Hundreds of local people, including nuns, volunteers at the Missionaries of Charity houses from India and overseas had gathered at the motherhouse of the congregation where St. Teresa died and was buried 19 years ago. We share in that joy through the Eucharist which was utterly foundational and central to Mother Teresa’s life and ministry.
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In 1986, Mother Teresa came to Lafayette.
The saint was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in Skopje in 1910 in what is now Macedonia. She was for me like a mother.
He recalled seeing her working with the poor in Washington, D.C., and in a soup kitchen in one of the worst neighborhoods in the South Bronx many years ago when he was in college. “Her life and examples challenge us to love our brothers and sisters”. She became the model of His mercy and love. In 1928 she set sail for India and spent the next 15 years teaching. “She is really the image of a true Christian”, Kampire says.
Hundreds of Missionaries of Charity sisters had front-row seats at the Mass, alongside 1,500 homeless people and 13 heads of state or government and even royalty: Queen Sofia of Spain. She dedicated her life helping the poor.
In 2001, India renamed the city of of Calcutta to Kolkata to match the Bengali pronunciation, however, the church spells Calcutta referencing to Mother Teresa. On a train from Kolkata (then called Calcutta) to Darjeeling, the nun was inspired to found the India-based Missionaries of Charity order. Now, it was not a matter of leaving her family of birth but her religious family.
In 1948 she received permission to begin living in Kolkata’s poorest neighborhoods where she cared for some of the world’s most destitute people. The police too had made elaborate security arrangements assisting the nuns in handling the crowd inside and outside the Missionaries of Charity headquarters. Her attractive spirit of love for the poor also attracted members of the laity who work side by side with her sisters in serving poor and in affirming their dignity.
“How do we imitate, how do we fulfill the mission that Jesus has given us with the same kind of Generosity and courage and perseverance that she showed?” Mother Teresa fixed upon this Gospel truth in founding the Missionaries of Charity.
“It’s the work of the Holy Spirit”. She visited Kigali’s home of “Sisters of Teresa” and Nyagatare refugee camp.
In God’s Providence, Mother Teresa’s travels brought her to Baltimore several times.
She was just “Mother Teresa” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in June 1982 when she came to Ohio.
“With great spontaneity, I think we will continue to call her Mother Teresa”, the pontiff said.
“They were very, very respectful”.
How blessed I was to meet Mother Teresa on numerous occasions, especially when I served as a priest and auxiliary bishop in Washington. “I have to admit it was an eye opener”.
“I am so proud to be from Kolkata”, said Sanjay Sarkar, a high school student on hand for the celebration.
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“If I’m going to be a saint, I’m going to be a saint of darkness, and I’ll be asking from heaven to be the light of those who are in darkness on Earth”, she once wrote. This was true of politicians, church officials, and busy people whom she persuaded to spend a night each week with poor.
