அன்னை தெரேசா

அன்பிற்கும் உண்டோ அடைக்குந்தாழ் ஆர்வலர்

புன்கணீர் பூசல் தரும்.

ublished October 10th, 2021

To most people, she is a role model of charity, compassion, and selflessness. To the
homeless and destitute, she is the beacon that gives hope to their desperate
existence.
Dubbed as “The Living Saint,” Mother Teresa has, without a doubt, made a massive
impact on many people’s lives. She changed the world and inspired a lot of people
in her own way.
Her journey wasn’t easy, though. She was criticized and humiliated, but that didn’t
deter her. She continued to devote her life to caring for the sick, poor, and
disadvantaged. In the process, she challenged stereotypes, broke boundaries, and
taught us the true essence of charity.

Who was Mother Teresa?

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a missionary nun who was one of the greatest
humanitarians of the 20th century. She founded the Missionaries of Charity – a
religious organization dedicated to helping the poor. Through this, she was able to
create programs and initiatives that made her an icon of charity around the world. In
the Catholic Church, she is also known as Saint Teresa after she was canonized by
Pope Francis in 2016.
The world came to know her as the hunched old lady wearing a white sari with blue
borders. And if you didn’t know anything about her, you probably wouldn’t believe
that this unassuming woman is a saint and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. But her
stature belied her strength and her passion for serving the poorest of the poor.
Even decades after her death, Mother Teresa’s life and works continued to inspire
people and will most likely continue to inspire generations more.

Early Life
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia on August
26, 1910, to parents of Albanian descent. Her family wasn’t wealthy but they lived
comfortably. Her father was a businessman who traded medicines and other goods
and also worked as a construction contractor. He was also involved in politics and
died when Mother Teresa was just 8 years old.
During her childhood years, her mother, who was a very pious woman, would often
invite the city’s destitute to dine with them. When she asked her mother about the
people dining with them, her mother would only say that “some of them are our
relations but all of them are our people.” This created a profound impression on
Young Agnes and introduced her to the concept of charity. At a young age, she
became fascinated with the lives of missionaries in Bengal and their charitable
efforts. Then at 12, she decided to commit herself to religious life.
Four years later, she left her home to join the Sisters of Loreto in Rathfarnham,
Ireland with the intent of becoming a missionary. After a year in the Loreto Convent,
she was sent to Darjeeling in India to begin her novitiate. There she learned Bengali
and later became a principal at a charity school near their convent. Though far from
luxurious, her life as a school principal was comfortable. But God had a different
plan for her.

Heeding the Call

In 1943, the Bengal province experienced one of its worst famines. Close to 3
million people died of starvation, malaria, and other illnesses. Many families became
homeless and women became widows. And since widows were regarded as second-
class citizens in the Bengali culture, many of them end up begging on the streets of
cities like Calcutta.
Inside the walls of the school, Sister Teresa, as she was known at that time, had a
pretty comfortable life. But she had always been acutely aware of the poverty
surrounding her. She could see the women begging on the streets and the
emaciated orphans who often become victims of violence. Then a train ride going to
a retreat changed her life forever.
While on the train, Mother Teresa received her second calling or what she referred to
as “the call within a call.” She said that on that fateful journey, Christ talked to her
and told her to leave everything and help the poorest of the poor. That’s what she
did.
Armed with basic medical training, strong faith, and a great desire to make a
difference, Mother Teresa hit the streets of Calcutta. She had only one goal: to help
“the unwanted, the unloved and the uncared for.” Out in the streets, she
experienced poverty firsthand. She saw the horrors that street dwellers have to face
every single day.
With this, she wasted no time turning her passion into action. She established an
open-air school and set up a home for the dying. A few years later, people started
recognizing her efforts and many joined in her cause. This led her to found a new
religious congregation called the Missionaries of Charity.
Her new congregation started with only a handful of members. Most of them were
former teachers or students of the charity school where she taught. When word of
her efforts started to spread, donations started to pour in from all over India. And
before she knew it, news of her charity work slowly started to spread all over the
world. It also brought people’s attention to the pitiful plight of the street dwellers in
Calcutta and in all of India.
As her congregation grew, so did Mother Teresa’s fame. By the 1960’s they had
opened orphanages, hospices, and lepers houses throughout India. Then in 1965,
they opened their first charitable house in Venezuela. This was followed by the
establishment of more charity houses in other parts of the world. In 1971, Mother
Teresa opened a house of charity in New York – the first one in the US.
But her brand of charity knows no religion. In 1987, she secretly traveled to Beirut,
Lebanon, where at that time, Christian and Muslim populations were deeply
segregated. She crossed the borders separating them and helped children from both
faiths.

She also opened her charity houses to unwed mothers and even established a
special home to care for those infected with HIV/AIDS.
Her efforts in fighting poverty around the world have won her numerous awards and
peace prizes. She received the Jewel of India award and the Soviet Union’s Gold
Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee. Pope Paul VI also bestowed the Decree of
Praise for the Missionaries of Charity. And in 1979, she received the Nobel Peace
Prize for her work in bringing help to suffering humanity.

Death and Canonization

Mother Teresa passed away on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87 after years of
deteriorating health. At the time of her death, the Missionaries of Charity already
had about 4,000 members.
In 2003, she was beatified and declared “Blessed Teresa of Calcutta” by Pope John
Paul II. Then in a canonization ceremony in Vatican City last 2016, Pope Francis
declared her a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

How Mother Teresa Changed the World

She Showed Us The True Meaning of Charity
Many of us dreamed of changing the world, but only very few chose to act on it. And
fewer still did it as bravely as this humble woman from Calcutta.
Her genuine desire to serve the poor is what propelled her to pursue this path. If
you look at all her humanitarian efforts, her motivations are clear as day. She set up
soup kitchens, a leper colony, orphanages, and a home for the dying destitute.
She treated the lepers, educated the poorest of the poor, and fed the homeless. She
treated them like her family. All the criticisms and sly comments against her did
nothing to extinguish the passion in her heart.
This selfless dedication flamed the fans of charitable awareness around the world.
Many were inspired and joined Mother Teresa in her mission.
She could have chosen to ignore her calling, but she didn’t. Her decision to
exchange a life of comfort with that of poverty earned her the world’s admiration.
This act of hers showed the world that material things won’t bring happiness as
much as helping others.

Universal Love
Aside from her passion for serving the poor, Mother Teresa changed the world and
also inspired us by showing what universal love means.
She didn’t care if someone was white, black, brown, yellow, young, old, male, or
female. In the summer of 1982, she even went to Beirut to help both Christian and
Muslim children.
At a time when people with HIV/AIDS were looked down on, her universal love lifted
them up. She set up Gift of Love, a home that cares for those infected with the
disease.
She was even quoted saying:
“When you judge someone, you have no time to love them.”
Universal love became one of the core principles of The Missionaries of Charity
which has now more than 5,000 members in various countries across the globe.

Help Us Help The Homeless

Like Mother Teresa, we believe that true fulfillment comes not from material things
but in helping others.
Our Father’s House Soup Kitchen has been serving the homeless in South Florida for
over 30 years. We provide them a hot meal in an environment free of prejudice and
discrimination.

Mother Teresa stretched out her hand like a beggar towards a

merchant on the streets of Calcutta. “Give me something for the poor,
the hungry, the sick and the lonely,” she said. He smiled diabolically
and barked, “Here, take this”, and spat on her open palm. She moved
her frail, quivering arm to her heart, wiped her fingers on her sari,
bent low and whispered, “Thank you. This is for me. Now give me
something for my children.” He was then moved to tears.
A priest of the Missionaries of Charity, who was witness to this
incident—where Mother Teresa had approached a wealthy Calcutta
businessman in the age-old manner of bhikshus—cannot control his
own tears as he narrates it to Outlook. “She has been at the receiving
end of scathing criticism for accepting money from ‘the evil’, but
those who try to defile her reputation don’t understand the depth of
her love and compassion. For her, no one was wicked, no one was
beyond redemption. And when it came to feeding her hungry
children, she didn’t care where the funds came from. She was egoless
to the point that it is beyond the comprehension of our limited
minds.”

இறுதியாக ஒன்றை கூறிவிட்டு செல்ல விரும்பிகிறேன்...

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கல்லூரியில் படித்து இலட்சங்களை சம்மாதிக்கும் ஒரு பொறியாளர் ஆகலாம்....

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கணக்குகளைக் கச்சிதமாய் காட்டும் ஒரு கணக்காளர் ஆகலாம்...

மருத்துவரோ...பொறியாளரோ...கணக்காளரோ எதுவாக வேண்டுமானாலும்

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