Mother Theresa of Kolkata
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Prayer for the Intercession of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all. Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request). Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.
Promulgated by Missionaries of Charity
When she was eighteen, encouraged by the desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to enter the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There he received the name of Sister Maria Teresa (by Santa Teresa de Lisieux). In December he began his trip to India, arriving in Calcutta on January 6, 1929. After professing his first vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the community of Loreto Entally in Calcutta, where she taught at the St. Mary's School for Girls. On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa made her perpetual profession then becoming, as she said, "Jesus' wife" for "all eternity." From that moment it was called Mother Teresa. She continued to teach in St. Mary becoming director of the center in 1944. Being a person of deep prayer and deep-rooted love for her religious sisters and for her students, the twenty years that Mother Teresa spent in Loreto were impregnated with deep joy. Characterized by her charity, altruism and courage, for her capacity for hard work and for a natural talent for organizing, she lived her consecration to Jesus among her companions with fidelity and joy.
On September 10, 1946, during a trip from Calcutta to Darjeeling to make his annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her "inspiration," her "call within the call." That day, in a way he would never explain, the thirst for love and souls seized his heart and the desire to quench Jesus' thirst became the driving force of his whole life. During the successive weeks and months, through interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed his heart's desire to find “victims of love” to “radiate their love to souls.” “Come and be my light,” Jesus pleaded. "I can't go alone." He revealed his pain for the forgetfulness of the poor, his sorrow for their ignorance of him and the desire to be loved by them. He asked Mother Teresa to found a religious congregation, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Almost two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, he dressed for the first time in the white sari adorned with blue and crossed the doors of his beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.
After a brief course with the Missionary Medical Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta where she found temporary housing with the Little Sisters of the Poor. December 21 goes for the first time to the slums. He visited the families, washed the wounds of some children, took care of a sick old man who was stretched out on the street and took care of a woman who was starving to death and tuberculosis. He began each day entering into communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and left the house, with the rosary in his hand, to find and serve Jesus in "the unwanted, the unloved, those that no one cared for." After a few months they began to join her, one by one, her former students.
On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. At the beginning of the sixties, Mother Teresa began sending her Sisters to other parts of India. The Praise Decree, granted by Pope Paul VI to the Congregation in February 1965, encouraged Mother Teresa to open a house in Venezuela. This was quickly followed by the foundations of Rome, Tanzania and, successively, on all continents. Beginning in 1980 and continuing during the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.
To better respond to the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionary Brothers of Charity in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers and in 1984 the Missionary Fathers of Charity. However, his inspiration was not limited only to those who felt the vocation to religious life. He created the Collaborators of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Collaborators, people of different beliefs and nationalities with whom he shared his spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and his apostolate based on humble works of love. This spirit subsequently inspired the Missionaries of the Lay Charity. In response to the requests of many priests, Mother Teresa also began in 1981 the Corpus Christi Priestly Movement as a "little path of holiness" for those priests who wished to share their charism and spirit.
During these years of rapid development, the world began to focus on Mother Teresa and the work she had begun. Numerous awards, beginning with the Padmashri Indian Prize in 1962 and most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honored his work. At the same time, the media began to follow their activities with a growing interest. She received both the awards and the growing attention "for the glory of God and in the name of the poor."
The whole life and work of Mother Teresa was a testimony of the joy of love, of the greatness and dignity of each human person, of the value of small things done with fidelity and love, and of the incomparable value of friendship with God. But, there was another heroic side of this woman that came to light only after her death. Hides all eyes, hides even those closest to her, her inner life was marked by the experience of a deep, painful and constant feeling of separation from God, even of feeling rejected by Him, together with a growing desire of his love She called her inner experience "darkness". The "painful night" of his soul, which began more or less when he began his work with the poor and continued until the end of his life, led Mother Teresa to an ever deeper union with God. Through the darkness, she participated in Jesus 'thirst (Jesus' painful and burning desire for love) and shared the inner desolation of the poor.
During the last years of her life, despite the increasingly serious health problems, Mother Teresa continued to lead her Institute and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. In 1997 the Sisters of Mother Teresa had almost 4,000 members and had been established in 610 foundations in 123 countries around the world. In March 1997, Mother Teresa blessed her newly elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, carrying out a new trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, he returned to Calcutta where she spent the last weeks of her life receiving the people who came to visit and instructing his Sisters. On September 5, Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. The Government of India granted him the honor of holding a state funeral and his body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. His tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of faith and diverse social extraction (rich and poor without distinction).
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