In August, we celebrated what would have been the 100th birthday of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In September we celebrated the 13 anniversary of her death. The US Postal Service issued a stamp on that day in her honor. Most of us are familiar with Mother Teresa's story, but I want to hit a few highlights. Mother Teresa left home at age 18 to join the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. She soon found herself in India, teaching at a girls school. While teaching the more affluent families, she was constantly aware of the poor who were in the neighborhood of the school
In 1946, while on her way to make a retreat she heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”
After getting permission to leave the Loreto Sisters and start a new community, Mother Teresa took some courses in nursing and returned to India to take care of the "poorest of the poor". Mother Teresa did not care for them because they were poor, but because she could see Christ in each one of them.
As we grow in our love for Christ, we need to seek to recognize Christ where he is present. This means in the Eucharist, in the person of the priest, and in the others we see around us. It is easy to get caught up in our own world and not see Christ in the other. Take some time this month to step back and look.
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