September 5 is the memorial day for Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The Church commemorates this venerable nun of the Missionaries of Charity in prayer and prays together with the entire Church for the work of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity—here in Estonia as well.
Saint Mother Teresa was born in Albania on August 26, 1910, and was given the name Agnes Gonxha. As a child, her parents taught her to live a life of praising the Lord and helping those in need. Agnes left home in September 1928 to enter the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dublin, where she was given the name Mary Teresa.
The following year, she was in India, where she lived happily for nearly 20 years at her parish school, teaching the affluent youth of the region. On September 10, 1946, however, Mother Teresa received what she called her “vocation within a vocation.” On that day, Jesus revealed to her the pain He felt at seeing people’s indifference and contempt toward the poor, and Jesus asked Teresa to be the face of His mercy: “Come, be my light.”
Twenty years later, she left her institute to found the Missionaries of Charity, taking the name Mother Teresa. Wearing an Indian sari, she began her new mission among the marginalized—the “unwanted, unloved, and uneducated”—in Kolkata.
Some of his former students soon joined him, and a few years later, a congregation was officially formed—the Order of the Missionaries of Mercy—which spread throughout the world. The charitable missionaries opened monasteries in Africa and Latin America, as well as in communist countries and the Soviet Union.
He quickly became increasingly popular around the world. When his mother, Teresa, was asked about the secret to his success, she replied with characteristic simplicity: “I pray.”
Always ready to help the poor and those in need, Mother Teresa was also dedicated to protecting unborn life. Her speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony on October 17, 1979, was unforgettable. “The greatest destroyer of peace,” she said on that occasion, “is the cry of an innocent unborn child. For if a mother can kill her own child in her womb, what is left for us…?” Even in her later years, despite her illness and the “dark night of the soul” she had experienced, Mother Teresa never spared herself and continued tirelessly to meet the needs of those in need. She died on September 5, 1997, in Kolkata. At that time, there were 4,000 of her sisters in the world, serving in 610 mission houses across 123 countries. She remains a reminder to us that mercy knows no bounds and is offered to everyone, without distinction, for as Mother Teresa said: “I may not speak their language, but I can smile.”
Mother Teresa was canonized on September 4, 2016, in St. Peter’s Square by Pope Francis.
Mother Teresa, pray for us!
Mother Teresa’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech: https://katoliku.ee/ema-teresa-loeng-nobeli-rahupreemia-saamisel/
Photo: Vatican Media.
Translation of the speech: The Catholic Church in Estonia