Lectio et Oratio

How did Mother Teresa described the year 1967?

She said it was a “hard and sad time of fight for the faith.” Even though the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) was meant to enliven the faith of the whole Church and urge the Church on in her missionary work, the years after the Council, like the years after many Councils, were times of great controversy. Mother saw these years as one of purification. She counselled clinging to the living Christ. But where? In the Eucharist.

In 1969, what did Mother feel?

As confusion in the Church seemed to grow, Mother’s zeal burned brighter. Zeal is an effect of divine love. Love becomes zeal when it sees obstacles in its way. Zeal wants to remove obstacles to the growth of divine love. And Mother wanted to light the light of divine love in every human heart.

Can Christ’s thirst be satiated?

Yes. He thirsts for human persons to love Him. Christ is the head of the Church. He is our God and Lord. He thirsts for us to be happy. Our happiness is found only in Him. And Mother Teresa wanted to please Christ by bringing others into friendship with Him. But Christ also thirsts for love in his  body, the Church. Christ is present in his members, the members of the Church. Mother wanted to quench the thirst for love and being cared for and being wanted in the souls in whom Christ dwells. And this calling to satiate Christ’s thirst is something that each of us can respond to with love. What if we are the only one doing so? What if others are not doing so. Then let us be the one! How many people were quenching Christ’s thirst for love Nazareth after the annunciation? One! Mary.

Did Mother have doubts?

She never doubted God. She never doubted his goodness. But why then was she in such darkness? She doubted her own response to His goodness. She had difficultly knowing whether she loved Him. She was feeling unloved by Him. But her own state of soul is not revealed to us in the Revelation of Christ. Her own spiritual state was a matter of conjecture from the fruits she experienced. Mother Teresa had rock solid faith in the Lord. She had trouble discerning her own response. This was very painful to one who loved Him so deeply and who knew Him to be infinitely loveable.

What kind of advice did Mother Teresa sometimes ask for?

What books to read. The Missionaries of Charity are required to do spiritual reading each day. They had many books in their library. But Mother Teresa often found it hard to know what to read. And so she asked advice. Spiritual reading is important!

Why did Mother Teresa not want people to be sad for her?

God was doing something great. As her spiritual fathers grasped her interior suffering, they sometimes expressed sorrow for her state. Mother Teresa was very firm. Do not be sad for me, she insisted.

Where was the first house opened outside India?

Venezuela. Mother Teresa now was friends with the Papal nuncio, the official representative of the Holy Father. She wrote him about the events in Venezuela. She told him of two men they found eaten up with worms. As they nursed the men back to health, one man asked for a cigarette. Mother reached in her bag and produced two packs of the finest cigarettes! A rich man had given them to her in the morning. This event made Mother very happy at God’s providential love for his poor.

How did the Lord treat Mother Teresa when the Society was officially approved by the Pope?

With profound interior pain. The Lord seemed to Mother Teresa to pour out his mercy on her Society while withdrawing from her his holy hand of sweetness. There seemed to be some proportion between his mercies to the sisters and Mother’s own sense of being unloved. As she shared in Christ’s thirst on the Cross, God was doing great things through her.