Mother Teresa

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Albanian: [aˈɲɛs ˈɡɔɲdʒa bɔjaˈdʒiu]) and commonly known as Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was an ethnic Albanian, Indian Roman Catholic nun. "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus." In late 2003, she was beatified, the third step toward possible sainthood. A second miracle credited to Mother Teresa is required before she can be recognised as a saint by the Catholic church.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor". The Missionaries of Charity at the time of her death had 610 missions in 123 countries including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; children's and family counselling programmes; orphanages; and schools. For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Her beatification by Pope John Paul II following her death gave her the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".

She was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India. Her awards include the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Pacem in Terris Award, an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, the Order of Merit from both the United Kingdom and the United States, Albania's Golden Honour of the Nation, honorary degrees, the Balzan Prize, and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize among many others. Mother Teresa stated that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." In her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." She also singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was named 18 times in the yearly Gallup's most admired man and woman poll as one of the ten women around the world that Americans admired most. In 1999, a poll of Americans ranked her first in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. In that survey, she out-polled all other volunteered answers by a wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories except the very young. (Wikipedia.com)

To learn more about Mother Teresa's work visit: MotherTeresa.org

Simple Reminders by Mother Teresa

Be Faithful

Strength Lies in the Small Things

Every Smile

Actions of Love

Other Amazing Quotes by Mother Teresa

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (25)

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (46)

If you judge people, you have no time to love them. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (52)

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. ~Mother Teresa (5)

God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (38)

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (63)

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (29)

If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it. ~Mother Teresa (0)

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (19)

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (22)

It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (6)

Good works are links that form a chain of love. ~Mother Teresa http://smpl.ws/fi (56)