Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa plays with a child. (http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Osho/osho_on/osho_mother_teresa.htm (http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Osho/osho_on/osho_mother_teresa.htm))

A young woman left everything, her family, her home, her town, to journey around the world to bring joy and happiness to less fortunate people. Clad in a blue and white habit, she set out to care for people rejected by society. This remarkable young woman, who would come to be known as Mother Teresa, changed the world and became an image of inspiration to many people. Mother Teresa was born with the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Yugoslavia on August 27, 1910. She attended a Catholic school for her entire education. By age twelve, she knew she wanted to become a missionary to serve less fortunate people. In September 1928, Mother Teresa left her family to join the Sisters of Loreto. In 1946 while on a train ride home, Mother Teresa heard God telling her to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and assist the poor and dying people in Calcutta, India. Four years later, Mother Teresa received permission from the Vatican, the residence of the Pope, to start her own foundation called the Missionaries of Charity. For the next 47 years, Mother Teresa, along with the other members of the Missionaries of Charity, founded schools, orphanages, and hospices. They started in Calcutta, India then soon expanded to all of India and later the whole world. Mother Teresa changed the earth with her good deeds for the impoverished and dying people of the world. She was incredibly selfless and loved and cared for every single person as if they were her own children. Mother Teresa never let anything stop her from achieving her goal of assisting less fortunate people.  Mother Teresa showed her love and care for all people, her selflessness, and her determination to assist those in need by dedicating her life to helping the hungry, the homeless, the diseased, and impoverished people.

Mother Teresa cares for a sick man. (http://www.timescontent.com/tss/showcase/preview-buy/125438/Feature/Mother-Teresa.html (http://www.timescontent.com/tss/showcase/preview-buy/125438/Feature/Mother-Teresa.html))

Mother Teresa loved and cared for all people no matter their race, religion, or nationality. Even if people were outcasts in society, she took them in with open arms. She truly believed that everyone deserved love. Society avoided lepers, people with a disfiguring skin disease, and treated them like outcasts, however, Mother Teresa ignored their hideous appearance and cared for them like a mother would care for her own children: "Mother Teresa first decided to work with Calcutta's downtrodden leper community in 1957, when a group of infected men arrived at the door of the mother house in desperate need of food and shelter. Mother Teresa learned that, when it became evident that the men had the disease, they were fired from their jobs and banned from their neighborhoods. Even their own families treated them like outcasts" (Slavicek 49). Mother Teresa did not care that lepers were disgusting, disease ridden, and hated by society. She loved them, fed them, and cared for them like she would for any other person.  Mother Teresa never excluded anyone because they were different. She loved them because they were truly nice people on the inside. Mother Teresa believed that all human beings deserve love and she gave every person she treated an abundance of love. Mother Teresa made up for the missing love in people's lives: "...she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for"" (Missionaries of Charity Fathers). Mother Teresa always looked past a person's imperfections. Mother Teresa "washed the sores of some children." Most people would be disgusted to do such a task however, Mother Teresa did not bat an eye. She loved and cared for the less fortunate people so much that nothing, not even the most disgusting and repulsive things could stop her from helping them live better lives. Mother Teresa loved the people she took care of with all her heart. Even when society rejected these people, Mother Teresa took them in with open arms. Her love for people enabled them to live happier and healthier lives.

Mother Teresa recieves the Nobel Peace Prize. (http://sarahpalma.wordpress.com/tag/danny-devito/ (http://sarahpalma.wordpress.com/tag/danny-devito/))

Mother Teresa was incredibly selfless by always thinking of other people before herself and not taking credit for her good deeds.  Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 but decided to put her prize money to a good cause:  "She donated all of her prize money to the poor of Calcutta" (Mother Teresa World Religions Reference Library). Instead of keeping the prize money and using it for her own needs, she donated it to charities so that poor people could live better lives. She shows her selflessness by donating all of her money, not just a fraction of it. The people she cared for were always her first priority. In an interview with Time Magazine, Mother Teresa doesn't take credit for her work: "I don't claim anything of the work. It's His work. I'm like a little pencil in His hand. That's all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do it" ("Interview with Mother Teresa"). Mother Teresa turns the attention away from herself and doesn't take credit for her good deeds. Her comparison to a pencil shows that she felt like she was nothing compared to God, the writer. She felt that God was the true hero because he thought of the tasks and she was simply following orders. Mother Teresa's first priority was always the people that she cared for and she never took credit for her good deeds.

Missionaries of Charity logo (http://www.suswm.org/suswm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=131&Itemid=131 (http://www.suswm.org/suswm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=131&Itemid=131))

Mother Teresa was determined to assist people in need and stood up for her beliefs, never letting anyone stop her from reaching her goal. During a rampage between Muslims and Hindus, Mother Teresa sought to help her starving students:  "'When I went on the street - only then I saw the death that was following them. A lorry full of soldiers stopped me and told me I should not be out on the streets. No one should be out, they said. I told them I had to come out and take the risk. I had three hundred students who had nothing to eat. The soldiers had rice and they drove me back to the school and unloaded bags of rice'" (Slavicek 37). Mother Teresa would not let anything get in her way when she wanted to help people. Her students were starving so she risked everything to find some food for them. When the soldiers ordered her to go back inside the safety of the school, Mother Teresa did not budge. This shows that Mother Teresa was determined to help people and would risk everything including her life so that they would not die. She knew that they depended on her and she was not going to let them down. Mother Teresa would stop at nothing to achieve her goal. Even when Mother Teresa was in critical health, she refused to stop helping people in need: ".Mother Teresa suffered a serious heart attack while on a visit to Rome. Despite warnings from her physicians, however, she refused to cut back on her grueling schedule, which included a great deal of international travel to found new houses, check on those already established, and lecture before a variety of religious and charitable organizations" (Slavicek 78). Her health was obviously deteriorating yet she did not want to give up. Mother Teresa pushed through her own struggles so that she could help other people, such as the poor, dying, and diseased, get better. Mother Teresa always pushed through everything and stood up for her beliefs and for the people she took care of. Nothing could stop Mother Teresa from completing or achieving her goals. Her determination brought her great success in helping those who were less fortunate.

Mother Teresa quote (http://heart-2-heart-online.com/2011/05/29/genuine-love/ (http://heart-2-heart-online.com/2011/05/29/genuine-love/))

Mother Teresa changed the world and made it a better place for many people to live in by  devoting her life to helping a variety of people improve their lifestyles, displaying her love and care for all people, her selflessness, and her determination to assist those in need. Her abundance of love spread internationally and brought delight to many people. Mother Teresa took care of every single person as if they were her own children. She never turned anyone away because of their imperfections, race, religion, or nationality. She took them in with open arms and made them feel wanted when society rejected them. Her selfless acts brought joy and happiness to many people throughout the world. Mother Teresa never thought of herself first; instead the people she cared for were always on her mind and she did everything she could to help them. Mother Teresa did her job not for fame or fortune, but she did it so that she could see the people she helped get better. She thought of herself simply as God's pencil. God wrote out the tasks while she carried them out. Without Him, she was nothing. Mother Teresa always turned the attention away from herself and never took credit for her work, claiming that it was God who was the true hero.  Her determination to help others brought great success to the Missionaries of Charity. She let nothing stop her from achieving her goals. By pushing through her own struggles, she reached her goal and conquered several obstacles that stood in her way with fearlessness and fortitude. Mother Teresa has shown me what a person can do with determination and love. She inspires me to always help people no matter who they are. I also volunteer at my church by packaging food for less fortunate people. Mother Teresa's selfless acts have shown us to think of others before ourselves and to bring peace and happiness into this world. Without her, earth would be a dark and dull place deprived of love, peace, and happiness. She brought light into this world acting as an inspiration, a role model, and a true hero.

"Interview with Mother Teresa." The Way of the Cross. Web. 26 Mar. 2012.

             http://thewayofthecross.org/sitenewsletter/07/September/interview.html.

"Missionaries of Charity Fathers." Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Web. 26 Mar. 2012.    

            http://www.mcpriests.com/02_bio.htm.

"Mother Teresa." World Religions Reference Library. Ed. Julie L. Carnagie, et al. Vol. 4:

Biographies. Detroit: UXL, 2007. 351-358. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 22 Mar. 2012.

Slavicek, Louise Chipley. Modern Peacemakers: Mother Teresa. Print.