Mother Teresa - A Great Inspiration for a Noble Cause of Serving Humanity

Mother Teresa the then Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born to Albanian Catholic parents, Nikola, a successful businessman and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, in the city of Skopje (a predominantly Muslim city in the Balkans).Mother Teresa first taught to serve God as nun came to her mind at the age of 12. She is well aware of the sacrifices required to become a nun, giving up marriage for ever, giving up all self possessions and family. After five years of her first thought, she took a decision and decided to move to India after a thorough understanding of the work in Catholic missionaries in India. Mother Teresa applied to be with missions in India to the Loreto order of nuns, in Ireland.

Leaving her mother and sister behind forever, she left to India through Ireland in1928. She stayed in Ireland for over two years learning English and the duties of Loreto nun before coming to India. She came to India and landed in Kolkata (then called Calcutta) as Sister Mary Teresa on 6^th January 1929. She took her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary’s School for girls. On 24 May 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the “spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that time on she was called Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa was not satisfied just as a teacher and Principal at St. Mary's, with in the walls of the convent. Lord’s desire is much more and Mother’s destination is beyond teaching. In the year 1946 when she was travelling from Kolkata to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received Lord’s message as “inspiration,” her “call within a call.” Jesus the Almighty spoke with in her expressing his sorrow for the poor who are deprived of love and affection, sufferers from illness and deadly disease, sinners who are innocent and ignorant of their sins. He expressed his desire that Mother has to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. This inspiration from the Lord made Mother leave the convent after two years of struggle to permission, and on August 17, 1948, she travelled to gutters from the convent to reach the poorest of the poor. Dressed in the white, blue-bordered sari she left the convent and later this dress  became  the official dress code of her missionary.

After a short training in medical care and equipments, on 21 December she landed at slums, educating the families, helping the needy, taking personal care of the diseased, nursing the people with serious illness like TB, leprosy and smallpox. A one woman mission slowly grew into a big missionary by many of her former students joining her in the noble cause.

Her Journey in the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity expanded many folded over a period of time and the list is as follows.

By the end of her life she established more than 500 foundations in around 123 countries around the world.

Mother Teresa was awarded with Padmashri, Nobel Peace prize in recognition of her attention to the poor and eternal service to sick and diseased. 

A truth was revealed after her death that she experienced a deep and painful experience and called it ‘darkness’, that she was separated from God, even rejected by Him. She started working more sincerely for poor with this deep inner feeling and longing for the union with God till the end of her life. 

At the fag end of her life she declared her as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, went to meet Pope John Paul II for the last time. On 5 September Mother Teresa’s earthly life came to an end. Mother Teresa said, "By blood, I am Albanian, by citizenship, an Indian, by faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world, as to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus." (ref:5)

In about two years of her death Pope John Paul II began the process of beatification, the second step towards possible canonization, or sainthood. The first document evidence of a miracle was recorded of the healing of a tumour in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, following the application of a locket containing Teresa's picture. Monica Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumour. Mother Teresa was formally beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 2003 with the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. A second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonization

Whether the miracles do present or not Mother Teresa is a divine lady. Imagine how hard it will be for a women, all alone could do such sacrifices for the poor and diseased and spending her whole life for a great cause of helping human. Born in a different land and serving all together a different country is by all means a miracle. Only personalities blessed by Lord could do these rare sacrifices.