40 DAYS - 40 WAYS TO MERCY - First Week of Lent The Spirtual Works of Mercy-Comfort the Afflicted

Mercy Works because Mercy Heals
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. Luke 4:1-8;13

Lent calls us to look outside of ourselves and see the world through the eyes of others. It beckons us to look deeply into our own hearts to discern what needs to be trimmed away, especially material excesses...the things that we have and want, but do not really need. By letting go of these things we can be free to work and care for those who need our love. This call to sacrifice helps us to become poor in spirit; to gain humility and simplicity and rid ourselves of the hardness that comes from indifference and complacency. And in this way we can take our love for Christ to, in turn, help to heal the wounds and brokenness of others.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta 1910-1997

The woman that the world would come to know as Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Spojke, Yugoslavia in 1910.

As a youth she participated in youth activities at her parish, Sacred Heart, a Jesuit parish. Her father died suddenly when she was 8 years old, leaving the family in financial straights. At the age of 12 she realized that she was called to be a missionary.

She left her home at the age of 18 to go to Ireland to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Sisters of Loreto and professed her final vows in 1937 with the name Sister Mary Teresa, after Saint Teresa of Lisieux. She was assigned to Calcutta, India to teach at Saint Mary's School for Girls.

Mother Teresa's twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.

However, she was growing increasingly disturbed by the poverty of Calcutta. The Bengal Famine brought the city to its knees with misery and death.

On September 10, 1949, during a train ride to her annual retreat, she received her "inspiration, her call within a call." In prayer and vision Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for "victims of love" who would "radiate His love on souls." "Come be My light,'"He begged her. "I cannot go alone."

Jesus revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor.

She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums

Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She wrote in her diary:

"Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today, I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then, the comfort of Loreto came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come."

In October 1950, she won canonical recognition for a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, which she founded with only a handful of members—most of them former teachers or pupils from St. Mary's School.

Soon the word of the works of the sisters began to spread. Her congregation grew and donations poured in from around India and across the globe, the scope of Mother Teresa's charitable activities expanded exponentially. Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, she established a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing home, a family clinic and a string of mobile health clinics.

In February 1965, Pope Paul VI bestowed the Decree of Praise upon the Missionaries of Charity, and she began to send her sisters to many countries. By the time of her death in 1997, the Missionaries of Charity numbered more than 4,000—in addition to thousands more lay volunteers—with 610 foundations in 123 countries on all seven continents.

Despite the enormous scale of her charitable activities and the millions of lives she touched, to her dying day she held only the most humble conception of her own achievements. Summing up her life in characteristically self-effacing fashion, Mother Teresa said, "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."

"Let us always meet each other with A smile, for the smile is the beginning of love."
"One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody."
"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

Mother Teresa's Daily Prayer

DEAR JESUS, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.

Created with images by ErnestDuffoo - "Concussion"

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