Celebrations mark centennial year of Mother Teresa
Catholic News Service
The Missionaries of Charity have launched a year of programs celebrating the 2010 centennial of the birth of Blessed Mother Teresa, the religious order's founder who dedicated her life to serving some of India's poorest people.
Mother Teresa's birth centenary began August 26, 2009, at a Mass marking what would have been the 99th birthday of the devoted caretaker at the congregation's motherhouse chapel in Calcutta, India.
Sister Mary Prema, the congregation's superior general, said the celebrations would conclude August 26, 2010. During the centennial year, "the best gift we can all prepare for Mother's 100th birthday is our sincere endeavor to be channels of God's love and peace to the poor," she said.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu August 26, 1910, into an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in present day Macedonia. She came to Calcutta as a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto nuns) in 1929 and founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003.
She became known around the world as Mother Teresa by "dedicating her life totally to God and serving the poorest of the poor, doing small things with great love and recognizing the dignity of a child of God in every person," Sister Prema said.
Mother Teresa inspired many by loving all people, Sister Prema said. "Beginning at home we can become a channel of love."
We have chosen as our motto, Mother Teresa's words: "DO SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE." These words describe the way of life, lived by people of this community. You offer to your neighbor, a helping hand, a meal, an encouraging word, a visit, a friendly greeting, a prayer. These small things, done with great love, put a face on Christ in our midst. These gestures of charity bring peace to those who receive them.
Prayer For the Poor
Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy. - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Quotes of Mother Teresa
"Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet especially your family. Be holy – let us pray."
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
"Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength."
"If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive."
Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.
Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.
Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.