"The other day I dreamed that I was at the gates of heaven. And St. Peter said, 'Go back to Earth. There are no slums up here."
-- Quoted as telling Prince Michael of Greece in 1996.
Mother Teresa Known as the "Saint of the Gutters," she became an international symbol for devotion to the poor, destitute and dying during nearly 50 years of work. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for bringing hope and dignity to millions of people. "The poor must know that we love them," was her simple message. When told, in 1979, that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize, she said: "I am unworthy." Mother Teresa, who was 87, said her divine call to work among the poor had come in 1946. She opened her first Calcutta slum school in 1949. She took the name Teresa, after France's Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. In India, she was known simply as "Mother." Calcutta Archbishop Henry D'Souza:
"Perhaps the greatest message she has given to the world is the value and dignity of human life. All human life is precious, in whatever condition we find it, from the womb to the tomb. "To the dying and the suffering, she brought her tender compassion -- washing their wounds, easing their pain. And one of them said so touchingly, 'Mother, so long I have lived as an animal, now I am dying as an angel.' She had restored to him human dignity and worth.
My first impression was confusion on the introduction to Mother Teresa, the experience of my inquisitive mind misunderstood a 'gutter' as attached to the top of the house for diverting water off a roof, what WERE the poor people doing up there. Another twist of fate, unknown to me during the 1960's, I moved into Edward Forsters' room author of "A Journey Through India" and was looking for clues as to where the large trunk had been. Travel leads to adventure, displacement, prejudice and sickness; "Mother" cared for those stuck on the LONG journey home. "We live, on a small spiraling rock like an atom in the universe breathing mercury. Our poor souls wait for the miracle to remove the rock from our hearts and once again live and breath in the spirit of nature." "Toothousand"




TOP      BACK