St. Teresa of Calcutta
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
Mother Teresa
Helping Hands
Reviewed By Nilofer Sultana
It can be said without any exaggeration that even volumes cannot adequately encompass the multi-dimensional and towering personality of Mother Teresa. The book, a posthumous autobiography, was referred to as being full of ‘stunning revelations’ by the New York Times. It unveils interesting details about Mother Teresa’s very private life which were mainly garnered from her letters to the Archbishop, contemporary priests, her colleagues and sisters.
Tears are sure to well up in readers’ eyes as we get involved in the book and that frail but indefatigable figure clad in a simple white sari flashes before our eyes.
The pages of this edifying book reinforce belief in the fact that Mother Teresa was love personified. Above all else was her immeasurable love for God and His creatures.
Her unswerving resolve to say yes to God under all circumstances is reflected in one of her letters. She writes: ‘I made a vow to God, not to refuse Him anything. I always wanted to give Him something beautiful without reserve.’
It was for this profound love for God and Christ that she decided to be a nun at the age of 18 and left her family and friends to commence life as a missionary. This parting was not easy for her as her verses aptly convey:
I am leaving my friends Forsaking family and home, My heart drives me onward, To serve my Christ.
Her ever-growing love for God and Christ led to her intense love for the poorest people in the slums of India. She claims she felt a strange darkness within and a voice that seemed to call her incessantly, ‘Come, come carry me to the holes of the poor. Come be my light.’ She had visions of Christ summoning her to the poor, suffering the excoriations of want, misery, disease and loneliness. She sought the permission of the parish priest F. Perier to leave the convent and the Sisters of Loreto.
In her letter to him she wrote: ‘Let me offer myself and those who join me for the unwanted poor, the little street children, the sick and dying, the beggars — Let me go into their very holes and bring in their broken homes joy and peace.’
Readers will definitely be touched after reading about the difficulties Mother Teresa had to encounter for the fulfillment of her mission. With an indomitable will, she suffered hunger pangs, walked long distances and worked tirelessly for hours to be there for those who needed her. She unfailingly reached the multitudes suffering through the grave agonies of war (World War II) and also the great famine of 1942-43 in the Bengal.
Along with other members of her order — which she called the Missionaries of Charity — she carried the victims of famine, who were dying in the streets, to the Kali Temple in Kolkata to offer them accommodation, provide them food and medical care and to tend to their sores and wounds with tender concern.
Along with other members of her order — which she called the Missionaries of Charity — she carried the victims of famine, who were dying in the streets, to the Kali Temple in Kolkata to offer them accommodation, provide them food and medical care and to tend to their sores and wounds with tender concern.
The book tells us that though she was often without any money, nothing deterred her from bringing comfort and solace to those languishing in the squalour of poverty.
She won accolades from more quarters than one but one striking trait of her character was her belief in self-effacement. She wrote to the archbishop, ‘I am afraid we are getting too much publicity. Please pray for me that I be nothing for the world and the world be nothing for me.’
Her thoughts were focused on the poor and unwanted and not on her personal achievements even while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Addressing the audience, she begged them to look for those who lived the agonising poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for by their very own.
The book is a must read in these times of selfishness, greed, rapacity and bigotry. No one can deny the truth of Mother Teresa ‘s words like, ‘Tuberculosis and cancer are not great diseases, the much greater disease is to be unwanted and unloved. This is what is happening in every home, every family.’
Her open letter to George Bush and Saddam Hussein is bound to make us tearful. ‘I plead to you for the poor and those who will become poor if war that we all dread happens. Please listen to the will of God. He has created us to be loved by His love and not destroyed. It is not for us to destroy what God has created.’
The book provides a rare opportunity to revive beautiful memories of a legendary figure like Mother Teresa through her own letters.
Mother Teresa: Come be my life
Edited By Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC
Rider Books, London
Available with Paramount Books, Karachi
ISBN 978-1-84-604130-3
404pp. Rs695
