One Hope, One Love, One Purpose: The Legacy of Mother Teresa.

“What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.” – Mother Teresa

One of my most favorite quotes, from our beloved Mother Teresa – a woman who dedicated the majority of her life giving to “the unwanted, the unloved, and the uncared for.”

As the story is told, when Mother Teresa was just 8 years old, her Father fell suddenly ill and died. While the cause of his death remains a mystery, there are those who believe he was poisoned by ‘political enemies’.

In the years to follow, Mother Teresa grew extraordinarily close to her Mother – a woman who instilled in her a deep commitment to charity.

Although by no means wealthy, Drana Bojaxhiu extended an open invitation to the city’s destitute to dine with her family.

“My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others,” she counseled her daughter.

When Mother Teresa asked who the people eating with them were, her mother uniformly responded,

“Some of them are our relations, but all of them are our people.”

It was while riding a train from Calcutta to the Himalayan foothills that Mother Teresa experienced her second and, by far, her greatest ‘calling.’

“I want Indian Nuns, Missionaries of Charity, who would be my fire of love amongst the poor, the sick, the dying and the little children,” she heard Christ say to her on the train that day. “You are I know the most incapable person—weak and sinful but just because you are that—I want to use You for My glory. Wilt thou refuse?”

It was in this moment that her legacy was born. With just 6 months of basic medical training, Mother Teresa voyaged for the first time to the slums of Calculatta – where she dedicated the rest of her life to those who ‘needed it more.’

Throughout her time there, she experienced many set backs – including, her own ‘crisis of faith. But still, she continued, undaunted, in her mission.

In one despairing letter to a confidant, she wrote, “Where is my Faith—even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness—My God—how painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith—I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart — & make me suffer untold agony.” While such revelations are shocking considering her public image of perfect faith, they have also made Mother Teresa a more relatable and human figure to all those who experience doubt in their beliefs.

This is the strength of purpose, my loves; a force that carries us forward, even when our own faith may be waning.

And, offering perhaps our greatest hope for this world – a testimony that, with love, all things are possible.

So, my darlings, if I may ask of you – what one thing might we do today, to help carry hope into this world?

About

Tara Lemieux is a mindful wanderer, and faithful stargazer. Although she often appears to be listening with great care, rest assured she is most certainly‘forever lost in thought. She is an ardent explorer and lover of finding things previously undiscovered or at the very least mostly not-uncovered.

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