Mother Teresa will soon be officially declared a saint!
The day before the feast day of Bl. Mother Teresa Pope Francis will proclaim that she is a saint. Her feast day is celebrated on Sept. 5. The world remembers her as a “living saint”.
St. Teresa of Calcutta was born to parents Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1916 in Skopje of Macedonia and named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was baptized on August 17, 1910 in Macedonia. She was the third child in her family, following sister Aga and a brother, Lazar. Her father, Nikola died, when she was eight years old. Her father was a traveler, an extrovert, and a businessman who spoke five languages. Her mother, Drana, was extremely pious, adopting several orphans. She was known as Gonxha (pronounced gon’KHA) which means “flower bud”.
Gonxha desired early to become a missionary. At the age of eighteen, she joined the Sisters of Loreto. Here she took the name of Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. She was sent to Calcutta, India to teach at St. Mary’s High School for Girls, which was run by the Sisters of Loreto. On May 24, 1937, she took her final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She then became known as Mother Teresa. In 1944, she became principal of the school.
Mother Teresa received a second calling while on a train. Christ spoke to her, asking her to work in the slums of Calcutta, caring for the sickest and poorest of the people.Pursuing this calling changed her life forever. In one year, she received approval to do the work she was being called to do. After six months of basic medical training she went to the slums to aid the needy and dying. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charitywith 12 members, most of them students from St. Mary’s. She established a leper colony, an orphanage, a mission house, and several health clinics.
In 1971, Mother Teresa visited New York City, where she opened a soup kitchen and a home to care for HIV/AIDS sufferers. In 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1983, Mother Teresa suffered her first heart attack. After suffering from lung, kidney and heart problems for several years, she died on Sept. 5, 1997, which is now her feast day. At the time of her death her Missionaries of Charity numbered over 4,000. She had 610 foundations in 123 countries.
Mother Teresa was beatified on October 19, 2003, after confirmation of her first miracle. The miracle was reported that a woman who had a large and very visible tumor, had stayed with the Missionaries of Charity. After she and the Sisters had prayed for Mother Teresa’s intercession, the growth, six to seven inches in length, had disappeared within several hours. Finding no other medical explanation for the sudden cure it was declared her first miracle. Over 3500 other reports are being investigated as possible miracles.
After accepting a second miracle, Pope Francis cleared the way for Mother Teresa to be declared a saint. Pope Francis signed a decree declaring that the inexplicable 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man who suddenly woke from a coma caused by a viral brain infection was due to the intercession of the Albanian nun, who died in 1997.
The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator spearheading Mother Teresa’s canonization case, stated that the man fully recovered following his wife’s prayers and he has since returned to work as a mechanical engineer. The couple also have had two children.
In 2003, Mother Teresa’s private correspondence revealed she had experienced a “dark night of the soul”… feeling abandoned by God and lacking in faith. This lasted unusually long; for fifty years. Many saints have experienced such feelings, described by John of the Cross, in his book Dark Night of the Soul. She was filled with loneliness, and torture, due to this lack of consolation from God.
Each image in the following list is accompanied by a quote or prayer of Mother Teresa. The images are all public domain images.
As we celebrate the sainthood and feast day of St.Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 5, let’s remember the remarkable things she did and said.
Sisters of Charity
Prayer of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance
everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching,
not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force –
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Amen
Mother Teresa with Child/Associated Press
Mother Teresa: Smile
“Let us always meet each other with a smile for the smile is the beginning of love.”
“Peace begins with a smile.”
“Every time you smile at someone it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: God and Faith
“We are nothing without God, but if we put our lives in God’s hands miracles happen.”
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
“Faith in action is love, and love in action is service. Byt transforming that faith into living acts of love, we put ourselves in contact with God Himself, with Jesus our Lord.”
“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa with Pope John Paul II
Mother Teresa: Prayer
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.”
Mother Teresa
Young Mother Teresa
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhju (Mother Teresa)
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Abortion
“Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love but to use any violence to get what it wants.”
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
“There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Love and Forgiveness
“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing. It is not how how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.”
“I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
“If we really want to love we must learn to forgive.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Helping the Sick
“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely, and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.”
“Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not come, we have only today. Let us begin.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa in service
Mother Teresa: Service
“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous, be happy anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa Praying
Mother Teresa: Prayer
“Love to pray. Feel often during the day the need for prayer and take trouble to pray Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own.”
“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Silence
“We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature; trees, flowers, grass, grow in silence. See the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
St. Joan of Arc was born in Domremy, France in 1412 on the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6. Her parents, Jacques and Isabelle were peasants. She was the youngest of four children, having three older brothers. She helped her mother with spinning and helped shepherd the animals. She was very devout as a child enjoying her religious faith and spending her free time in church.
St. Joan grew up during the “Hundred Years War”, which never seemed to end. The French were losing the war while she was young. England was invading the country of France causing much suffering. Joan prayed with great devotion and fervor for the suffering people.
At the age of thirteen, Joan began to have visions and hear voices which counseled her. She claimed to hear the Voice of God, Michael the Archangel,St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret of Antioch. In 1428, the voices told her to go tho the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom. She was told to accompany Prince Charles to his coronation. St. Joan went to the town of Vaucouleurs seeking help from the military commander. After three trips he decided to listen to her.
She was given an escort of six which included two knights. They left on Feb. 23, 1429. The journey was 400 miles, taking eleven days in the winter to travel. She was given permission to meet with Prince Charles VII. However, he concealed himself in the crowd to test Joan. Joan, however, recognized him. St. Joan spoke to him, saying:
“I am Joan the Maid and to you is sent word by me from the King of Heaven that you will be anointed and crowned in Reims and you will be Lieutenant to the King of Heaven who is King of France.”
After being questioned by clerics who asked for a sign Joan was eventually given a sword, armor and a banner with the names of Jesus and Maria to lead the French Army to Tours in 1429. She was only 17 years old.
St. Joan led French troops against the English and recaptured the cities of Orleans and Troyes. Prince Charles was then anointed King with St. Joan at his side holding the banner in 1429.
St. Joan of Arc
Burning at Stake
St. Joan was later captured and then sold to the English. Joan spent six months in prison before she was put on trial for heresy and witchcraft. After being found guilty she was burned at the stake in 1431. Her ashes were scattered in the Seine River. A second trial was held 25 years later which overturned the first verdict because it was politically motivated. Joan was declared a martyr.
St. Joan was beatified by Pope Pius X and canonize by Pope Benedict XV in 1920 who said that she is a “most brilliantly shining light of God.”
I know this now,
Every man gives his life for what he believes.
Every woman gives her life for what she believes.
Sometimes people believe in little or nothing.
One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it and then it’s gone.
But to surrender what you are and to live without belief
is more terrible than dying…even more terrible than dying young.
St. John Henry Newman was born in London in 1801. He was raised in the Anglican faith. He first studied law and then decided to become a priest. He was ordained in the Anglican Church after studying at Trinity College in Oxford. As an Anglican priest, John Henry was influential in the Oxford Movement. Eventually, he converted to the Roman Catholic faith and was ordained a priest in Rome in 1848. Pope Leo XIII named him a cardinal.
St. John Henry Newman was known for writing many books and poetry including the poem Lead kindly light.
He pondered and preached about many theological questions including:
significance of Our Lady
the authority in the church
spirituality during difficult times
St. John Henry Newman died in Birmingham in 1890. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. He was canonized by Pope Francison October 13, 2019.
Lead Kindly Light
Lead, kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on;
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead Thou me on;
I loved the garish day, and spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will; remember not past years.
So long Thy pow’r has blest me, sure it still
Wilt lead me on,
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile
Learn to do thy part and leave the rest to Heaven.
The feast day of St. Apollonia is celebrated on February 12. She is the patron saint of dentists and invoked by those suffering from toothaches.
St. Apollonia died a martyr in the year 149. She suffered under the persecutions of Emperor Philip. She was tortured in the attempt to make her renounce her faith. When she refused, her persecutor hit her in the face, knocking out all of her teeth.
When the torture continued, she was threatened with death by fire. She willingly jumped into the flames to her death.
“The prize with which God rewards our self-abandonment is Himself.”
The feast day of St. John Bosco is celebrated on Jan. 31. St. John Bosco is the patron saint of boys and young people.
St. John Bosco was born in Piedmont, Italy in 1815. His father died when he was two years old. God spoke to John in his dreams. The first of his many dreams occurred when he was only nine years old. John found himself fighting a large crowd of rowdy boys. They were cursing and acting badly. They refused to listen to him. Suddenly a man appeared saying;
“Not with blows will you help these boys, but with goodness and kindness.”
Who are you?” John asked.
Then a woman appeared to him saying,;
“Watch what I do, John.”
As John watched, the boys changed to a pack of growling wild animals. Then the woman put out her hand. The wild animals changed again…into a flock of lambs.
“But what does it mean? I’m just a farm boy. What am I to do?”
John cried out, and he burst into tears. The Lady answered him,
“This is the field of your work. Be humble, steadfast and strong!”
John knew he must become a priest. He attended a boarding school and then began studying for the priesthood. John was ordained on June 5, 1841. He said his first Mass at the church of St. Francis of Assisi. He said that he had prayed for the gift of effective speech and believed his prayer was answered.
The ministry of Don Bosco began with a group of teenage boys. (Don is the title given to priests in Italy.) He began by teaching them catechism after Sunday Mass. It began a youth group which would spend each Sunday together beginning with Mass, catechism and a day in the country. They would end the day with another talk before returning to their homes. The group grew quickly. Most of the boys were quite poor. In 1846 Don Bosco bought an old shed in Turin. It became a chapel they named The Oratory of St. Francis de Sales, a saint admired by Don Bosco.
An orphanage and a trade school were also soon established by Don Bosco. More and more priests were beginning to help John in his ministry. Together they founded the Society of St. Francis de Sales in 1859 also known as the Salesians of Don Bosco.
Don Bosco died on Jan. 31, 1888 at the age of 73. Thousands attended his funeral and there was a demand for his canonization. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI.
What tenderness there is in Jesus love for man! In His infinite goodness, He established, with each of us, bonds of sublime love! His love has no limits.
The feast day of St. Hyacintha is celebrated on January 30.
St. Hyacintha was born near Viterbo, Italy in 1588. Her father was a count and her mother was from a Roman family. Her birth name was Clarice.
Clarice entered the convent of the Tertiearies at Virterbo as a Third Order Franciscan Sister. However, she did not in the beginning embrace the love of poverty which St. Francis called for. She supplied herself with material goods to live life in comfort. When she became seriously ill a confessor brought her Holy Communion to her room. When he noticed her material possessions he advised her to live more humbly. Hyacintha rid herself of her fine clothes and special foods. She began to live a simple life which included penances. She developed a special devotion to the sufferings of Christ and inspired others by her acts of penance. She had a special devotion for Mary, the Mother of Mercy.
St. Hyacintha died at the age of 55 in 1640. Many miracles were reported at her grave site. She was canonize by Pope Pius VII in 1807.
The feast day of Bl. Archangela Girlani is celebrated on Jan. 29.
Bl. Archangela Girlani was born to a noble family at Trino, Italy in 1460. She was educated by the Benedictines. From early childhood she wished to become a BenedictineNun. However, on the way to the convent her horse refused to cooperate and take her there. She took this as a sign and decided to follow in the footsteps of her two sisters Maria and Frances (Scholastica) who had joined the Carmelite Order. At the age of 17, she enter the Carmelite Order, taking the name Archangela. In time she became the prioress, a position she held until her death.
Bl. Archangela was known for her mystical visions. While meditating on the mysteries of the faith, she experienced ecstasies and miracles. She had a special devotion to the Holy Trinity.
After three years as prioress, she became seriously ill. Bl. Archangela died peacefuly after saying the following words;
The feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas is celebrated on Jan. 28. He is the patron saint of students and universities and a Doctor of the Church. He was ordained as a Dominican Priest.
St. Thomas was born in Roccasecca, Sicily in 1225. His parents were from Italian nobility. St. Thomas was well educated. He was raised in a Benedictine monastery at Monte Casino. He finished his studies at Naples.
Against his families wishes he joined the Dominicans, also known as the Order of Preachers and was ordained a priest. His brothers followed careers in the military. In an attempt to end his desires to become a Dominican, his brothers hired a prostitute to seduce him. According to legend, two angels appeared to Thomas to strengthen him and increase his determination to remain celibate. He thus became known as the “Angelic Doctor”.
While he was still a student, St. Thomas was given the nickname “the dumb ox” due to his large size and silent nature. However, he was actually quite gifted and intelligent. He is considered one of the most influential theologians in the history of the Church.
After he was ordained a priest, Pope Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach. St. Thomas turned down an offer from Pope Clement IV to be the Archbishop of Naples.
St. Thomas published many books. He also wrote many hymnswhich are still sung today. One of St. Thomas most famous works, Summas Theologica was never completed. He fell ill and died before he could finish it in 1274.
St. Thomas was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V. He is the patron saint of students and universities.
O Lord my God, make me submissive without protest, poor without discouragement, chaste without regret, patient without complaint, humble without posturing, cheerful without frivolity, mature without gloom, and quick witted without flippancy.
Quote of St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas
January is the Month of the Holy Name.
Save
Discovering the Spirituality of Catholicism
Recent Posts
Archives
Cookie Consent
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
