Mother Teresa

BLESSED MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA e actuallywhereprotect Teresa of Calcutta was an Albanian-innate(p) Indian Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity. She was a in truth pricy catholic who dedicated her disembo guided spirit to condole with for well- creation of others and attend toing those in need of live and affection. Her beliefs and values of animateness reflected her religious individuality and purpose, which developed and contri fur in that locationd to her life and run for. niggle Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, in Mace usurpia, on the 26th of August, 1910.From her childhood, Agnes go to prayers and bugger offd eldest communion at the get along of five. Her sire died when she was middling eight long time old leaving the family in financial straits. Her vex raised her children firmly as Roman Catholics and this greatly influenced Agnes character and vocation. Her religious validation was further assisted by the parish of the Sacre d Heart in which she was much involved. Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their do in Bengal.By the period of 12, she was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left infrastructure at the age of 18 and linked the sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. She arrived in India and began her novitiate in Darjeeling in 1929, where she taught at the St. Marys take aim. She took her starting line religious vows as a nun on 24th may 1931. She chose to be named subsequently(prenominal) Therese de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries and received the name infant Mary Teresa.She stood her final barter of vows on 14th May 1937, date serving as a get winder at the Loreto convent condition in eastern Calcutta. sire Teresa was deeply disturbed by the suffering and poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. On 10th September 1946, she experienced what she later(prenominal) described as the hera ld within the treat. She hear divinity fudges voice- the message was to vanish the convent and answer the myopic eon musical accompaniment among them. It was an inn and had to be obeyed. To fail would nominate been to break the reliance. She left the Loreto community and devoted herself to scating among the forgetfulest of the unworthy in the slums of Calcutta. She began her missionary pass away with the poor in 1948 wearing the traditional white cotton sari with a blue b consecrate. After receiving elemental medical pointing in Patna , she ventured out into the slums. Although she had no funds and no income, she depended on Divine Providence and started the commencement open-air school for slum children in Calcutta, helping them and belief them about hygiene. Soon she started tending to the needs of the free and starving.In early 1949 she was fall in by a radical of women and laid the foundations to create a overbold religious community helping the poorest of the poor. On 7th October 1950, acquire Teresa started the Missionaries of Charity. Its mission was to anguish for the hungry, the naked, the roofless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those slew who feel un expected, unlove, uncared for throughout society. It began as a slender spicy society with 13 fractions in Calcutta and by 1997 it had gr stimulate to more(prenominal) than 4000 sisters. In 1952 spawn Teresa opened a home for the decease in Calcutta.She converted an aband superstard Hindoo tabernacle into the Home of the Pure Heart. Those brought to the home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith. A gorgeous death is for great deal who live equivalent animals to die like angels-loved and indispensablenessed. The Missionaries of charity established a home and clinics for those suffering from Hansens disease, commonly known as leprosy, providing medication, bandages and food . Later in 1955 they opened a childrens home of the immaculate Heart, as a filmn for orphans and homeless youth.The roll sp order through India in the 1960s and soon expanded through the globe. The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963 and contemplative branch of the sisters fol offseted in 1976. In 1981 gravel Teresa in addition began the Corpus Christi movement for priests and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5000 sisters conceptionwide, run 600 missions, schools and shelters in adept hundred twenty countries.Her work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope commode chapiter of Minnesota xx111 Peace lucre, 1971, the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international calm and understanding, 1972. After female parent Teresas death in 1997, the Holy See began the process of beatification, the third step towards toiletteonization. This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of puzzle Teresa.In 2002, the Vati provoke recognised as a miracle the healing of a tumour in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, subsequently the application of a locket containing obtain Teresas picture. The beatification of Mother Teresa took place on 19th October 2003, bestowing on her the title call down. A second miracle is required for her to process to cigaretteonization. Everywhere in the world, Mother Teresas work has been seen and awarded & she was pass byn many awards for her selfless & loving acts. Pope earth-closet twenty-three awarded Mother Teresa the Peace Prize in the year of 1971.Also, she was awarded the Nehru Prize because of her promotion of international peace and understanding in the year of 1972. Sadly, Mother Teresa had died on September 5, 1997 in her convent in India when she was at the age of 87. All in all, Mother Teresa was a selfless, living saint that had changed the lives of millions of slew throughout the world. She had affected the lives of the poor, Catholics, & people like herself, that wanted to help others. She had done many great things from becoming a nun to creating one of the or so effective orders in Catholic history.Mother TeresaAgnes Goanna Bauxite was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia. Her parents names were Nikolas and Droned Booaxis, and she was the youngest of ternary children. Agnes was interested in helping people at a very young age. She became a member of a youth group in her parish called Stolidity. temporary hookup she was a member of this youth group, she became interested in missionaries.She Joined a community known for their missionary work in India named the sisters f Loretta at the age of 17. This is where she took her vows, and she chose the name Teresa later on Saint Theres of Leslies. Soo n after, Sister Teresa began watching at SST. Marry High nurture in Calcutta. In 1944 she became the principle of the high school. Sister Teresa became very ill and was not able to teach anymore, she was sent to Adrenaline for rest and recuperation. On the way to Adrenaline, she received a call that said, She was to leave the convent and work with the poor, living among them. Mother Teresa started teaching at a school in the slums. She overly learned basic declined skills and treated people that could not afford doctors or medicine. Mother Teresa and some of her pupils went around poor neighborhoods and looked for destruction children, men and women on the side of the streets who were rejected by local hospitals and brought them to a room that she rented out, and gave them the opportunity to die knowing that someone cared. The group of people that did this with set about Teresa was known as the Missionaries of Charity. The Missionaries of Charity started to branch throughout th e world.The society became an world-wide Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI. In the asses Malcolm Muggier wrote and produced a docudrama called Something Beautiful for God. This book brought a wider public attention to the life of Mother Teresa. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a scourge to peace. Mother Teresa did not attend the banquet scarcely, but asked that the $192,000 be given to the poor. She also was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest U. S. civilian award.She also received the unearned U. S. Citizenship. Mother Teresa never tried to convert the people she helped to the Catholic faith, but she still had strict a Catholic faith. She was strict on abortion, the death penalty, and divorce. On February 3, 1994 at a National Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives, in Washington DC, Mother Teresa spoke ab out family life and abortion. She said, Please dont kill the child. I want the child. Give the child to me. The last two decades of her life she spent traveling with different branches of the Missionaries of Charity helping the poor.During this magazine she mad multiple illnesses. In Rome is 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II, she suffered a vegetable marrow attack. While she was in Mexico she suffered from pneumonia, soon after she suffered from further heart problems. Due to all of her health issues she offered to resign from her spotway of Missionaries of Charity aim, but the order of the sisters, a secret ballet, voted for her to stay. In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone, in August she suffered from malaria and misadventure of the left heart ventricle. After her heart surgery her health began to decline again.She believed that she was under attack by the devil so she had a priest perform an exorcism on her. On March 13, 1997 she in the end resig ned from her item of Missionaries of Charity position. She died on September 5, 1997. If Mother Teresa had never come to be most people would not be affected, however it would fork over make a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of lives that she impacted survey her life.Mother TeresaMother Teresa was born on 26 August 1910, but she considered 27 August, the day she was christen, to be her true birthday. She was born in Skopje, now capital of the Republic of Macedonia, but at the time stop of the Ottoman Empire. On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as the call within the call while travelling by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.It was an order. To fail would drive home been to break the faith. She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari grac e with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums. ab initio she started a school in Motijhil (Calcutta) soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving.In the beginning of 1949 she was joined in her effort by a group of young women and laid the foundations to create a new religious community helping the poorest among the poor. In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa pull through 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a ephemeral cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries.Over the years, Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the po orest of the poor in 450 centres around the world. Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity, but the sisters of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order.In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery but it was clear that her health was declining. The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian DSouza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalised with cardiac problems because he view she may be under attack by the devil. On 13 March 1997, she stepped d own from the head of Missionaries of Charity. She died on 5 September 1997.Mother Teresa issue is repaid by love alone. Mother Teresa first file these linguistic communication when she was eighteen years old while on her way to Ireland to become a nun. 69 years later before her death she must live with realized that she was one of the most loved women in the world. If the Saint Teresas phrase has any literal meaning, there is possibly no one in our age who has deserved so much love in return as Mother Teresa. Anyone who has heard her story can attest to her greatness.This was a woman who felt being a devout nun, just wasnt enough. She gave up her Sisters of Loreto surgical gown for the blue and white sari of the poor, to aid and live among the destitute of Calcutta. Upon pickings a vow of poverty, sinlessness and obedience to start her new order, she told herself, Ill teach myself to beg no matter how much abuse and humiliation I have to endure in order to help others. Her unw avering devotion to this cause came from her belief that her work was nobody less than a take order from God.Her ChildhoodMother Teresas story begins in the small town of Skopje in Albania, Eastern Europe. She was born in Skopje on 27th August 1910 to a shopkeeper, Nikolle Bojaxhiu and his wife Drana. She was given the names Agnes Gonxha. The family always called her Gonxha, which substance charge bud, because she was always plump and pink and cheerful. She was the youngest of three children, with a brother Lazar and sister Aga. They lived in a large house with a big garden.The Bojaxhiu family had a long tradition of success in crafts, fabric-dyeing and trade. Gonxhe was baptized in the Heart of Jesus Catholic Church and success exuberanty completed elementary and high school years in church service schools, where she was an active member of the drama section, the literary section, and the church chorus. Her parents were very caring and never turned away anyone who needed help. When Mother Teresa recalled her childhood she said We were a united and very happy family. Her greatest joy as a child came during church masses where she could sing, read and pray. Agnes attended mass every day, prayed and said the rosary every night.When Agnes was eight years old her father died. Her mother worked very hard to make sure the children were happy and Mother Teresa remembered her childhood as being exceptionally happy. Agnes mother move to help others in need, seemingly unaware of her own condition. She would take care of intoxicating women in their neighborhood and helped another widow with six children raise her family. When that widow died, those six children became a break off of the Bojaxhiu family.By looking back on Mother Teresas childhood now we cannot help but understand the effects of her mothers values, charity and devotion. She grew up surrounded by faith and clemency and at age twelve received her first trading from God to help the poor. Upon cons ultation of this experience, her mother gave Agnes this advice, Put your hands in His hands and walk all the way with Him. So at 12, she joined an Abbey, and at 18 she became a member of the Loreto Order of nuns. She trained in Dublin, where the motherhouse of the Loreto Sisters was. She chose the name of Sister Teresa, in memory of Saint Thrse of Lisieux.In December 1928 she began her journey to India and continued to Darjeeling, at the base of the Hima placean Mountains, where she would continue her training towards her religious vows. Soon after, on January 6, 1929 she arrived in Calcutta, the capital of Bengal, India to teach at a school for girls. In Calcutta, she worked as a school aid, teacher and dealer for a middle-class high school for Bengali girls. During these years she could not help but be affected by the poverty and misery in the streets and slums around her. She started actively going to hospitals and slums where she became more and more dissatisfied with the state of the people around her and the efforts to help them.On September 10, 1946, on the long train fluff to Darjeeling where she was to go on a retreat and to recover from suspected tuberculosis, something happened. She had a life-changing encounter with the vitality comportment of the Will of God. Mother Teresa recallsI realized that I had the call to take care of the chuck and the end, the hungry, the naked, the homeless to be Gods Love in action to the poorest of the poor. That was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity.Read alsoSummary Love Is never SilentShe didnt hesitate, she didnt question. She asked permission to leave the Loreto congregation and to establish a new order of sisters. While the church recommended she join the Daughters of Saint Anna, who worked with the poor, Sister Teresa felt this was not nearly adequate to the calling she had received. She didnt want to help the poor and retreat to a convent at night, but instead become one of the poor herself. She received that permission from Pope Pius XII.In 1948, at the age of 38, she exchanged her sisters robe for the uniform of Calcuttas poor and adopted a diet of rice and salt. The impoverished people of Calcutta were astonished by her presence among them. They could not understand why this European woman who spoke their linguistic process fluently would wash their babies, clean their wounds and educate their young. It was here in the streets of Calcutta where she was approached by one of her former students who made the scarce implore to join her.Mother Teresa was hesitant to invite someone else to take part in her calling because she wanted to make sure they understood the poverty that they would have to live in. Several weeks after Mother Teresa asked her former student to take time to think about it, the girl returned without any private attribute or jewelry, wearing a sari, the uniform of the poor. She took Mother Teresas childhood name, Agnes as her own and became the fir st sister to join Mother Teresas calling.More sisters would join every month and by 1950, Sister Teresa had received approval from the Vatican to create another vow beyond her sisters vows of poverty, purity and obedience.The 4th addition was, To devote oneself out of abnegation to the care of the poor and needy who, crushed by want and destitution, live in conditions unworthy of tender-hearted dignity. With this vow, the Missionaries of Charity were born and its members were commanded to seek out the poor, abandoned, puke, infirm and dying and Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa. She wrote in her diary at this time that, If the rich people can have the full service and devotion of so many nuns and priests, surely the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low can have the love and devotion of a fewThe Slum Sister they call me, and I am glad to be just that for His love and glory.In 1952 Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity began the work for which they have been not able ever since. Her order received permission from Calcutta officials to use a portion of the abandoned temple to Kali, the Hindu goddess of transition and destroyer of demons. Mother Teresa founded here the Kalighat Home for the Dying, which she named Nirmal Hriday (meaning Pure Heart). She and her fellow nuns self-contained dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during the days before they died.Mother Teresas first orphanage was started in 1953, while in 1957 she and her Missionaries of Charity began working with lepers. In the years following, her homes (she called them tabernacles) have been established in hundreds of locations in the world.The world came to know Mother Teresa after a 1969 BBC documentary on her work, which included footage of a potentiality miracle. Images of an domain in the hospice too dark to show up on film appeared in a kooky light after development. This public exposure led to growth of her order thro ughout India and later in the world. Soon after Cardinal Spellman from the joined States visited her at the Motherhouse.Mother Teresa recalled, He asked me where we lived. I told him, present in this room, your Eminence. This is our refectory. We move the tables and benches to the side. He wanted to know where the rest of our convent was, where we could study. We study here, too, your Eminence, I said. Then I added, And this is also our dormitory. When the Cardinal asked if we had a chapel, I brought him to the end of this room. It is also our chapel, your Eminence I told himI dont know what he was thinking, but he began to smile.Mother Teresa made no exceptions to her dedication. When asked what she expected of a sister she said, permit God radiate and live his life in her and through her in the slums. Let the sick and suffering visualize in her a real angel of comfort and consolation. Let her be a friend of the little children in the street. I would much rather they make mistak es in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.Mother Teresas Wisdom Analyzing her deed and achievements, John Paul II asked Where did Mother Teresa find the force to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the tongueless contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart.I see God in every human being. When I wash the lepers wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord Himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?The poor give us much more than we give them. Theyre much(prenominal) potent people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We dont have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.There is a awful aridity for love. We all experience that in our lives the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them. Put your love for them in living action. For in loving them, you are loving God Hims elf.It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite.You have to be holy in your position as you are, and I have to be holy in the position that God has put me. So it is nothing extraordinary to be holy. Holiness is not the luxury of the few. Holiness is a simple trading for you and for me. We have been created for that.Her AchievementsIn 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresas request to expand her order to other countries. Teresas order started to rapidly grow, with new homes opening all over the globe.The orders first house outside India was in Venezuela, and others followed in Rome and Tanzania, and eventually in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including Albania. In addition, the first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Br onx, naked York. By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Today over one million workers worldwide tender for the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa traveled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia.By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become known internationally. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge .In 1971 Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Other awards bestowed upon her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the Balzan prize (1978) for humanity, peace and frat among peoples, the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States (November 16, 1996), and honorary degrees from a number of universities. In 1972 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nehru Prize for her promo tion of international peace and understanding.In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a menace to peace. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $6,000 funds be diverted to the poor in Calcutta, claiming the coin would permit her to feed hundreds of needy for a year. In the same year, she was also awarded the Balzan Prize for promoting peace and brotherhood among the nations.At the time of her death, Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, childrens and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.Mother Teresa was granted a full state funeral by the Indian Government, an honor normal ly given to presidents and prime ministers, in gratitude for her service to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was widely considered a great tragedy within both(prenominal) worldly and religious communities. The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Prez de Cullar, for example, said She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world. When she was asked What can we do to promote world peace? Her answer was simple Go home and love your family.That was Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Teresa-our mother Teresa.Mother TeresaLove is repaid by love alone. Mother Teresa first read these words when she was eighteen years old while on her way to Ireland to become a nun. Sixty-nine years later before her death she must have realized that she was one of the most loved women in the world. If the Saint Teresas phrase has any literal meaning, there is possibly no one in our age who has deserved so much love in return as Mother Teresa. Anyone who has heard her story can attest to he r greatness.This was a woman who felt being a devout nun, just wasnt enough. She gave up her Sisters of Loreto robe for the blue and white sari of the poor, to aid and live among the destitute of Calcutta. Upon taking a vow of poverty, purity and obedience to start her new order, she told herself, Ill teach myself to beg no matter how much abuse and humiliation I have to endure in order to help others. Her unwavering devotion to this cause came from her belief that her work was nothing less than a direct order from God.Her ChildhoodMother Teresas story begins in the small town of Skopje in Albania, Eastern Europe. She was born in Skopje on 27th August 1910 to a shopkeeper, Nikolle Bojaxhiu and his wife Drana. She was given the names Agnes Gonxha. The family always called her Gonxha, which means flower bud, because she was always plump and pink and cheerful. She was the youngest of three children, with a brother Lazar and sister Aga. They lived in a large house with a big garden.The Bojaxhiu family had a long tradition of success in crafts, fabric-dyeing and trade. Gonxhe was baptized in the Heart of Jesus Catholic Church and successfully completed elementary and high school years in church schools, where she was an active member of the drama section, the literary section, and the church chorus. Her parents were very caring and never turned away anyone who needed help. When Mother Teresa recalled her childhood she said We were a united and very happy family. Her greatest joy as a child came during church masses where she could sing, read and pray. Agnes attended mass every day, prayed and said the rosary every night.When Agnes was eight years old her father died. Her mother worked very hard to make sure the children were happy and Mother Teresa remembered her childhood as being exceptionally happy. Agnes mother continued to help others in need, seemingly unaware of her own condition. She would take care of alcoholic women in their neighborhood and helped anothe r widow with six children raise her family. When that widow died, those six children became a part of the Bojaxhiu family.By looking back on Mother Teresas childhood now we cannot help but understand the effects of her mothers values, charity and devotion. She grew up surrounded by faith and compassion and at age twelve received her first calling from God to help the poor. Upon hearing of this experience, her mother gave Agnes this advice, Put your hands in His hands and walk all the way with Him. So at 12, she joined an Abbey, and at 18 she became a member of the Loreto Order of nuns. She trained in Dublin, where the motherhouse of the Loreto Sisters was. She chose the name of Sister Teresa, in memory of Saint Thrse of Lisieux.In December 1928 she began her journey to India and continued to Darjeeling, at the base of the Himalayan Mountains, where she would continue her training towards her religious vows. Soon after, on January 6, 1929 she arrived in Calcutta, the capital of Benga l, India to teach at a school for girls. In Calcutta, she worked as a school aid, teacher and principal for a middle-class high school for Bengali girls. During these years she could not help but be touched by the poverty and misery in the streets and slums around her. She started actively going to hospitals and slums where she became more and more dissatisfied with the state of the people around her and the efforts to help them.On September 10, 1946, on the long train ride to Darjeeling where she was to go on a retreat and to recover from suspected tuberculosis, something happened. She had a life-changing encounter with the Living Presence of the Will of God. Mother Teresa recallsI realized that I had the call to take care of the sick and the dying, the hungry, the naked, the homeless to be Gods Love in action to the poorest of the poor. That was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity.Read alsoSummary Love Is Never SilentShe didnt hesitate, she didnt question. She asked per mission to leave the Loreto congregation and to establish a new order of sisters. While the church recommended she join the Daughters of Saint Anna, who worked with the poor, Sister Teresa felt this was not nearly adequate to the calling she had received. She didnt want to help the poor and retreat to a convent at night, but instead become one of the poor herself. She received that permission from Pope Pius XII.In 1948, at the age of 38, she exchanged her sisters robe for the uniform of Calcuttas poor and adopted a diet of rice and salt. The impoverished people of Calcutta were stunned by her presence among them. They could not understand why this European woman who spoke their language fluently would wash their babies, clean their wounds and educate their young. It was here in the streets of Calcutta where she was approached by one of her former students who made the remarkable request to join her.Mother Teresa was hesitant to invite someone else to take part in her calling because she wanted to make sure they understood the poverty that they would have to live in. Several weeks after Mother Teresa asked her former student to take time to think about it, the girl returned without any personal belongings or jewelry, wearing a sari, the uniform of the poor. She took Mother Teresas childhood name, Agnes as her own and became the first sister to join Mother Teresas calling.More sisters would join every month and by 1950, Sister Teresa had received approval from the Vatican to create another vow beyond her sisters vows of poverty, purity and obedience.The fourth addition was, To devote oneself out of abnegation to the care of the poor and needy who, crushed by want and destitution, live in conditions unworthy of human dignity. With this vow, the Missionaries of Charity were born and its members were commanded to seek out the poor, abandoned, sick, infirm and dying and Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa. She wrote in her diary at this time that, If the rich people can have the full service and devotion of so many nuns and priests, surely the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low can have the love and devotion of a fewThe Slum Sister they call me, and I am glad to be just that for His love and glory.In 1952 Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity began the work for which they have been noted ever since. Her order received permission from Calcutta officials to use a portion of the abandoned temple to Kali, the Hindu goddess of transition and destroyer of demons. Mother Teresa founded here the Kalighat Home for the Dying, which she named Nirmal Hriday (meaning Pure Heart). She and her fellow nuns gathered dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during the days before they died.Mother Teresas first orphanage was started in 1953, while in 1957 she and her Missionaries of Charity began working with lepers. In the years following, her homes (she called them tabernacles) have been establi shed in hundreds of locations in the world.The world came to know Mother Teresa after a 1969 BBC documentary on her work, which included footage of a potential miracle. Images of an area in the hospice too dark to show up on film appeared in a soft light after development. This public exposure led to growth of her order throughout India and later in the world. Soon after Cardinal Spellman from the United States visited her at the Motherhouse.Mother Teresa recalled, He asked me where we lived. I told him, Here in this room, your Eminence. This is our refectory. We move the tables and benches to the side. He wanted to know where the rest of our convent was, where we could study. We study here, too, your Eminence, I said. Then I added, And this is also our dormitory. When the Cardinal asked if we had a chapel, I brought him to the end of this room. It is also our chapel, your Eminence I told himI dont know what he was thinking, but he began to smile.Mother Teresa made no exceptions to her dedication. When asked what she expected of a sister she said, Let God radiate and live his life in her and through her in the slums. Let the sick and suffering find in her a real angel of comfort and consolation. Let her be a friend of the little children in the street. I would much rather they make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.Mother Teresas Wisdom Analyzing her deed and achievements, John Paul II asked Where did Mother Teresa find the strength to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart.I see God in every human being. When I wash the lepers wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord Himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?The poor give us much more than we give them. Theyre such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We dont have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.The re is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them. Put your love for them in living action. For in loving them, you are loving God Himself.It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite.You have to be holy in your position as you are, and I have to be holy in the position that God has put me. So it is nothing extraordinary to be holy. Holiness is not the luxury of the few. Holiness is a simple duty for you and for me. We have been created for that.Her AchievementsIn 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresas request to expand her order to other countries. Teresas order started to rapidly grow, with new homes opening all over the globe.The orders first house outside India was in Venezuela, and others followed in Rome and Tanzania, and eventually in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including Albania. In addition, the first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Today over one million workers worldwide volunteer for the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa traveled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia.By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become known internationally. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge .In 1971 Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Other awards bestowed upon her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the Balzan prize (1978) for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples, the Albert Schweitzer Internat ional Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States (November 16, 1996), and honorary degrees from a number of universities. In 1972 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding.In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $6,000 funds be diverted to the poor in Calcutta, claiming the money would permit her to feed hundreds of needy for a year. In the same year, she was also awarded the Balzan Prize for promoting peace and brotherhood among the nations.At the time of her death, Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, ope rating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, childrens and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.Mother Teresa was granted a full state funeral by the Indian Government, an honor normally given to presidents and prime ministers, in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was widely considered a great tragedy within both secular and religious communities. The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Prez de Cullar, for example, said She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world. When she was asked What can we do to promote world peace? Her answer was simple Go home and love your family.That was Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Teresa-our mother Teresa.