September 5: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Eleven years ago the world mourned the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her funeral was attended by thousands and watched by millions including myself, (eventhough it was televised live at 3 AM Pacific Standard Time). Thousands of miles away and only 19 years old, I too felt the sadness and mourning that the world felt at her passing.



Next to the pope, she was perhaps the most recognized Catholic in the last century and her appeal reached beyong Catholicism. Mother Teresa inpired many to a life permeated by love for justice, tender care and humility. Her biggest appeal is that she practiced exactly what she preached.


There is a photo of John Paul and Mother Teresa embracing that speaks volumes on the lives of these two extraordinary figures. Faith, hope and love come to a poignant embodiment in that simple embrace. Never one to shy away from the public light, she never missed an opportunity to challenge and uncomfort our society. Saint, prophet, and friend of God.

May she continue to insire us with her example and her words:

• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved -- they are Jesus in disguise.
• Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.
• Speak tenderly to them. 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.
• The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not a mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.
• If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.
• Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best.
• Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.
• We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
• 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.
• There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.
• There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.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.
• If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.
• It is a poverty to decide that an unborn child must die so that you may live as you like.
• If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.
• We can do no great things; only small things with great love.
• I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.
• Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
• I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?
• Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
  God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.
• Despite giving your best to the world, you may be kicked in the teeth. Give the best you've got anyway.
• Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people 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 them peace and joy.
• Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.
• Well, let's do something beautiful for God.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for Us.

THE MEETING WITH THE RISEN CHRIST CHANGED PAUL'S LIFE

VATICAN CITY, 3 SEP 2008 (VIS) - This morning Benedict XVI travelled from Castelgandolfo to the Vatican for his weekly general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall. Continuing the series of catechesis on St. Paul, he today focused on the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

The Holy Father recalled how "the decisive moment of Paul's life came on the road to Damascus in the early 30s of the first century, following a period in which he persecuted the Church".

In order to understand what happened to the Apostle as he travelled to Damascus "we have two sources" the Pope explained. "The first and most popular are the accounts written by Luke, who narrates the event three times in the Acts of the Apostles". The details the Evangelist chooses to highlight - the light from the sky, Paul's fall to the earth, his blindness - "relate to the core of what happened", said the Holy Father, "the Risen Christ appears as a splendid light that speaks to Saul, transforming his mind and his life. ... This meeting with Christ, which is the focus of St. Luke's account, profoundly changed Paul's life, and in this sense we can and must speak of a true conversion".

Benedict XVI then went on to explain that "the second source are the Letters of St. Paul himself". The Apostle "never spoke of the particulars of the event, perhaps because he believed that everyone knew its essential details: everyone knew that from being a persecutor he had been transformed into a fervent apostle of Christ, the result not of his own reflections but of a tremendous event, a meeting with the Risen One".

In certain of his writings the Apostle of the Gentiles "highlights how the apparition of the Risen Christ - of which he himself was a true witness - is the foundation of his apostolate, ... the foundation of his new life", said the Pope.

Yet, Pope Benedict went on, "St. Paul did not consider the event as a conversion. And the reason", he explained, "is very clear: this transformation of his life was not the result of a psychological process, of an intellectual or moral evolution, ... but the fruit of his meeting with Christ Jesus. ... St. Paul's renewal cannot be explained in any other way. Psychological analyses cannot clarify and resolve the problem; only an event, the forceful encounter with Christ, is the key to understanding what happened".

For us, the Holy Father concluded, Christianity "is not a new philosophy or a new form of morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ, even if He does not reveal Himself to us as clearly and irresistibly as he did to Paul in making him the Apostle of the Gentiles. We can also encounter Christ in reading Holy Scripture, in prayer, and in the liturgical life of the Church - touch Christ's heart and feel that Christ touches ours. And it is only in this personal relationship with Christ, in this meeting with the Risen One, that we are truly Christian".
AG/ST. PAUL/...VIS 080903 (530)