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Her infinite depth of love for others has touched the world and made us feel that she is a “Mother” to us all.

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While teaching at the Loreto convent school in Calcutta, India, Sister Agnes—who was to become Mother Teresa—was disturbed by the poverty surrounding her.  As a result, she left the convent school and began her missionary work with the poor in 1948. She was confused and doubtful about her choice.  She had no earnings and had to beg for food and other necessities. She once said, “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 [her former order] 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.” 1 

She took care of the unwanted and unloved, people she described as having “become a burden to society…shunned by everyone – the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers.” Being forgotten by everybody, she thought, was “a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.” 2

Mother Teresa’s love was rare and priceless and can be considered as:

• Pure – She loved with her whole heart and mind, with the intention of putting utmost compassion into action: “Pure love doesn’t cause pain;” 3
• Real – Her love went to the hearts of others and kept flourishing, growing, and reaching:  “Love until it hurts. Real love is always painful and hurts; then it is real and pure;”4
• Universal – Everyone was the same in her eyes: powerful or powerless; rich or poor; old or young; professional or non-professional: “Universal love is an expression of the harmony of the totality. Everything is in harmony with everything else. Nothing is excluded. Your will is in harmony with your compassion. Your compassion is in harmony with your joy. Your joy is in harmony with your anger. Your anger is in harmony with your body. Your body is in harmony with your ego. Your ego is in harmony with other people. There is no conflict anywhere. Everything fits and functions as togetherness, as oneness. That oneness is you;”5
• Self-sacrificing – Her compassion was like that of Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who left his palace in Nepal at the age of 29 to find the truth and ways to end human suffering by sacrificing his royal life as a prince to become a monk, depending on the support of others and begging for alms to get needed food and medicine. 
• Unconditional – Love from Mother Teresa was not a commodity that expected something in exchange.  It did not work on a barter system: “As love becomes more and more unconditional, it begins to be experienced as inner joy;” 6
• Mother’s love – Her love was a mother’s love.  She smiled when people she cared for smiled, cried when they were sad, constantly worried about their food, health, safety, emotions, and futures.  She was willing to sacrifice her ordinary life as a lady for the benefit of others, showing an immeasurably compassionate heart.

In the words of Mother Teresa, “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world7…let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work8…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.” 9

The story of Mother Teresa makes us feel that we ordinary beings, if we “cannot do great things – we (can only) do small things with great love10….do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” 11 No matter how silly others consider us and our goals, as long as we believe and persist then eventually, without realizing how fast the time has passed by, we can succeed. No matter how small the work assignment is and who assigns us to work on it, we can do it with our hearts, our love, and our smiles with zero expectation to receive anything big in return.  What we experience then is the joy of freedom and the joy of contribution. Like Mother Teresa, we find that “it is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.”12  Her depth of love for others has touched the world and made us feel that she is a “Mother” to us all.

Sincere thanks to author Pei Yee OOI.  Pei Yee is a doctoral student in Economics of Education at Columbia University. Prior to studies in New York, she was as a financial executive in Ipoh, Malaysia.  She enjoys reading, writing, and motivating people.  She is grateful for the support and love from her family and friends, who have stood by her side when she needed them most.

Read a Gift Person essay about Mother Teresa.

References

1. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa

2. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/mother_teresa/2.html

3. Sayadaw U Jotika (2005): Snow in the Summer: Inward Path Publisher, Penang, Malaysia

4. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://quotations.about.com/od/stillmorefamouspeople/a/MotherTeresa3.htm

5. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://www.ahalmaas.com/Glossary/u/universal_love.htm

6. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconditional_love

7. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html

8. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa_2.html

9. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa_3.html

10. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa_2.html

11. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html

12. Retrieved on June 6, 2009 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa_2.html