Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:05 am Post subject: Mother Theresa's struggle
Mother Teresa's struggle to find God revealed in new book Eric Gorski in Denver
Monday August 27, 2007
The Guardian
Mother Teresa's hidden faith struggle is to be laid bare in a book that shows she felt alone and separated from God. Her ordeals were first laid out to a series of confessors and confidants and became public knowledge in 2003 during the investigation into her cause for sainthood, a process fast-tracked by Pope John Paul II. But Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the 'Saint of Calcutta', to be released next Tuesday by Doubleday, collects her thoughts in one place for the first time, inviting a closer review of her life 10 years after her death.
The book was edited by the Rev Brian Kolodiejchuk, a priest who knew Mother Teresa for 20 years and is the postulator for her sainthood cause. It depicts her as a mystic who experienced visions of Jesus speaking to her early in her ministry, only to lose that connection and long for it for most of her last four decades.
"I have no Faith - I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart - & make me suffer untold agony," she wrote in an undated letter. In 1956, she wrote: "Such deep longing for God and ... repulsed empty no faith no love no zeal ... Heaven means nothing pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."
Rev Richard McBrien, author of Lives of the Saints, said her struggles made her more human. "It shows that she wasn't a plaster-of-paris saint who never had a doubt about God or the ultimate meaning of life," he said. Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003. Under Catholic tradition, an additional miracle attributable to her must be verified before sainthood.
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I've always thought there was more to her than the usual stuff that is published...
You are so right, Face. I think this would be an interesting story to read. I think a lot of people think that the Pope, nuns, priests, etc. never struggle with their spirituality but they do and I think that's what makes them so good at what they do.
I find it interesting that this week there is nothing but memorials of Princess Diana in the media, and yet, I've heard nothing about Mother Teresa and she died that same week.
how is it an example of spin? The story says that she wasn't the tower of strength that she was portrayed as.
As far as her being evil is concerned - did you know her personally or are you just basing your opinion on published media? Also, what does evil mean to an atheist?
Her actions clearly speak for themselves she raised millions upon millions often from dubious sources but never gave people in her care medicines or much at all in the way of amenities preferring to spend the money setting up nunnerys. She created a cult of suffering which she said brought her closer to god.
The minute she got ill herself however she made damn sure she got the best private healthcare available in the world.
I'm sorry to jump on this one and it isn't an anti religious stance I have on this woman it's that her name has become shorthand for ultra goodness when she patently was not. Just because Hitchens was one of those to expose her doesn't mean he wasn't right in this case.
the first link is dead - but in the second one, the quote "When Keating was imprisoned for fraud and embezzlement, Mother Teresa wrote asking the trial judge to look kindly on him. She received a reply from one of the prosecutors, explaining that the $10000 she had received from Keating was stolen from innocent (and not especially wealthy) investors. Would she be good enough to return it? Apparently not. She didn't even reply to the letter." got me.
Just shows you how typical western lawyers sneeringly think that people who can afford to invest in a private company are somehow similar to people who have absolutely nothing.
If the allegation is that the situation is worse than if she'd done nothing, then that's clearly bollocks.
i've not read it myself, but apparently hitchens talks about her in his book 'god is not great' making the case she was a 'corrupt, malignant dwarf who left people to die in agony because "Christ loves suffering"'
Just shows you how typical western lawyers sneeringly think that people who can afford to invest in a private company are somehow similar to people who have absolutely nothing.
according to rumours - they may be true, but they're still rumours. But if there are 600+ missionary buildings built around the world then that would account for a lot of it - central heating doesn't come cheap these days...
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