What Mother Teresa Taught Me

When one of my friends joined Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity she
invited me to come to the St. Rita’s church in the Bronx to hear her take
her vows. The church was overflowing with people who had come to meet
Mother Teresa. People were coughing, whispering, moving around but
suddenly all was silent. We were all in awe as the tiny little nun
walked from the back of the church to the altar.

I knew Mother was small but I had never realized how short she was and
yet she seemed to have a light that shone around her and filled the
entire church. Silence reigned all the time Mother Teresa was speaking.
She began her talk with the Indian greeting of putting the hands together
like praying hands and bowing to Jesus within each of us.

Everyone in the room seemed to feel as though Mother Teresa was speaking
only to them. It didn’t matter whether she was saying something
beautiful like, “Let us do little things with great love,” or some often
spoken cliché, she put her whole heart and great love into each word and
they all seemed new and inspired. I heard her tell the same story over
and over about how she took rice to a poor Hindu woman with five children
who had not eaten for days and the woman immediately began sharing the
food and took half of it to her next door neighbor who was a Muslim. She
told Mother Teresa, “Our neighbors have not eaten either.” Each time
Mother told that story, she relived it in her mind and it was always
moving and inspiring.

Mother Teresa taught me about writing when she told about a man who wrote
books explaining how to end world hunger. She asked him, “What do you do
when you meet a person who has not eaten for days?” He said, “I don’t
meet hungry people. I work with people who can help them.” Mother
asked, “How can you write about hunger if you have never been near a
hungry person?”

I became a Co-worker of Mother Teresa’s and helped her Missionaries of
Charity nuns to care for abandoned children in El Florido, Mexico, worked
in soup kitchens in Tijuana,
and in the Bronx, taught orphans from Nicaragua and Guatemala how to
speak English, visited children with Leprosy and AIDS in South Africa and
worked briefly at Mother’s home for the dying in Calcutta.

When I developed a life-threatening brain tumor I joined Mother Teresa’s
Sick and Suffering Co-workers offering all my sufferings, fears and
prayers for the work.

When Mother Teresa gave me written permission to write about the work, I
shared the note with her friends, nuns, brothers, priests and Co-workers
and they gave me information, their favorite stories of Mother, answered
my questions and corrected my manuscript.

Mother Teresa, Called to Love was published in 2000 and when Mother
Teresa’s Missionaries and friends read it they wrote me, “It is so
wonderful to be learning new things about our beloved Mother Teresa.”

I was blessed to be able to fly to Rome with a Catholic youth group when
Mother Teresa was canonized in October 2003.



When I was a little girl my grandfather would read me stories from his
favorite magazine St. Anthony’s Messenger. At five years old I made up a
story called Pray for the Wanderer inspired by my favorite hymn.
Grandfather typed it up and sent it to the magazine. Two months later I
received my first rejection slip. Grandfather said, “That’s wonderful.
That paper shows that you wrote something and you sent it out. That is
all you have to do to be a writer.”

Now many years later St. Anthony Messenger Press has published What
Mother Teresa Taught Me.

Last month in the airplane on my way to my hometown I made a list of the
things Mother Teresa had taught me. Here it is:
*It is not important what you do. What matters is how much love you put
into it.
*Never worry about money. If God wants you to have or do something He
will give you the money you need. If the money does not come, He doesn’t
want it or He wants you to wait. But He always gives us the money for
anything He really wants us to have.
*When you pray, talk to God the way you would talk to anyone you love and
do not forget to listen to Him. What He has to say to you is what is
really important.
*Right after you ask God for a request thank Him immediately with as much
energy in the thank you as in the request.
*See death as my friend, the quickest way home to God.
*Live your Faith so that you are a light for others but never try to
force your beliefs on another. Mother said, “I would die for my Faith
and I would love to share it with all I meet but we never know how God is
speaking to a soul so all we can do is help Christians be better
Christians, Muslims be better Muslims, Hindus better Hindus, all closer
to God and love one another as He loves us;”
*A smile is the beginning of peace.
*All life is a gift from God and every human being is precious to Him.
*Prayer is the strongest power in the Universe.
*When you are working, do not worry about numbers. We help one person at
a time.
*When you accept a duty, do it well and joyfully or don’t agree to do it
at all.
*Regular prayer is very important. Mother Teresa loved the Rosary and
she and her sisters prayed it as they walked from place to place. When
Mother Teresa asked the Sisters, “How far was it the house?” they would
answer, “Three rosaries.”
*Mother’s work in India was revolutionary according to the caste system.
Many high caste women became Missionaries of Charity taking care of many
of the poor outcasts.
*See God in everyone, especially in would be enemies. We should see them
as Jesus in his most distressing disguise.

*Preach and teach without words using loving actions.
*Share your Joy. She had a requirement for Sisters, a cheerful
disposition.
*Whatever you do for the least of His people you do for Jesus.
*Mother told us at the Last Judgment we would be asked what we had done
for the homeless, the hungry, the naked, and the prisoner.
*Jesus’ mother Mary is the Cause of Our Joy because she gave us Jesus.
*Better to make mistakes while being kind than being unkind while doing
miracles.
*Nothing is more important than helping souls find God.
*We give to the poor for love what others give to the rich for money.
*We need to learn to recognize the many beautiful miracles God gives us
each day.
*Mother preferred people to volunteer their time and hands than their
money. She wanted our work with her to help us get closer to God and our
neighbor.
*We need to live one day at a time depending on God’s providence.
*Never let anything fill you with sorrow so you forget the joy of the
risen Christ.
*We must be faithful in little things. It is more important to be
faithful, than to be successful.
*Begin at home. Make your home a Nazareth where Jesus can feel at home.
*The prayers and sacrifice of the Contemplative orders and the Sick and
Suffering co-workers are a powerful help for the active workers. Mother
said their contribution was even more important than the work of the
active missionaries.
*Mother Teresa went to services and prayed with Jews, Hindus, Muslims,
Buddhists,
Muslims, Sikks, Anglicans and others.
*Mother felt the worst disease was feeling abandoned, lonely, unwanted
and unloved.
*Time is much more valuable than money. Time is life and we must fill
our time with meaningful loving acts sharing joy that prepares us for
eternity.
*We need to get our priorities right, Spiritual life is most important.
Our material goods are meant to be shared.
*We must not waste food, clothing, blankets, time, energy.
*The poor have the right to live in decent conditions.
*Mother Teresa was pro-life from womb to tomb. She wrote to a governor
begging him to spare the life of a mentally retarded serial prisoner who
was to be executed.
*Mother Teresa saved the lives of some children in the midst of a war and
she declared that no war is just. A reporter told her, “Your church
believes in a just war.” She said, “Maybe I am not a good Catholic. I
could never believe in people treating one another this way.”
*Every opportunity to do an act of kindness is a gift from God. Don’t
waste it.
*Everyone must be respected and enjoy freedom of thought, religion and
expression.
*Never speak ill of anyone for Jesus said, “Judge not least you be
judged.”
*Forgive as you wish to be forgiven.
*Fear nothing. If God is with us who can be against us.
*There is no great difference in the reality of one country or another
because it is always people you meet everywhere. God did not separate
the world into different countries; people did.
*You do not have to feel love to live love.


Mother Teresa inspired us to pray and to serve. She gave us a new love
for the Gospel by living by its principles and by quoting it often. She
reminded us of Jesus’ special love for the poor and the ill and how we
can love God whom we can not see by loving those around us that we do
see. She reminded us that holiness is not a luxury for the few. We are
all called to be holy, called to love one another as Jesus loves us all.