Lessons learned from Mother Theresa

At the age of 12, a Catholic Albanian girl, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, devoted herself to God. She entered a nunnery, received an education, and was sent to Calcutta in India to be a teacher. She helped the poor while living among them and she founded a new sisterhood, Missionaries of Charity. Teresa, her given name in India, arranged for homes for orphans, nursing homes for lepers and hospices for the terminally ill in Calcutta, and this organization eventually engaged in aid work in other parts of the world.  In 1937, she took her Final Vows to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. She took on the title of «Mother» upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. In 2016, the Pope canonized her, and she became Saint Mother Theresa.  Her efforts helped millions of people who were suffering from disease, poverty, homelessness and starvation. 

I admire her because she treated everyone with love and compassion, and supported them regardless of their race, disability, religious beliefs or social status. She was also seen smiling a lot, because «Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to the person, a beautiful thing.»

I can do THAT! I can do a beautiful thing! In fact, I do it quite often, even though it uglifies my face with a crinkled-up nose, squinty eyes and age-weary teeth. (Taking pictures when I was a child, my mom would ask me NOT to smile lest I «ruin» the picture with my smile.) Still, I
go out and about in the world, smiling my silly face off to friends and strangers alike.

 Another lesson I learned from Mother Theresa was «People are unrealistic, illogical and self-centered.  Love them anyway.»  Similar to the recommendation to «Love thy neighbor,» this trait can be soooooooo difficult to emanate because people can be soooooooo difficult. It is an activity that does not cost anything, except one›s pride, I would suspect.  When one of my adult children hurts my feelings, I carry it with me in my heart. Forgiving the deed is very difficult, but, unfortunately, I am not able to forget.

Another mantra of Mother Theresa is “If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.” That can easily be done by donating the money for one meal ($10) to One Less Worry, Loaves and Fishes RI, Judy’s Kindness Kitchen or any charity food distribution program. If one hundred of us do that, then we have shown that we CAN feed 100, one at a time.

Mother Theresa said something that really touched my soul. “I believe in God.  Not because my parents told me to, not because a church told me to.  But I have experienced how awesome He is.”  I also believe in God because of his awesomeness. From a young age, I was raised by an angelic mother who experienced several spiritually affirming episodes, including a bright light visit from God, who hugged her and told her to accept her newborn severely disabled infant. After that visit, she took on the challenge of parenting such a child with love and a smile, expanding that love and carefree attitude to others.

My mother would take me to “church” on a mountaintop in New Hampshire, on a beach in Florida, or by a free-flowing brook in Virginia as we traveled around the country. How could I sit atop a mountain, where the glorious world stretches out before me in breathtaking detail, and not believe in God? Sitting there as a child, enveloped by the warmth from the sun, feeling the gentle breeze that rustles the leaves and stirs up the faint scent of pine in the air, I gazed down at the beauty of the world below. A sense of deep peace stirred in my soul.  

I am so very fortunate to be able to experience the joy of living just by smiling.  I learned it from Mother Theresa!