09/05/2026
Sept. 5, 2026 Mother Teresa (First Saturday)
Today, in God’s providence, we celebrate the feast of Saint Teresa of Calcutta on a First Saturday of the month, a day when we honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary and make reparation through our prayer and devotion.
The Church speaks often about the ‘Via Pulchritudinis’—the Way of Beauty. It teaches us that the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints are like the facets of a diamond or a prism of crystal. By themselves, they have no light. But when they welcome the infinite love of God into their hearts, they reflect the singular beauty of Christ into our world.
Mary is the purest reflection of that divine light. From the quiet home of Nazareth to the foot of the Cross, her undivided heart reflected the tenderness and mercy of the Father. Saint Teresa of Calcutta was another luminous facet of that same crystal.
Those who met Mother Teresa—even for just a few moments—said she radiated God’s presence. When Rome gathered testimonies for her canonization, they filled over seven thousand pages.
Priests and seminarians who had breakfast with her remembered her small, fragile frame, but they were captivated by her joy, her energy, and her complete, loving attention to the person right before her. In India, people of all faiths—Christians, Hindus, and Muslims alike—would gather in long lines just to be blessed by her touch and to receive a small Miraculous Medal of Our Lady. They knew that in her, the love of God had drawn near.
Where did Mother Teresa find the strength to radiate that love every single day?
She found it in Jesus, and she found it by walking hand-in-hand with Our Lady. Every single day, the Missionaries of Charity sing a simple, beautiful prayer to Mary:
“No one can live as an island,
Journeying through life alone.
Since we are most loved by a mother,
Jesus gave us His own…
Come with us Mary along the way,
Guide every step we take,
Lead us to Jesus your loving Son,
Come with us Mary, come.”
The sisters sing of how, when Jesus met with rejection, Mary stood faithfully by the Cross. And because a true mother never deserts her children, Mary stands by us, too, as the Star of the Sea amidst the storms of life.
Mother Teresa took Mary with her into every dark and lonely corner of the world. Standing beside the dying, the destitute, and the forgotten, she lived the words of today’s Gospel: “Whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Like Mary beneath the Cross, Mother Teresa heard Jesus whisper, “I thirst”—a thirst for souls, for love, and for dignity. She could not take away all the misery of the world, but she could offer her tender presence, holding a dying person's hand so they would know they were precious to God. This is the call for you and me today.
None of us can journey through this life alone. We do not need to perform grand miracles to reflect God’s beauty. We become that prism of grace when we do small things with great love: when we visit a sick neighbor, when we sit quietly with someone carrying a heavy cross, when we bring peace into our homes, or when we simply accompany the lonely and the dying with a patient, listening heart.
On this First Saturday, let us sing that prayer in our own hearts: Come with us, Mary, along the way. May Our Lady lend us her pure and compassionate heart, and through the intercession of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, may our daily lives become a radiant reflection of Christ’s love to everyone we meet.
