09/06/2026
St. Teresa, pray for us!
Born to Albanian parents, Mother Teresa was the youngest of three surviving children in her family. During her time in school, Mother Teresa (then known as Gonxha or Agnes) participated greatly in her local Catholic parish and had an immense interest in foreign missionary work. After she turned 18, she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was this order that sent her to Darjeeling, India as a novitiate-- this is where she experienced the call of a lifetime. Originally, Mother Teresa taught the daughters of the wealthy, but, as time passed, she found it more and more difficult to ignore the poor and suffering around her. One day while riding a train, she reported experiencing a "call within a call." God was asking her to leave the Loreto Sisters' convent and live among the poor. She received permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community (later named the Missionaries of Charity), and begin her new work. For the next four decades she and many others would serve the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, and the Missionaries of Charity would go on to serve this same demographic all over the world. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There are many reports of Mother Teresa's energy, quick wit, and strength of spirit. Amazingly, as we now know from her personal writings, Mother Teresa spent much of her life in a state of "spiritual dryness"-- meaning that she struggled to feel God and experienced an intense sense of loneliness and rejection. Despite feeling that way for more than 50 years by her own reports, she continued her public service. Her constant prayer was "Lord, I believe-- help my unbelief." She knew, despite not feeling Him, that God was there with her. He lived and breathed and acted in her and through her, and there was no feeling in the world that could get her to stumble in that belief.
She serves as an inspiration of service to all of us. Who can we serve? Sometimes, it is those closest to us that need the most. She also serves as a prime example of perseverance of faith. Though we may have our doubts, suffer from loss of hope and joy, and struggle to find God sometimes, He is here!
