09/06/2026
"There is much deeper, much greater hunger, and that is the hunger for love."
In a 1974 interview on Irish television, Mother Teresa of Calcutta named the principle at the heart of mission: Encounter.
The deepest poverty she saw was not hunger for bread. It was the person no one notices. The one who is unwanted, unloved, waiting to be seen. She met it the only way she believed she could. One person at a time.
In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. In 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
She started with twelve sisters. By the time she died in 1997, the order had grown to nearly four thousand, serving in 123 countries.
In the chapel of every one of her houses, beside the crucifix, she put two words on the wall: "I thirst." Just as Christ thirsted for God's love and mercy on the cross, we hunger and thirst for the same.
We can feel that hunger in our daily lives. In our cars leaving work, in a nursing home three blocks away, or in a village half a world from here, and in teaching and connecting others to serve- that is where we find our purpose.
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith walks to experience the global Church. The Office for World Mission walks with our parishes. In that walk, we see Christ's love recognize both the abandoned soul in Calcutta and the lonely neighbor in Milwaukee.
This interview first aired on September 15, 1974. More than fifty years later, her words still resonate. Canonized in 2016 as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, she taught that mission starts with the one person in front of you.
Come remember her with us 🌍💜
