THE NEWEST CATHOLIC SAINT,  Mother  Teresa is loved by millions of Catholics
because of  her unique “smiling” Gospel that speaks of love, kindness and total  selflessness. But in all, there is  always Jesus in the center of it.
She was the practical Christian who asks all to love first those nearest to us and the “Great Unloved”. ” Jesus said love one another. He did not say love the whole world.” She viewed everyone that “each is Jesus in disguise.”
Her words have been  both prophetic and profound- disarming in their simplicity.
“If you can’t feed a hundred, feed one.” and “There are no great things ,only ordinary things done with great love.”
Like Pope Francis, Mother Teresa’s heart bled most for the “poorest of the poor” and the “unwanted”. The “Missionaries of Charity”- the religious congregation Mother Teresa founded- zero in on abandoned children, deserted pregnant mothers, lepers, the very hungry and the mentally ill- those that society is too proud to care about.
She said choice words for the indulgent rich:” There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. Â They must have worked for it. Â I only feel angry when I see waste.When people throw things we can use.”
She proceeds :” One of the greatest diseases here on earth is to be nobody to anybody.””Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody. I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
“Let us touch the dying , the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces that we received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the work.”
Further, ” I give to the poor for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds, Â yet I will willingly cure him for the love of God.”
Mother Teresa always hankered to preserve the stability of the home, the lowest unit that comprises society. Destroy the homes and we have a troubled society.
Mother Teresa once asked” Do you want to contribute to world peace? Go home and love your families.” : Love begins at home. And it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the action that we do.”
Finally, ” It is easy to love people who are far away. It is not always easy to love people who are close to us. Â It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger of others than to relieve the loneliness and the pain of someone unloved in our home. Bring love to your home for this is where our love for each other starts.”
The saint from Kalkota, India puts a premium on kindness in words and the smile, equanimity in both poverty and opulence and finding value in work.
Of words, the Nobel Peace Prize winner quoted:” Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” and ” Words that do not give the light of Christ, increases the darkness.”
The almighty smile she held up in her agenda. Hers was a Smiling Christianity. A smile is something that will not impoverish its giver , yet it is something that even kings will be always be happy to receive. ” We will neverr know all the good that a simple smile can do.”
Smile, even though your heart is aching, smile even though it’s breaking- even Johnny Mathis popularized its essential meaning.
The popular pro poor saint:” Â Let us take whatever God gives and give whatever He takes with a smile. That is holiness.”
On the sanctity of work. ” Unless, there is love among us we can kill ourselves with work but it will only be work, not love. And work without love is slavery.”
The saintly woman throughout her 87 years on earth despised abortion:” The greatest destroyer of peace on earth  is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child” , what humanity is there left in us not to kill one another? She deplored” “If abortion is not wrong, then there is no wrong.”
In January of 1991, Mother Teresa told the warring presidents George Bush Sr and Sadam Hussein:” It is not for us to destroy what God has given us. Please, please, let your will and mind be the will and mind of God,  You have the power to bring war to the world  or to build peace.  Please choose the way of peace.”
Finally, these phrases attributable to Mother Teresa -explain in a most remarkable way why she remained unrelenting and single-minded in her earnestness to serve humanity-and not counting the costs:
“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The  good you do today may be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best  you have and it may never be enough. Give the best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God,.
It was never between you and them anyway. “
Amen and amen. And praise God for bringing Mother Teresa to our lives in our lifetime.
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