Be my light. Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa (Teresa Gongja Boyajiu Kalkuttskaya, 1910-1997) is one of the most revered personalities of the 20th century, a Catholic nun who became famous for her charity, a woman who gave her long life to serving God and serving people.

Book of Mother Teresa “Be my light”, compiled by the head of the process of canonization of the mother of Teresa Kalkuttskaya, the Catholic priest Brian Kolodeichuk M.S. From her letters and diary entries, stored in secret for a long time - this is an amazing chronicle of spiritual life; A historical document, reflecting a very difficult inner world of one of the most important religious personalities of the XX century.

"Where is my faith? - wrote mother Teresa. - Even there, on the bottom of the soul - nothing, only darkness and emptiness. - My god - as a painful this unknown pain. - She does not pass. “I have no faith left at all... God, if you are - please, forgive me...”

And yet, no matter how painful the “Night of the Spirit” was, Teresa's mother always found the strength to respond to inaudible The call of those who most need help: “... Do we know who are our poor? What do we know about the neighbors, about those who surround us? It is easy to talk about poverty in other countries endlessly. But very often we have no idea about suffering, single people... About no one who needs the old people who live next door to us... The poor are amazing, very cordial people; They will completely do without our condescension and pity. They are much more needed to be loved, respected their dignity. We are called to show the weak and defenseless that they are dear to us, that they are also created by the loving hand of God in order to love and be loved. ” This is not a theological study, but rather an attempt to at least get a little closer to the secret of its indestructible faith and non -enlarged love for God and people.

The book is divided into three parts. In the first and second chapter, the compiler tried to imagine the inner life of the mother of Teresa before the moment she was opened “a calling inside the calling”. The first record was dated to 1922, when Twelve -year -old Teresa first realized that “my business is to serve the poor.”

chapters 3-7 tell about the history of the creation of a new monastic community - missionaries of mercy. It was not easy to answer “calling within the calling”, however, as the documents published in the book, her mother, never doubted the path that had opened in the book.

and finally the documents submitted in chapters 8-13 testify About the years of impenetrable inner darkness, unbearably painful internal experience, the “night of the spirit”, which became the most important, although the most difficult part of the ministry. We have to lead. She feared that people undoubtedly the fishing of God could mistakenly take for her merit, and persistently asked her confessors to destroy the correspondence. However, some of the letters are still preserved, and the spiritual mentors of the mother of Teresa considered it to be provocative.