Today, the Church celebrates the liturgical Memorial of Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Born Anjesë (Agnes) Bojaxhiu in the city of Skopje (the present-day capital of Macedonia), she was 18 years old when she joined the Loretto Sisters and moved to Ireland in order to learn English. She was then sent to India to teach in the Sisters' schools, and it was in the city of Calcutta that she experienced what she referred to as a call within a call, and founded the Missionaries of Charity.
Today, there are more than 4,500 Sisters who are Missionaries of Charity. They are present in more than 133 countries and all of them are serving the poorest of the poor, striving every day to respond to the call of Jesus from the cross: I thirst (Jn 19:28).
Every day of her life, Mother Teresa sought out the suffering Jesus in the people around her. She took dying people in her arms only so that they could know that someone loved them; she accepted children whose mothers were too poor to care for them; she created a leper colony where those who suffer from that virulent disease could re-discover their self-worth ... and now the priests and nuns who follow her example continue to serve those who have been rejected by society by helping them - one at a time - to rediscover their dignity in the eyes of God.
May this holy woman help us to courageously draw close to all those who are neglected so that we can recognize in them the suffering Christ, and so that we can help them to remember that they are precious children of our loving God.
Have a great day.
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