July 31

I think of you and your families and pray for each one of you: Lord, keep them faithful to each other in Your love. Let nothing, nobody separate them from Your love and love for each other. Let the child, the gift of Yourself to every family, be the bond of love, unity, joy and peace. Amen

July 30

A young girl came from a university in Paris and she had told her parents: "Before I sit for my final examination I want to go to Mother Teresa and work with her." She came to Calcutta and I looked at her. She looked very tired, her eyes were not smiling. I suggested that she come for the Adoration that we have every day and that she keep up regular visits to the Home for the Dying. Then one day, after ten or twelve visits, she suddenly came and threw her arms around me and said: "Mother Teresa, I have found Jesus." I asked: Where did you find Jesus? "In the Home for the Dying," she replied. She was full of joy and smiles.

July 29

Why do people come to India? Because they believe that in India we have a lot of spirituality and this they want to find. Among them are many who come to our house and work with us, in the Home for the Dying. Many of them are completely lost; it is very important that they are guided, that they are led. Why are people going round in circles, just to see the scenery? There is not much point in that - but there is something more; people are really hungry for God. Travel is one way of showing their hunger.

July 28

It is easy to be proud and harsh and selfish - so easy. But we have been created for better things. Each of us has plenty of good as well as plenty of bad in us. Let none glory in his or her success but refer all to God.

July 27

The greatest injustice we have done to our poor people is that we think they are good for nothing; we have forgotten to treat them with respect, with dignity as a child of God. People have forgotten what the human touch is, what it is to smile, for somebody to smile at them, somebody to recognize them, somebody to wish them well. The terrible thing is to be unwanted.

July 26

The future is not in our hands. We have no power over it. We can act only Today. We have a sentence in our Constitution that says: "We will allow the good God to make plans for the future - for yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come and we have only today to make Him known, loved and served." So we do not worry about it.

July 25

My sisters and I always greet the Lord and one another each morning at 4:30am with the words: "Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God."
Let us always greet each other with a smile - for a smile is the beginning of love.

July 24

Where man has failed, God will find a way - if we ask Him.

July 23

If peace and love are not allowed to take their rightful place at the table of negotiation, then hatred and anger will produce a conflict that will continue for many years to come. It will solve nothing and thousands of innocent lives will be lost. I ask you all to pray for peace which is such an urgent priority.

July 22

On the "old Yugoslavia" situation:
Our mission is not one of politics but of love, and the truth is that bitterness solves nothing. Our message is one of peace and reconciliation because the alternative is a conflict which produces hunger, suffering, anger and hate for all.

July 21

The suffering in the refugee camps is great. It all looks like one big Calvary where Christ is crucified once more. Help is needed but unless there is forgiveness, there will be no peace.

July 20

Love to pray. Feel often during the day the need for prayer and take trouble to pray. God is always speaking to us. Listen to Him. He wants from us deep love, compassion and forgiveness.

July 19

I am often asked, after Mother Teresa, who?
That will be no trouble. God will find a more humble person, more obedient to Him, more faithful, someone smaller with a deeper faith, and He will do still greater things through her.
Let the Missionaries of Charity and the co-workers, in every country wherever they are, meet God with a smile - everywhere they go, in everyone.

July 18

At a children's party at the Tollygunge Club in Calcutta, when we were celebrating the Silver Jubilee of our Congregation, the children were patting the luscious, thick, green grass of the beautiful lawns with their hands, and they asked me what made the blades grow so strong. They had never seen such grass.
I saw many children who did not eat more than one sweet out of the packet distributed to them, in which there were cakes, buns, sweets, fruits, and I asked them why. They answered me that they had brothers and sisters at home, and they would share with them.

July 17

I love my people very much, more than myself, and so naturally I wish to give them the joy of possessing the treasure that is my religion, but it is not mine to give, nor can I force it on anyone. So also no man, no law, no government has the right to prevent or force me, or anyone, if I choose to embrace the religion that gives me peace, joy and love.

July 16

Religion is not something that you or I can touch. Religion is the worship of God - therefore a matter of conscience. I alone must decide for myself and you for yourself, what we choose. For me the religion I live and use to worship God is the Catholic religion. For me this is my very life, my joy and the greatest gift of God in His love for me. He could have given me no greater gift.

July 15

Let us bring that love, that compassion and share that with our people who need it. They do not need pity and sympathy but they will enrich you. My sisters and I have been enriched with the love that we have received from our people and to us there is not difference who they are, what they are. They are all brothers and sisters and as such they are the ones to whom we belong and who belong to us because we are the children of God, created by the same loving hand of God.

July 31

I think of you and your families and pray for each one of you: Lord, keep them faithful to each other in Your love. Let nothing, nobody separate them from Your love and love for each other. Let the child, the gift of Yourself to every family, be the bond of love, unity, joy and peace. Amen

July 14

Once the longing for money comes, the longing also comes for what money can give - superfluous things. Our needs will increase, for one thing leads to another and the result will be endless dissatisfaction.
It is not a sin to be rich.
When it provokes avarice, it becomes a sin. Richness is given by God and it is our duty to divide it with those less favoured.

July 13

Sometime ago, a man came to Mother House with a prescription.
His only child was dying.He asked me to help him get to the medicine.
Right at that moment, a man came with a basket full of used medicines which he had collected. Right on top was the medicine the man needed.
If it had been inside, I wouldn't have seen it.
There are millions of children in the world - see God's concern to get the medicine for that child in the slums of Calcutta.
That is God's tenderness and love.
That is loving trust - Divine Providence.

July 12

Joy is prayer, joy is strength, joy is love.
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
She gives most who gives with joy.
The best way to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy.