05/09/2026
Today is Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), affectionally called "Mother Teresa." Nun, missionary and teacher in Calcutta, India and foundress of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1972, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and the Missionaries today work in 30 countries.
On December 24, 2024, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Virgin, into the General Roman Calendar, celebrated each year as an Optional Memorial on September 5.
The Holy See released the proper liturgical texts in Latin. Some of those texts were previously approved in English and Spanish by the USCCB, and they were confirmed by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on June 24, 2025. Texts involving the Liturgy of the Hours must still be newly translated and approved before they can be implemented.
Collect for the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Collect for the Optional Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta: O God, who called the Virgin Saint Teresa to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on the Cross with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor, grant us, we beseech you, by her intercession, to minister to Christ in our suffering brothers and sisters. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.