CAMI- MOTHER TERESA

"By blood I am Albanian. Citizenship, India. Regarding faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. In regard to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus. " Small of stature, strong as a rock in his faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God's thirsting love for humanity, especially the poorest of the poor. "God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and compassion for the poor." It was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: "to quench their thirst for love and for souls."
This luminous messenger of God's love was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. She was the youngest child of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptized Agnes Gonxha made his First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Communion, was within her love for souls. The sudden death of his father, when Gonxha was about eight years old, left the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing the character and her daughter's vocation. In his religious training, Gonxha was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart, in which she was much involved.
When I was eighteen, moved by the desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. He received the name Sister Mary Teresa (by St. Therese of Lisieux). In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on January 6, 1929.After professing his first vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the community of Loreto Entally in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary's School for girls. On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the "spouse of Jesus" for "all eternity." Since that time she was called Mother Teresa.She continued teaching at St. Mary became center director in 1944. Being a person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and her students, the twenty years that Mother Teresa spent in Loreto were filled with profound joy. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus among his companions, with fidelity and joy.
On September 10, 1946, during a trip from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her "inspiration," her "call within a call." That day, in a way that never explain, the thirst for love and for souls took hold of his heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force throughout his life. During the next weeks and months, means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed the desire of his heart for "victims of love" who would "radiate His love on souls." "Come be my light", Jesus prayed. "I can not go alone." He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His desire to be loved by them. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948 for the first time dressed in white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.
After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Sisters of the Poor. On 21 December she went first 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 tuberculosis. Began each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in hand, to find and serve Him in "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for."After a few months began to join her, one by one, her former students.
On October 7, 1950 was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. In the early sixties, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted by Pope Paul VI to the congregation in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Beginning in 1980 and continuing through the decade of the nineties, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.
To best meet the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity.However, her inspiration was not limited to those who felt the call to religious life.Created the Friends of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co, people of different faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In response to the requests of many priests, Mother Teresa also began in 1981 the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a "little way of holiness" for those who desire to share his charisma and spirit.
During these years of rapid growth the world began to look at Mother Teresa and the work she had initiated. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and so much more notorious Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honored his work. At the same time, the media began to follow her activities with a growing interest. She received both prizes and attention "to the glory of God and on behalf of the poor."
All life and work of Mother Teresa was a witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and love and the incomparable value of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this woman who came to light only after his death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, her interior life marked by the experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of separation from God, even rejected by Him, along with a growing desire of his love. She called "darkness" to their inner experience. The "painful night" of his soul, which began around the time she started working with the poor and continued until the end of his life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God.Through the darkness, she participated in the thirst of Jesus (the painful and burning longing for love of Jesus) and shared the interior desolation of the poor.
During the last years of his life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. In 1997, Mother Teresa's Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries worldwide. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After last met with Pope John Paul II, he returned to Calcutta and spent the last weeks of his life getting to people who came to visit her and instructing her Sisters. On 5 September, Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end.The Government of India awarded him the honor of holding a state funeral and his body was buried at the Motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of faith and different social background (rich and poor alike). Mother Teresa left us the example of a strong faith, of an invincible hope and extraordinary charity. His response to the call of Jesus, "Come be my light," made her a Missionary of Charity, a "mother to the poor", a symbol of compassion for the world and a living witness to the thirst of love God.
Less than two years after his death, because of the widespread reputation of holiness of Mother Teresa and the favors attributed to him, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On December 20, 2002 he approved the decrees on heroic virtues and miracles obtained through the intercession of Mother Teresa.