Mother Teresa - Success, Religion and Ethics
Mother Teresa (1910-97)
Albanian nun (pictured right)
She helped the poor and sick on the streets of Calcutta through her order of nuns,
the Missionaries of Charity, now operating worldwide (pictured right below).
Why was she successful and ethical?
1. Purpose and love
She gave her life to serving God by helping the “poorest of the poor”
Her motto was “love until it hurts”, so she:
- helped the poor with patience and empathy (becoming known as
the “saint of the gutter”).
- exposed herself to many deadly diseases like leprosy.
- treated everyone as an individual with needs to be satisfied.
2. Silence and prayer
She prayed a lot to listen to what God wanted her to do.
Silent reflection also helped her to understand her strengths and weaknesses better, so
that she was better able to help others.
3. Lifelong learner
She constantly learned from reading the Bible and the example of others, particularly Jesus and St. Francis of Assisi (pictured
right).
4. Humility
Mother Teresa:
- put God and other people before herself.
- was never arrogant and treated everyone the same, rich or poor.
- accepted her Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 to publicize the suffering of the world’s poor, not
herself.
- didn’t want the poor to feel inferior, so she dressed like them in a rough cotton
sari.
5. Positive
She saw problems (however difficult) as “gifts” from God that had to be solved with:
6. Humour with a smile
She:
- never took herself seriously.
- was always kind with a smile.
When some Americans in Calcutta asked her for some advice, she said smile at your husbands and wives!
She is pictured right receiving the presidential Medal of Freedom from president Reagan and his wife, Nancy, in 1985.
7. Action
She didn’t wait for somebody else to help the poor.
Starting in 1946, she went out into the streets of Calcutta, and did it herself.
8. Global citizen
She saw the world not divided by different nationalities, but united by everyone’s need
for love.
She aimed to cure rich people’s loneliness and lack of love (the “leprosy of the West”, she
called it).
She is pictured right receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
9. Religion
Christianity guided her life, despite her:
- perpetual contact with extreme poverty.
- consequent (and constant) doubts about her faith in a loving God.
Key quotes on
love
Love until it hurts.
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing.
Key quote on
society
The biggest disease today...is the feeling of being
unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody.
Key quote on
abortion
Abortion...is a war against the child.
Key quote on peace of
mind
Peace begins with a smile.
Key quote on
family
Love begins at home.
Key quote on
influence
One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the
ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing
things.
Key quotes on God
God has called me not to be successful but to be faithful.
God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.
Let us do something beautiful for God.
|