Mother Teresa - Angel of Mercy

"Keep the joy of loving the poor and share this joy with all you meet. Remember works of love are works of Peace. God Bless you." - They where the words of Mother Teresa.

This luminous messenger of God's love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. In her teens, she became a member of a youth group in her local pairsh called Sodality. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun.

From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.

• On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work for refugees.
• She learned basic medicine and went into the homes of the sick to treat them.
• In 1949, some of her former pupils joined her. They found men, women, and children dying on the streets who were rejected by local hospitals.

In 1950, the group was established by the Church as a Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese. It was known as the Missionaries of Charity. In 1952 the first Home for the Dying was opened in space made available by the City of Calcutta. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from 12 to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world.

• For more than 45 years, Mother Teresa comforted the poor, the dying, and the unwanted around the world.
• Mother Teresa gained worldwide acclaim with her tireless efforts on behalf of world peace.
• Beginning in 1980, homes began to spring-up for drug addicts, prostitutes, battered women, and more orphanages and schools for poor children around the world.

In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her native Albania (know known as Serbia) and opened a home in Tirana.   On February 3, 1994 at a National Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, in Washington, DC, Mother Teresa challenged the audience on such topics as family life and abortion. She said, "Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Give the child to me."

In 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a "little way of holiness" for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit. In 1985, Mother Teresa established the first hospice for AIDS victims in New York.

Mother Teresa travelled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. Her zeal and works of mercy knew no boundaries   

In November of 1996, Mother Teresa received the honorary U.S. Citizenship.

The whole of Mother Teresa's life and labor bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God.

Awards received: Mother Teresa's work has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.

Last years of her Life: despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church.

By 1997, Mother Teresa's Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters.

On 5 September Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. She was given the honor of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity.

1. "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
2. "Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength."
3. "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. We believe our work should be our example to people. We have among us 475 souls - 30 families are Catholics and the rest are all Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs-all different religions. But they all come to our prayers."
4. "When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her.
   It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed."
5. "If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive."

(Sources: ewtn.com, vatican.va, rapidnet.com)