| This is the story of a holy woman's journey with | | | | Kolodiejchuk, a member of the Missionaries who |
| Christ, her growth in relationship and spirit told | | | | works towards the Cause of Beatification and |
| through her letters, with narration by a man of the | | | | Canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. |
| Roman Catholic cloth. A stunning and revealing story, | | | | A famous Nun of her time in the 20th Century, |
| "Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light: The Private | | | | Mother Teresa's book of letters and her life as a light |
| Writings of the `Saint of Calcutta'" edited and with | | | | of Christ, will have a place in religious literature for |
| commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., Ph.D. tells us | | | | decades to come. This book is a most interesting and |
| of Christ's thirst, his loneliness for human souls, and | | | | fulfilling book for people interested in the religious life, |
| the same expression returned in love through need | | | | and living with Christ through their own relationship |
| by reciprocity--a mirror of living the Cross in letters | | | | and religious life as Christians. For Mother Theresa and |
| and in service to others by a Roman Catholic Nun. | | | | her religious worked tirelessly for the poorest of the |
| There is lots of light in this book. | | | | poor, in a special way of religious devotion. |
| In the chapter, "God Shows his Nothingness to Show | | | | Many of these poor lived and live on the streets of |
| his Greatness," Mother Teresa's spiritual experience is | | | | Calcutta, in a hole, or a dirt floor shack. The religious |
| described: | | | | Order Mother Teresa founded, the Missionaries of |
| "Her long experience of darkness, her sense of | | | | Charity, provide their service in many cities in India |
| rejection, her loneliness, the terrible and unsatisfied | | | | and other parts of the world including the United |
| longing for God, each sacrifice and pain had become | | | | States. Many or much of the poor helped by |
| for her as one more `drop of oil' that she readily | | | | Missionaries of Charity (mostly Nuns, but a few |
| offered to God, to keep the lamp--the life of Jesus | | | | Brothers and some Priests), are as poor or many |
| within her--burning, radiating His love to others and so | | | | significantly poorer than those poor described in the |
| dispelling the darkness." | | | | sociology book "Poor People," by William T. Vollmann. |
| A sometimes apophatic experience of Christ, after | | | | From the Rules of her Order, started and led during |
| years of much darkness and unknowing, Mother | | | | her lifetime mostly as Mother Superior: "The General |
| Teresa came to recognize and live the Christ | | | | End of the Missionaries of Charity is to satiate the |
| experience as a knowing by his feeling of God's | | | | thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross for the love and |
| abandonment on the Cross, and his tears and need, | | | | souls by the Sisters [through] absolute poverty, |
| his suffering and darkness at his time of the Cross | | | | angelic charity, cheerful obedience." To do this they |
| and during his life. Mother Teresa found a union of | | | | carry "...Christ into the homes and streets of the |
| understanding with Christ--through Christ a holiness of | | | | slums, [among] the sick, dying, the beggars and the |
| spirit and a gift to mankind. This is a work of religious | | | | little street children..." People all over the world |
| history, through letters of intimacy; the work is a | | | | admired this woman who was born in Skopje, |
| service of literary religious feeling and belief. | | | | Macedonia, in 1910 and died 1997. The Roman |
| The book reveals her service to the poorest of the | | | | Catholic Church beatified her in 2003. |
| poor. Her obedience to the Church and her obedience | | | | The dust cover quotes her famously: "If I ever |
| in faith is literally a marvel of discipline and rigor. It is | | | | become a Saint--I will surely be one of darkness. I will |
| by the strength of God that she was given such | | | | continually be absent from Heaven--to light the light |
| Obedience, and to God she devoted her life in | | | | of those in darkness on earth." A chilling note, a note |
| service. So this book demonstrates in words and | | | | enough to give one a chill, Mother Teresa lived a |
| letters. A marvelous revelation of personal letter | | | | good life and her Order remains active today. They |
| writing, the confession of an unknowing-knowing | | | | bring light to darkness. |
| journey and suffering which she recognized as | | | | This calling is a noble means of doing God's work, and |
| sharing in the suffering of Christ. | | | | in the religious life serving and connecting to Christ. |
| Observers have claimed that her journey was a | | | | The book tells of this work and its development, |
| failure of faith, and a darkness of spirit that made | | | | both the order itself as a developing group of |
| her despair. True, she experiences despair and writes | | | | religious, but mainly of Mother Teresa's relationship |
| of her pain, but evidenced by her continued work | | | | and struggles of spiritual and religious significance in |
| and prayer, she maintained faith and journey with | | | | her saintly life and holy connection to Jesus Christ: |
| Christ in the most holy of ways. So I postulate based | | | | Letters that cast a light on Christ and his relationship |
| on her letters and the narrative written by Father | | | | with mankind. |