The Wisdom and Holiness of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The following are quotes from Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who died in 1997 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003. Mother Teresa is now known as Blessed Mother Teresa. The quotes below are from "Mother Teresa: Her Essential Wisdom " edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi.

We must know exactly when we say yes to God what is in that yes. Yes means "I surrender," totally, fully, without any counting the cost... Our yes to God is without any reservations.

I don't think there is anyone who needs God's help and grace as much as I do. Sometimes I feel so helpless and weak. I think that is why God uses me. Because I cannot depend on my own strength, I rely on him twenty-four hours a day. If the day had even more hours, then I would need his help and grace during those hours as well. All of us must cling to God through prayer.

Holiness grows fast where there is kindness. I have never heard of kind souls going astray. The world is lost for want of sweetness and kindness.

One cannot expect to become a saint without paying the price, and the price is much renunciation, much temptation, much struggle and persecution, and all sorts of sacrifices. One cannot love God except at the cost of oneself.

A gentleman of the Protestant faith, the son-in-law of Malcolm Muggeridge, told me: "I love you, your work, everything I see, but there is one thing I do not understand: Our Lady. You are full of Mary." I replied to him: "No Mary, no Jesus - no mother, no son." A few months later he sent me a card with these words printed in big letters: "I believe, no Mary, no Jesus! This has changed my life."

It is true, people are very anxious about the future and about over-population. But there is natural family planning. That method can help couples plan their family without destroying God's gift of life... By properly using the natural family planning method, couples are using their bodies to glorify God in the sanctity of family life. I think that if we could bring this method to every country, if our poor people would learn it, there would be more peace, more love in the family between parents and children.

If we deliberately allow venial sin to become a daily bread, a moral anemia, the soul becomes weak all around, the spiritual life begins to crumble and fall apart. God preserve us from any deliberate sin, no matter how small it may be. Nothing is small when it means going against God.

Motherhood is the gift of God to women. How grateful we must be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy to the whole world, women and men alike! Yet we can destroy this gift of motherhood, especially by the evil of abortion, but also by thinking that other things like jobs or positions are more important than loving, than giving oneself to others. No job, no plans, no possessions, no idea of "freedom" can take the place of love.

Our lives have to continuously feed on the Eucharist. If we were not able to see Christ under the appearance of bread, neither would it be possible for us to discover him under the humble appearances of the bruised bodies of the poor.

How is it that nowadays all over the world so many priests and nuns abandon their calling? Were they not chosen by Christ? Did they not commit themselves to follow him after long and mature reflection? How then can a nun pronounce perpetual vows, and some years later give up the religious life? Are married people not bound to remain faithful to each other until death? Then, why should the same rule not apply to priests and nuns?

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