charity saris as her popularity spread Mother Teresa never missed an opportunity to use her platform to spread truth no matter how unpopular that truth might be in 1979 she received a Nobel Peace Prize in her acceptance speech she spoke of Christ saying and to make sure that we understand what he
means he said that at the hour of death we are going to be judged on what we have been to the poor to the hungry naked the homeless and He makes himself that hungry one that naked one the homeless one not only hungry for bread but Hungry For Love Not only naked for a piece of cloth but naked of that human dignity not only homeless for a room to live in but homeless for that being forgotten been unloved uncared being nobody to nobody having forgotten what is human love what is human touch what it is
to be loved by somebody and he says whatever you did to the least of these my brethren you did to me it is so beautiful for us to become holy to this love for Holiness is not a luxury of the few it is a simple Duty for each one of us and through this love we can become holy to this love for one another and today when I have received this reward I personally and most unworthy and I having avowed poverty to be able to understand the poor I choose the poverty of our people but
I am grateful and I am very happy to receive it in the name of the hungry of the naked of the homeless of the crippled of the blind of the leprous of all those people who feel unwanted unloved uncared thrown out by the society people who have become a burden to the society and are ashamed by everybody in 1995 she spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in the United States and didn't hold back in telling Americans what she perceived to be the greatest spiritual poverties in their Nation abandonment of the elderly and sick degradation of
the family drugs and abortion she said and see this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely who is feeling sick who is feeling worried are we there are we willing to give until it hurts in order to be with our family or do we put our interests first these are the the questions we must ask ourselves especially as we begin this year of the family we must remember that love begins in the home we must also remember that the future of humanity passes through the
family I was surprised in the west to see so many young boys and girls given to drugs and I tried to find out why why is it like that when those in the west have so many more things than those in the East and the answer was because there is no one in the family to receive them our children depend on us forever everything their health their nutrition their security their coming to know and love God for all of this they look to us with trust hope and expectation often father and mother are so busy
that they have no time for their children perhaps they are not even married or have given up on their marriage so their children go to the streets and get involved in drugs or other things we are talking of Love of the child which is where love and peace must begin there in our own family but I feel that the greatest destroyer of Peace today is abortion because Jesus said if you receive a little child you receive me so every abortion is the denial of receiving Jesus is the neglect of receiving Jesus she passed 2 years
later at the age of 87 but just a year before she died she wrote a letter to her fellow missionaries that encapsulates her Legacy entitled The varasi Letter it reads my dearest children sisters brothers and fathers this letter being very personal I wanted to write in my own hand because there are so many things to say even if not in mother's hand still it comes from mother's heart Jesus wants me to tell you again how much love he has for each of you beyond all you can imagine I worry some of you still have not
really met Jesus one: one you and Jesus alone we may spend time in the chapel but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how he looks at you with love do you really know the living Jesus not from the books but from being with him in your heart have you heard the loving words he speaks to you ask for Grace he is longing to give it never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person not just the idea how can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say
I love you impossible our soul needs that just as much as the body needs to breathe the air if not prayer is dead meditation only thinking Jesus wants you to each hear him speaking in the Silence of your heart be careful of all that block that personal contact with the living Jesus the devil may try to use the hurts of your life and sometimes our own mistakes to make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves you is really clinging to you this is a danger for all of us and so sad because it
is completely opposite of what Jesus is really wanting waiting to tell you not only that he loves you but even more he Longs for you he misses you when you don't come close he thirsts for you he loves you always even when you don't feel worthy when you're not accepted by others even by yourself sometimes he is the one who always accepts you in this letter she also reiterated her focus on Jesus's words on the cross I thirst she urged her followers to hear The Echoes of Christ's words through the voices of the poor and
sick in their own neighborhoods she wrote why does Jesus say I thirst what does it mean something so hard to explain in words if you remember anything from mother's letter remember this I thirst is something much more than deeper just saying I love you until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you you can't begin to know who he wants to be for you or who he wants you to be for him our lady will help with all of this since she was the first person to hear Jesus cry I thirst with St John
and I am sure Mary Magdalene but she was there on Calvary she knows how real how deep his longing for you and for the poor do we know do we feel as she ask her to teach you before it was our lady pleading with mother now it is mother in her name pleading with you listen to Jesus's thirst let it be for each what Holy Father said in his letter how do you approach The Thirst of Jesus only one secret the closer you come to Jesus the better you will know his thirst 10 years after
her death a collection of Mother Teresa's personal writings were published for the first time and the contents made headlines around the world her letters revealed that she had experienced a period of spiritual desolation that no one with the exception of her Confessor had known about privately she wrote there is so much deep contradiction in my soul such deep longing for God so deep that it is painful a suffering continual and yet not wanted by God repulsed empty no Faith No Love No Zeal Souls hold no attraction Heaven means nothing to me it looks like an
empty place the thought of it means nothing to me and yet this torturing longing for God pray for me please that I keep smiling at him in spite of everything for I am only his so he has every right over me I am perfectly happy to be nobody even to God while the publishing of her private doubts Drew criticism from cynic the faithful found Hope in her words interpreting them as a sign of solidarity the revelation of Mother Teresa's Dark Night of the Soul was perhaps her final humble gift to her devotees as a proed
one once and for all that faith is not a feeling and that we can do incredible things for God and our neighbor despite our doubts even in the wake of all this controversy the case for Mother Teresa's sainthood was brought to the Vatican almost immediately she was beatified on October 19th 2003 and canonized on September 4th 2016 today the missionaries of Charity are active in 133 countries with over 5,000 sisters across the world they continue to carry on Mother Teresa's Legacy by serving the poor lonely and sick without fear or Pride [Music]
