Today is the 15th anniversary of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s death on September 5th, 1997. Today is a chance to reflect on her life’s work, the many blessings she brought to the people she served, and the blessings she continues to bring to those who never met, but are forever changed by her witness of Love.
Mother Teresa, holding an armless orphan at one of her order’s orphanages.
I was in junior high when Mother Teresa went on to her eternal reward, and I was too young or immature to understand the magnitude of this blessed woman’s life. Of her many famous quotes, my favorites come from her February 3, 1994 speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.
As a woman who worked intimately with the poorest of the poor and the most unloved people on the planet, she witnessed the darkest consequences of human sin. So, when this woman, who saw the consequences of sin unabashedly zeroed in on abortion as “the greatest destroyer of peace today,” if we are wise, we will listen. Below is my favorite excerpt from her National Prayer Breakfast speech. If you cannot read her beautiful speech in its entirety, please, at the very least, read the excerpt below. (Priests for Life have the full text as well as the audio available in MP3 format here.)
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today – abortion which brings people to such blindness.
And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere – “Let us bring the child back.” The child is God’s gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things – to love and to be loved. In this year of the family we must bring the child back to the center of our care and concern. This is the only way that our world can survive because our children are the only hope for the future. As older people are called to God, only their children can take their places.
But what does God say to us? He says: “Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand.” We are carved in the palm of His hand; that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God from conception and is called by God to love and to be loved, not only now in this life, but forever. God can never forget us.
I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption – by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: “Please don’t destroy the child; we will take the child.” So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: “Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child.” And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child – but I never give a child to a couple who have done something not to have a child. Jesus said. “Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me.” By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.
Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.
From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.
I know that couples have to plan their family and for that there is natural family planning.
The way to plan the family is natural family planning, not contraception.
In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.
I also know that there are great problems in the world – that many spouses do not love each other enough to practice natural family planning. We cannot solve all the problems in the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of all, and that is to destroy love. And this is what happens when we tell people to practice contraception and abortion.
The poor are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. Once one of them came to thank us for teaching her natural family planning and said: “You people who have practiced chastity, you are the best people to teach us natural family planning because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other.” And what this poor person said is very true. These poor people maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich.
Blessed Mother Teresa, pray for us. May the consciences of the voters in the United States be formed to realize that abortion remains “the greatest destroyer of peace today,” as you said it was in 1994. Thank you for showing us how to love until it hurts and to start within our own families.
“There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do.”
Today is the 15th anniversary of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s death on September 5th, 1997. Today is a chance to reflect on her life’s work, the many blessings she brought to the people she served, and the blessings she continues to bring to those who never met, but are forever changed by her witness of Love.
Mother Teresa, holding an armless orphan at one of her order’s orphanages.
I was in junior high when Mother Teresa went on to her eternal reward, and I was too young or immature to understand the magnitude of this blessed woman’s life. Of her many famous quotes, my favorites come from her February 3, 1994 speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.
As a woman who worked intimately with the poorest of the poor and the most unloved people on the planet, she witnessed the darkest consequences of human sin. So, when this woman, who saw the consequences of sin unabashedly zeroed in on abortion as “the greatest destroyer of peace today,” if we are wise, we will listen. Below is my favorite excerpt from her National Prayer Breakfast speech. If you cannot read her beautiful speech in its entirety, please, at the very least, read the excerpt below. (Priests for Life have the full text as well as the audio available in MP3 format here.)
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today – abortion which brings people to such blindness.
And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere – “Let us bring the child back.” The child is God’s gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things – to love and to be loved. In this year of the family we must bring the child back to the center of our care and concern. This is the only way that our world can survive because our children are the only hope for the future. As older people are called to God, only their children can take their places.
But what does God say to us? He says: “Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand.” We are carved in the palm of His hand; that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God from conception and is called by God to love and to be loved, not only now in this life, but forever. God can never forget us.
I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption – by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: “Please don’t destroy the child; we will take the child.” So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: “Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child.” And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child – but I never give a child to a couple who have done something not to have a child. Jesus said. “Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me.” By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.
Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.
From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.
I know that couples have to plan their family and for that there is natural family planning.
The way to plan the family is natural family planning, not contraception.
In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.
I also know that there are great problems in the world – that many spouses do not love each other enough to practice natural family planning. We cannot solve all the problems in the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of all, and that is to destroy love. And this is what happens when we tell people to practice contraception and abortion.
The poor are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. Once one of them came to thank us for teaching her natural family planning and said: “You people who have practiced chastity, you are the best people to teach us natural family planning because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other.” And what this poor person said is very true. These poor people maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich.
Blessed Mother Teresa, pray for us. May the consciences of the voters in the United States be formed to realize that abortion remains “the greatest destroyer of peace today,” as you said it was in 1994. Thank you for showing us how to love until it hurts and to start within our own families.
“There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put
into what we do.”
Across the country this morning, people read, heard, or watched coverage of the tragic Dark Knight Rises movie massacre in Aurora, Colorado. As we process the news and learn more about the victims as well as the assailant, the same tropes of mass shootings pop up: there’s blame on gun access, similar venues amp up security for fear of copycats, there’s blame on the venue itself for allowing this kind of thing to happen, those who know the assailant often say they never saw it coming, people are moved to create a memorial for the victims, people try to move on with their lives as best they can, and most people not linked to the story forget until the next “random” act of violence occurs.
I propose that we place the blame on one thing: instability. A blog post I read by Msgr. Charles Pope, A Reflection on the Benedictine Vow of Stability, started this thought in my head when I read it a week ago. Now, in the face of the movie massacre, I find Msgr. Pope’s words to be prophetic. Hear me out…
Benedictine monks and religious sisters take the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience like most religious orders, and they add the fourth vow of stability. Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey, a monastery of Trappist nuns, sums up their vow of stability very eloquently:
We vow to remain all our life with our local community. We live together, pray together, work together, relax together. We give up the temptation to move from place to place in search of an ideal situation. Ultimately there is no escape from oneself, and the idea that things would be better someplace else is usually an illusion. And when interpersonal conflicts arise, we have a great incentive to work things out and restore peace. This means learning the practices of love: acknowledging one’s own offensive behavior, giving up one’s preferences, forgiving.
In other words, when the religious men and women take a vow to live, pray, work, and relax together forever, they are humbly submitting to being a part of the community. There is no isolation. When there is conflict, it is worked through quickly for the greater good of the community. Living in such an intimate environment is an exercise in humility, as the individual’s vices and temptations are more likely to be exposed. There is no anonymity or ability to hide in the crowd.
To most, this sounds like some kind of a terrible prison. I propose that the men and women who humbly submit to a vow of stability are more liberated than most of us will ever be. When they live in that kind of an environment, where their weaknesses and sins are on display for the community, there’s incentive to change. In such a tight-knit community, the ripple effect of personal sin is magnified. When your anger, your greed, your pride, your other sin of the month is out in the open and everyone knows about it, there’s no reason to hide it. The logical person chooses to work through it and change. The illogical person (that’s most of us when we’re trapped in a pattern of sin) chooses to persist in the sin. It’s the persistence of charitable neighbors affected by that sin who encourage the change–whether through prayer, word, or action. What’s more liberating than living in a stable environment where you learn to break free from the patterns that your sins keep you in?
The rest of us Americans living outside of the monastery walls are experiencing what Msgr. Pope calls a “pandemic” of instability.
Instability is pandemic in our culture and it has harmed our families, our communities, our parishes, and likely our nation. Almost no one stays anywhere for long. The idea of a “hometown” is more of an abstraction or a mere euphemism for the “town of one’s birth.”
When an individual creates a Facebook account, the user can choose to include his or her hometown (From) as well as their current city (Lives In). More often than not, the two are not synonymous. When meeting someone, a routine question is, “Where are you from?” Now, people have to decide if this person is asking where they grew up or where they currently live. Msgr. Pope observes this kind of instability within neighborhoods.
The layers of extended family that once existed were stripped away by the migration to the suburbs and the seeming desire to get as far apart from each other as possible. Old city neighborhoods that for generations nourished ethnic groups and identities emptied out, and now, most neighborhoods, cities or suburban, are filled with people who barely know each other and who seldom stay long in one place anyway. (emphasis mine)
People aren’t staying in one place for very long, so the logic seems to be that there’s no incentive to know your neighbor. There’s even less incentive to start a friendship with a neighbor and become emotionally intimate. Why tell them my life story if they’re going to move when they get a new job anyway? Msgr. Pope argues that “the economy both feeds and reflects this instability.”
Gone are the days when most people worked for the same company or even in the same career all their life. Accepting a new job or promotion often means moving to a new city….The American scene and culture has become largely ephemeral (i.e. passing and trendy).
Many young people who were given the promise of the American dream work through college to find that there are no jobs available for them after graduation. Unfortunately, as Msgr. Pope says, the instability is not confined to the economy or the neighborhoods. We “reinforce this attitude” of instability in our personal lives.
1. Marriages – Spiritually everyone who enters into a marriage takes a vow of stability to be true and faithful to their spouse in good times and bad, in sickness and health, in riches or in poverty till death. And yet more than half of marriages fail to realize this vow. Many want their marriage to be ideal and if there is any ordeal, most want a new deal. And, frankly most who divorce and remarry are the most likely to divorce again. As the Benedictine statement above says, Ultimately there is no escape from oneself, and the idea that things would be better someplace else is usually an illusion.
Growing up with divorced or single parents continues to increase with each generation, fueling the instability that children feel during their formative years.
Msgr. Pope goes on to identify other areas of instability:
2. People do this with faith too, often moving from faith to faith, or at least from parish to parish in search of a more perfect experience of church. And while some are actually following a path deeper into and toward the truth, most who church-hop are looking for that illusive community where the sermons
are all good, the people friendly, the moral teachings affirm them, and the liturgy perfectly executed according to their liking. It is a kind of “designer church” phenomenon. And yet again, the problem is often as much within as without: Ultimately there is no escape from oneself, and the idea that things would be better someplace else is usually an illusion.
Instead of accepting God for who and what He is, we try to domesticate Him and mold him to our fleeting feelings. The realization that He knows us more intimately than anyone else ever will causes people church hop so frequently. It must be scary being so vulnerable to God and allowing Him to rule your faith when many are not used to living this intimately with anyone else. Like Adam and Eve in Eden, becoming aware of our sin makes us want to hide from Him. So, when confronted with the truth of our shortcomings, it’s easier to seek out a church that affirms our choices rather than remain in one that encourages change.
Msgr. Pope goes on to describe how the older practice of buying a home is out of fashion. Instead of settling in one neighborhood for a lifetime, families treat homes as stepping stones as their careers advance and they are able to move into bigger homes in more affluent neighborhoods. The focus is less on the relationships built in the neighborhoods and more on the physical surroundings.
Msgr. Pope briefly mentions the practice of retirees leaving behind friends, family, faith communities, and all that is familiar to move south.
Why is this so popular, and does it also bespeak a kind of great divorce where family and obligations to friends and communities are seem more as burdens and part of the work that one retires from?
Like a good Catholic priest, Msgr. Pope prepared us for last week’s Gospel reading:
In the gospel for this coming Sunday Jesus counsels: Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. In other words, settle down and don’t go from house to house looking for a better deal or a better meal. Pick a house and stay there, set down roots in the community where you minister, eat what is set before you and develop the deep relationships that are necessary for evangelization and the proclamation of the gospel.
Stability, though difficult to find in our times is very important to cultivate wherever possible and to the extent possible. In particular, the gift to seek is the kind of stability that is content with what God has given and is not always restlessly seeking a more ideal setting. For again, as we have noted: Ultimately there is no escape from oneself, and the idea that things would be better someplace else is usually an illusion.
We may be “a pilgrim people,” but that doesn’t mean we are to pick up and move every time something is not to our liking. We are “a pilgrim people,” because our ultimate destination is not enjoying the fruits of our 401K and hopping from every person and place to make sure that happens.
So, whenever possible, let’s work toward increasing stability for ourselves, our children, and the other people in our circles. Here are a few practical ways we can do that:
Meet your neighbors and introduce yourself to new ones. Organize a neighborhood association to encourage neighborhood activities, safety watches, and accountability in keeping the neighborhood aesthetically pleasing. Deliver cookies at Christmas, baskets on May Day, meals to new parents, those grieving, the sick, or the homebound. Offer to babysit, shovel driveways, rake lawns, or run errands. Be a neighbor!
Get involved in your church. Join a Bible study, group for young parents, etc.
Visit extended family members as much as possible. Communicate via snail mail when physical presence is not possible.
Make it a point to learn the name of each person you routinely come into contact with, and whenever possible, strike up a conversation that will help you to learn meaningful details about that person.
Be a stable adult in the life of a child who may not have a stable home.
Instead of playing the blame game when these tragic acts of violence occur, stop to consider three things:
What kind of deep hurt and instability must have occurred in the assailant’s life to lead them to this kind of thing?
Is there someone in my life who might be hurting enough to do something similar?
What specific things can I do to prevent something similar from happening?
The Benedictine monastery with the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability works. Stability thrives in a world where we are committed to living and working together toward the common good. May we strive to adopt this model in the larger world and within our circle of influence. When we examine the stories like Columbine or the Dark Knight Rises movie massacre, we begin to see how isolated and unstable the assailants’ lives were. When we break the cycle of isolation and instability in the lives of others, we give them a chance at freedom. We give them a chance to fix the brokenness and to get the help they need.
God has this way of not-so-subtly beating me over the head with answers by bringing a person, Bible verse, or event into my life to teach me something. I don’t know about you, but after I heard that the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, I was needing a little encouragement. As I was wrapping up my prayer time, my current study (Woman of Grace by Michaelann Martin) took me to Ephesians 6:10-20, “The Whole Armor of God.” Yeah, reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally subtle, God.
Paul, likely writing under house arrest in Rome, wrote these words of encouragement to his followers, urging them to be bold in their evangelization. If I had the time, I’d create a video to post on YouTube with a James Earl Jones-like voice reading these words and the Chariots of Fire theme song playing in the background. I don’t, so just imagine inspiring music and James Earl Jones telling you to suit up:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the Evil One. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
The fourteen days from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day, are dedicated to this “fortnight for freedom”—a great hymn of prayer for our country. Our liturgical calendar celebrates a series of great martyrs who remained faithful in the face of persecution by political power—St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome. Culminating on Independence Day, this special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action will emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty. Dioceses and parishes around the country have scheduled special events that support a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty.
If you’re looking for a practical way to be a prayer warrior, start your day with a Morning Offering.
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of your sacred heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all the apostles of prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.
The Holy Father’s general intention for July 2012 is “Work Security. That everyone may have work in safe and secure conditions.” (Isn’t it ironic that the Holy Father’s intention that we all be able to work in “safe and secure conditions” comes at a time that Catholic institutions in this country might be forcibly closed for not complying with the HHS mandate?)
After you’ve started your day with the Morning Offering, continue to offer your actions, thoughts, and words to God in prayer throughout the day, whether it be in a moment of sorrow, joy, work, or rest. Continue in this “little way” like St. Thérèse of Lisieux, prayer warrior of her day. The Armor of God was enough for her, for St. Thomas More, and all of the other martyrs of the Church. Trust that the Armor of God will be sufficient for you as well.
When you’re celebrating fatherhood on Sunday, don’t forget to acknowledge the men you call “Father” as well! Let us married folks and parents not forget that without these fantastic priests, we couldn’t have had a nuptial Mass in the Catholic Church to start us on our vocation to marriage.
Catholic Icing, a website full of Catholic resources to bring the Faith to life for your family, has some fun suggestions on how to acknowledge our priests on Father’s Day.
“Cut a strip of black (felt), and glue on a little white square for the collar. Then just wrap it around any present for your priest and attach with some tape!”
Here’s a “collar” on a bottle of wine:
If Father doesn’t like wine, maybe he’d like some homemade cookies with a felt “collar” around the container. If he doesn’t like cookies, give him a gift certificate to the local Catholic bookstore, pay his green fees at his favorite golf course, purchase him a new liturgical vestment, or enclose a “good for one homecooked meal at our home on the evening of your choosing” gift card.
Ask the kids to help make a card for Father, and write a heartfelt message thanking him for his life of service for the Church and the gift of his spiritual fatherhood.
If he’s tech savvy and checks his e-mail, send him a Collar-Holler or a Spiritual Bouquet from EncouragePriests.org. If you’ve never seen their site before, take some time to check it out. It’s a wonderful initiative from Catholics Come Home to promote vocations and encourage the priests who have taken on the role of spiritual father. Our priests are under more scrutiny than ever. They need our support and our prayers.
If you don’t like any of the above ideas, do what these sisters did for this priest:
Happy Father’s Day to ALL of the fathers out there–biological, adoptive, and spiritual!
When you’re celebrating fatherhood on Sunday, don’t forget to acknowledge the men you call “Father” as well! Let us married folks and parents not forget that without these fantastic priests, we couldn’t have had a nuptial Mass in the Catholic Church to start us on our vocation to marriage.
Catholic Icing, a website full of Catholic resources to bring the Faith to life for your family, has some fun suggestions on how to acknowledge our priests on Father’s Day.
“Cut a strip of black (felt), and glue on a little white square for the collar. Then just wrap it around any present for your priest and attach with some tape!”
Here’s a “collar” on a bottle of wine:
If Father doesn’t like wine, maybe he’d like some homemade cookies with a felt “collar” around the container. If he doesn’t like cookies, give him a gift certificate to the local Catholic bookstore, pay his green fees at his favorite golf course, purchase him a new liturgical vestment, or enclose a “good for one homecooked meal at our home on the evening of your choosing” gift card.
Ask the kids to help make a card for Father, and write a heartfelt message thanking him for his life of service for the Church and the gift of his spiritual fatherhood.
If he’s tech savvy and checks his e-mail, send him a Collar-Holler or a Spiritual Bouquet from EncouragePriests.org. If you’ve never seen their site before, take some time to check it out. It’s a wonderful initiative from Catholics Come Home to promote vocations and encourage the priests who have taken on the role of spiritual father. Our priests are under more scrutiny than ever. They need our support and our prayers.
If you don’t like any of the above ideas, do what these sisters did for this priest:
Happy Father’s Day to ALL of the fathers out there–biological, adoptive, and spiritual!
