Mother Teresa: Mission of Charity

Mother
Teresa

A prayer she composed
Make us worthy, Lord,
To serve our fellow men
Throughout the world who live and die
In poverty or hunger.
Give them, through our hands
This day their daily bread,
And by our understanding love,
Give peace and joy.

Mother Teresa always had her own mind, she was independent, and follow her own conscience. She was obedient, but challenging preconceived notions. Her own preconceived notions were no exception. She had willingness to listen to others even when it seemed to contradict what she believed.

So much of her early life was centered in the Church. she was fascinated with stories of missionary life and service. She had never thought of being a nun. Her unwavering commitment and self-discipline has always been a part of her life. Reinforced by her work with the Loreto sisters, it stayed with her for life.

Mother Teresa remained firm in her vision of the world's true needs: humble acts of mercy on God's behalf.

Mother Teresa never doubted the direction God was pointing her and found peace in practicing the radical power of love. She could be saintly, steadfast, wise, practical and funny. Her sometimes controversial beliefs did not always sit well with everybody.

Mother Teresa lived her life as she knew it should be lived. never compermising or straying from her chosen path.

HISTORY 
1910 This strong and independent Slavic woman was born Gonxha (Agnes) 
Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Yugoslavia, on August 27, 1910. The youngest of 5 
children born to the well family of Nikola and Dronda Bojaxhiu.

1928: At 18, Gonxha  began her religious life the Loreto Sisters of 
Dublin, missionaries. Went to India and taught at a convent school in 
Calcutta

1931: she made her first vows there, choosing the name of Teresa, for 
(Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux.)

1937: Took her final vows, and taught for 20 years in Saint Mary's 
High School in Calcutta, India.

1946, after witnessing a violent Hindu-Muslim riot, 
which left 5,000 people dead, Teresa became convinced that God had 
sent her a message to go out and minister to the city's poor.

1948: After a two-year campaign, she finally persuaded the Church to 
let her work outside the convent. Pope Pious XII granted Mother Teresa 
permission to leave her duties as an independent nun, and she began to 
share her life with the poor, the sick and the hungry of Calcutta.

Wearing a sari and carrying five rupees in her pocket, Teresa left the 
convent to   work alone in the slums; received some medical training 
in Paris and live "as an Indian among Indians." Mother Teresa became a 
citizen of India.

1948 In early 1948, the year she became an Indian citizen, she asked 
to be allowed to leave her convent and began work on her own. The  
archbishop of Calcutta, Monsignor Ferdinand Periers, was clearly 
unimpressed.

1950: Mother Teresa began to care for lepers. She donned a 
blue-trimmed white sari, which became the uniform of her Missionaries 
of Charity, formally founded on October 7, 1950.

1952: Mother Teresa spoke of coming across an ailing woman in the 
street whose feet had been gnawed by rats and whose wounds were 
crawling  with maggots. The sight led her to begin the Ministry to the 
Dying in 1952.

1957: the Missionaries of Charity started work with lepers and in many 
disaster areas of the world

1963: The Missionary Brothers of Charity followed, established on 
March 25, 1963. The order became a pontifical congregation in 1965, 
subject only to the authority of the Pope.

1965: In 1965, Pope Paul VI put the Missionaries of Charity under the 
control of the Papacy and gave authorization to Mother Teresa to 
expand her Order to other countries.

1968 The diminutive missionary was awarded the first John XXIII Peace 
prize in 1968 by Pope John Paul.

1971: Awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize

1972 The Jawaharlal Nehru Prize for International Understanding.
1973 the Templeton prize  
1975 the Albert Schweitzer prize 
1979 - awarded Nobel Peace Prize 
1980 India's highest civilian decoration.

1981: Mother Teresa spoke about another champion of the poor: St. 
Francis of Assisi. In a famous story of a turning point in Francis' 
life, he encounters a leper by the side of the road and passes him by. 
Then he realizes that if he is going to devote his life to the poor he 
must embrace the leper he must welcome him into his life as a brother. 
Francis then runs to the leper's aid. Mother Teresa commented, "The 
encounter with the leper made St. Francis." So, too, it is Mother 
Teresa's selfless encounter with the dying that made Mother Teresa.

1989: After a heart attack, she was fitted with a pacemaker and  
underwent operations for blocked arteries.

1995 and 1996. Mother Teresa's thoughts, experiences and beliefs in a 
book "The Simple Path, was a best seller for 12 weeks.

1997 Finally, on September 5, 1997, after finishing her dinner and 
prayers, her weakened heart at the age of 87, Mother Teresa passed 
from this life with cardiac arrest.

1999 In March of 1999, Pope John Paul II waived the usual five-year 
delay for canonization. The Church will undergo the official steps to 
it already knows in its heart.

She already is being revered as St. Teresa by Christians from all 
corners and denominations and Mother Teresa's tomb "remains a shrine 
where people are praying and from which many are receiving grace and 
strength."

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