I’ve been an admirer of Mother Teresa—Blessed Mother Teresa, to be more precise–for some time, transitioning from “admirer” to “disciple” of the past few years. A writer once counseled that as Christians we should surround ourselves with people who look like Jesus. I think Mother Teresa fits that requirement more than almost anyone else I’ve discovered, which has led to my imitation of her spirituality and way of living.
Undoubtedly one of my greatest heroes, Mother Teresa combined a deep love for God and the Church with relentless, sacrificial compassion to the poorest of the poor in our world. She spent most of her time in Calcutta, India, caring for children, the sick, and the dying–work that earned her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Through these avenues, she injected dignity and value into the last days of people society had literally kicked to the curb. Her work, however, is incomprehensible without the understanding of her rich spiritual devotion.
Rare is it that you find someone who combines radical activism with deep spirituality. One of the more discouraging disconnections in the Christian world is that between prayer and action, contemplation and social justice. There are many Christians who are deeply absorbed in prayer, liturgy, and the spiritual disciplines to the neglect of charity and justice for others. And there are many others who consistently engage in charitable acts of mercy but who are, spiritually, empty vessels. Most of us tend to bend our focus towards only one of Jesus’ two Great Commandments, but Mother Teresa exhibited the blending and practice of both. In this way she shared a unique way of living with two other heroes of mine, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.
Mother Teresa’s impact on people of all beliefs and locations has been a shining example of love in a world often cold and apathetic towards the “least among us”. The engine that drove her compassion, however, was her ability to see the face of Jesus in every person she encountered, even–as she liked to say–in his “most distressing disguises.” It has been a persistent quest of mine to see the world and its people through the same eyes that Mother Teresa saw them with, and so it is to writings of hers that I’ve turned.
Many books have been written about Mother Teresa, but there are only a small handful that feature her own thoughts and words. I just finished reading one of these books, “A Simple Path” (240 pages, Ballantine Books, $24.00), which actually is only in part composed of Mother Teresa’s own reflections. Roughly two-thirds of the book is composed of thoughts from many of the priests and religious brothers and sisters who work with or are part of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order Mother Teresa initiated.
Mother Teresa offers introductions to each of these contributors, along with some short thoughts of her own, but the majority of the book is a collection of accounts, prayers, and reflections from the work of the Missionaries of Charity and their sister religious orders. The writings, while not all from the pen of Mother Teresa herself, still share the overarching spirit of this remarkable woman.
The book hops from narratives, to teachings, to prayers, to quotes. Some of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa herself include:
“We are not called to be successful, but faithful.”
“We cannot do great things, only small things with great love.”
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.”
If you are looking for a thorough biography of Mother Teresa or the Missionaries of Charity, I would probably look elsewhere. If you want a good introduction to the thoughts and prayers of Mother Teresa, though, “A Simple Path” is a great place to start. It would have been nice if more of Mother Teresa’s own words filled the pages instead of the reflections of others, but I don’t think the book’s structure took much away from its message. Regardless of who said what, the spirit of Mother Teresa’s compassion, stemming from the Spirit of Jesus, is communicated simply and beautifully through these pages.