See raamat oli minuga koos, kui Eestist seda jalgsirännakut alustasin. Poolas Debrecheni linnas tundsin siiski vajadust see raamat ära kinkida.
Vabandan, et järgnevad kirjeldused on inglise keeles.
Mother Teresa - No Greater Love
On Prayer
Prayer is in all things, in all gestures.
Let us free our minds. Let's not pray long, drawn-out prayers, but let's pray short ones full of love.
We must never forget that we are bound toward perfection and should aim ceaselessly at it.
But you cannot give what you don't have.
The interior silence is very difficult, but we must make the effort.
In silence we will find new energy and true unity.
Nature: trees, flowers, and grass grow in silence. The stars, the moon, and the sun move in silence.
We must have a clean heart to be able to see - no jealousy, anger, contention, and especially no uncharitableness.
As Saint Augustine says, "Fill yourselves first, and then only will you be able to give to others."
Our contemplation is our life. It is not a matter of doing but being.
On Love
The whole gospel is very, very simple.
He's turning and twisting just to get around to one thing: love one another.
One day I picked up a man from the gutter. His body was covered with worms. I brought him to our house, and what did this man say? He did not curse. He did not blame anyone. He just said, "I've lived like an animal in the street, but I'm going to die like an angel, loved and cared for!" It took us three hours to clean him. Finally, the man looked up at the sister an said, "Sister, I'm going home to God." And then he died. I've never seen such a radiant smile on a human face as the one I saw on that man's face.
He went home to God. See what love can do!
It is the intensity of love we put into our gestures that makes them into something beautiful
Don't imagine that love, to be true and burning, must be extraordinary.
No; what we need in our love is the continuous desire to love the One we love.
Holy souls sometimes undergo great inward trial, and they know darkness.
It does not matter how much we give, but how much love we put into our giving.
Where God is, there is love; and where there is love, there always is an openness to serve.
We must know that we have been created for greater things,
not just to be a number in the world,
not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work.
We have been created in order to love and to be loved.
What matters is the gift of your self, the degree of love that you put into each one of your actions.
At the end of our life, we shall be judged by love. - SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS
Edasi lugemiseks kliki alumist
väiksemat sinist Loe edasi . . .
On Giving
Give of your hands to serve and your hearts to love.
There are many medicines and cures for all kinds of sicknesses.
But unless kind hands are given in service and generous hearts are given in love, I do not think there can ever be a cure for the terrible sickness of feeling unloved.
On Being Holy
If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.
If you are blamed, you won't be discouraged; if anyone calls you a saint, you won't put yourself on a pedestal.
Remember, it is the individual that is important to us. If we wait until there is a given number of people, we will get lost in numbers and will never be able to show respect and love for one concrete person.
To me, every person in the world is unique.
On Work & Service
You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself, but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless. To work without love is slavery.
I feel called to help individuals, to love each human being. I never think in terms of crowds in general but in terms of persons. Were I to think about crowds, I would never begin anything. It is the person that matters. I believe in person-to-person encounters.
However beautiful the work is, be detached from it, even ready to give it up.
The fruit of love is service.
Love leads us to say, "I want to serve."
And the fruit of service is peace.
All of us should work for peace.
On Poverty & the Poor
Poverty doesn't only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity.
When I pick up a hungry person from the streets, I give him rice and bread, and I have satisfied that hunger. But a person who is shut out, feels unwanted by society, unloved and terrfied - how much more difficult is it to remove that hunger?
Riches, both material and spiritual, can choke you if you do not use them fairly.
For not even God can put anything in a heart that is already full.
Let us remain as empty as possible so that God can fill us up.
On Children & the Family
I have a conviction that I want to share with you. Love begins at home, and every Co-worker* should try to make sure that deep family love abides in his or her home.
Only when love abides at home can we share is with our next-door neighbor. Then it will show forth and you will be able to say to them, "Yes, love is here."
And then you will be able to share it with everyone around you.
I think the world today is upside-down. It is suffering so much because there is so little love in the home and in family life. We have to time for our children. We have no time for each other. There is no time to enjoy each other, and the lack of love causes so much suffering and unhappiness in the world.
Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches. Children have very little time for their parents and parents have very little time for their children and for each other.
So the breakdown of peace in the world begins at home.
People who really and truly love each other are the happiest people in the world. We see that with our very poor people. They love their children and they live their families. They may have very little, in fact, they may not have anything, but they are happy people.
On Suffering & Death
Suffering will never be completely absent from our lives. So don't be afraid of suffering.
In 25 years, we have picked up more than 36 000 people from the streets and more than 8000 have died a most beautiful death.
When we pick them up from the street we give them a plate of rice. In no time we recive them.
A few nights ago we picked up four people. One was in a most terrible condition, covered with wounds, full of maggots. I told the sisters that I would take care of her while they attended to the other three. I really did all that my love could do for her. I put her in a bed and then she took hold of my hand. She had such a beautiful smile on her face and she said only, "Thank you." Then she died.
There was a greatness of love. She was hungry for love, and she received that love before she died. She spoke only two words, but her understanding love was expressed in those two words.
At the moment of death, we will not be judged by the amount of work we have done but by the weight of love we have put into our work.
Death, in the final analysis, is only the easiest and quickest means to go back to God. If only we could make people understand that we come from God and that we have to go back to Him!
Death can be something beautiful. It is like going home . . .
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