St Teresa of Calcutta, Icon of Charity and Mercy – 05 September
“Love is not patronizing and charity isn’t about pity, it is about love.
Charity and love are the same – with charity you give love,
so don’t just give money but reach out your hand instead.”
– Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Daughter of an Albanian businessman who died when Agnes was nine years old. Nun, missionary and teacher in Calcutta, India in 1928. In 1948 she left the convent to work alone with the poor, and became an Indian citizen. She founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. In 1957 the Missionaries of Charity started their work with lepers and in disaster areas. She received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1972, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and the Missionaries today work in 30 countries.
She was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, Albania (modern Macedonia) and died on 5 September 1997 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India of natural causes.
Readings
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. – Mother Teresa
Let anyone who comes to you go away feeling better and happier. Everyone should see goodness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile. Joy shows from the eyes. It appears when we speak and walk. It cannot be kept closed inside us. It reacts outside. Joy is very infectious. – Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
God speaks in the silence of the heart, and we listen. And then we speak to God from the fullness of our heart, and God listens. And this listening and this speaking is what prayer is meant to be. – Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
A clean heart is a free heart. A free heart can love Christ with an undivided love in chastity, convinced that nothing and nobody will separate it from his love. Purity, chastity, and virginity created a special beauty in Mary that attracted God’s attention. He showed his great love for the world by giving Jesus to her. – Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Mary, my Mother, give me your heart so beautiful so Pure – so Immaculate – so full of love and humility. – Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
(catholicsaints.info)