Sunday marked the day that Mother Teresa was canonized in the Catholic Church and many people across the world were celebrating her during mass.
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The Year of Mercy, and September, in particular, aligns perfectly with the canonization of Mother Teresa.
The Antonyraj family – sons Benedict (from left) and Francis, mom Shanthi and dad Nesan – originally from Kerala, India, talk with Archbishop William E. Lori outside the Baltimore Basilica after a Mass commemorating the canonization of St. Teresa of Kolkata.
The ceremony came on the eve of the 19th anniversary of Teresas death in Kolkata, where she spent almost four decades working in wretched slums. Engrossed in reading the lines from Nobel laureate Teresa was Sangy Dolma, a Budhhist who had come to the Mass out of fondness for her. So she asked me my name and she just blessed my forehead with a sign of the cross and she gave me a small medal. Mother Teresa used to hand out Miraculous Medals in the same way during her lifetime.
“She said that Calcutta is everywhere”, Wagner said.
“This is a gift to us and at the same time a challenge that her teachings and her life will bear fruit in each one’s life, in each believer’s faith and in our church as a community”. He quipped during a 2014 visit to Albania that he would never have wanted her as his superior because she was so firm with her sisters. Achieving sainthood requires the Vatican to approve accounts of two miracles occurring as a result of prayers for Teresa’s intercession.
“Now she is a saint, now she is timeless for generations and generations after that”, Shanthi said. “Mother Teresa fixed upon this Gospel truth in founding the Missionaries of Charity”, he said. “She saw Jesus in everyone, even in people who belonged to other religions”. In that way, while the canonization of “St. Teresa of Kolkata” was a celebration of her life and work, it was also something of an affirmation of Francis’ own papal priorities, which have earned him praise and criticism alike. Whenever Mother Teresa met someone she would make the sign of the cross on their forehead and say: May God Bless You. “It is with very tender feelings that I remember her blessings to me”. I’m truly happy to see Catholics across the world join together to celebrate Mother Teresa’s uniquely humble, generous and pious life. The retired teacher, who lives in Astoria, Queens, said she hoped Saint Teresa’s message of healing the world through acts of radical, non-judgmental love “will inspire everybody” to mimic her example.
The debate over Teresa’s legacy has continued after her death, with researchers uncovering financial irregularities in the running of her order and evidence mounting of patient neglect, insalubrious conditions and questionable conversions of the vulnerable in her missions. “We now have a Saint we can call our own”, said Adrian Pereira, a parishian at St Mary’s church. But she was also regarded with scorn by secular critics who accused her of being more concerned with evangelism than with improving the lot of the poor.
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Both Sacred Heart churches honored Mother Teresa’s canonization on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
