Mother Teresa honored in 2010

Mother Teresa, the icon of compassion and human dignity, is being honored in 2010 by the United States with a stamp.

I have read many blogs regarding this tribute to a great humanitarian. Some are upset that her views on abortion have not been mentioned or highlighted in the press or by the government.

Mother Teresa will not be remembered so much because of her positions on morality but she will be remembered as a great humanitarian. She knew the power of love and emanated the fire of love from her heart.

Those of us who sat beside her on a concrete bench in Calcutta, still feel the presence of her love that was unconditional and without borders.

I have made my books available for half the cost for 2010. I resigned from my speaker's bureau and would be happy to speak to churches, charitable organizations and anyone who would like to hear more about the life of Mother Teresa

Interview with Sister Tarcicia, the 18th sister to join the Missionaries of Charity

I was a superior 14 times.
I was a superior in Delhi. We never knew when Mother was coming. Ladies would call mother and cry. Their husbands were not good to them....running after other girls. Mother would console them. Mother would feel sad... I’m coming on such a day.... We(sisters) used to feel sad. They needed mother more than us. We would go to the airport to pick her up. Mother would say "go home". She would sit in their (the wealthy ladies) cars. She would go to their places to console them. After short time she would come back to convent. She always came back to the convent.

One day mother gave us instruction....I am not neglecting you. The Holy Father said, "God has given you two kinds of love…give more love to outsiders...it is necessary to give first love to outsiders and only necessary love to sisters. "The first love you give to people," the Holy Father told mother. The people needed mother more than sisters. In Delhi she came to help the ladies.

Linda Schaefer's journeys with Mother Teresa

This is how I began my talk for Hospice of Tift in Georgia:

How do we discover compassion? Go provides many tools and circumstances, some of which we are prepared to confront, while others land at our doorstep with a bang. When a spouse, child, friend, mother, father or other relative is diagnosed with a rare and terminal form of cancer, how does one respond to this hard and cruel circumstance? Do we shake our fist at God? Do we take it out on our children or loved ones? Do we fight the big fight and take a position on some surreal battleground, grab the biggest sword we can find, stride our dragon and fly into the face of this huge ugly threat, swearing and cursing, damning the beast of cancer to hell?

So which position do we take? Are we going into battle, or do we choose to surrender to a circumstance that we ultimately have little control over, particularly over the outcome?

(email for rest of speech: please view www.motherteresaofcalcutta.com