August 31

People all over the world are hungry for God's love. Your way of doing it is by spreading peace and love and our way is by putting that love into action in the service of the sick, they dying and the unwanted. Let us pray for each other and help each other by honesty and we shall conquer the world and bring to the world the message that God is love and God loves each one of us as we love one another.

August 30

To parents: It is very important that children learn from their fathers and mothers how to love one another - not in the school, not from the teacher, but from you. It is very important that you share with your children the joy of that smile. There will be misunderstandings; every family has its cross, its suffering. Always be the first to forgive with a smile. Be cheerful, be happy.

August 29

Clothe the naked Christ - by your charity in words and protecting the good name of others. Give a home for the homeless Christ - by your making your own home a home of peace and joy and love, through your thoughtfulness for all and everyone in your family and your next-door neighbor.

August 28

One of the most demanding things for me is travelling with all the publicity everywhere I go. I have said to Jesus if I don't go to heaven for anything else, I will be going to heaven for all the travelling and publicity, because it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me truly ready for heaven.

August 27

A little boy in Calcutta was celebrating his birthday. His parents always gave him lots of presents and a big party. One year he asked them to give all the money they would spend on him to Mother Teresa. So on the morning of the birthday, they brought him down in a car and handed me an envelope with the money in it. The child taught his parents so much. That is love in action.

August 26

We cannot share unless our lives are filled with the love of God; unless our hearts are pure. Jesus said: "Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God." If we do not see God in each other, it is very difficult to love. And as love begins at home, we must have that love for each other at home.

August 25

I find that when I'm writing, writing and writing, I use up the pens so quickly. When the ink begins to look very faint, the Sister puts a new pen in my hand, but I always give it back to her, because I wont't take anything without asking permission. Use these words: "May I have."

August 24

To my sisters: To sit back with a stick in hand and command is not our work. Our children come on empty stomachs - so do not waste their time. They must learn something. Make them happy. They have much to suffer already and we cannot treat them as we would children going to a regular school. How many of our children have their first meal at 3pm so as to be able to cut out dinner because their parents cannot afford it? We thoughtlessly say hurtful things to little ones, ignorant as we are of the circumstances, and they stop coming. Even the little consolation they hope to find in school is denied them.

August 23

The other day, a group of school children came from very far. All the first and second prize winners in the school had asked the headmistress to give money instead of prizes. So she put all the money in an envelope and gave it to them. Then they all said: "Take us to Mother Teresa, we want to give this money to her poor people." Now see, how wonderful it was that they did not use the money for themselves.

August 22

Every child has been created for greater things, to love and be loved, in the image of God. That's why people must decide from beforehand if they really want to have a child. Once a child is conceived, there is life, God's life. That child has a right to live and be cared for. Abortion destroys two lives, the life of the child and the conscience of the mother. It is a child of God, no? Created for greater things, just like you and me.

August 21

If I had just passed by when I saw and smelt that woman who was eaten up by rats - her face, her legs, I could not have been a Missionary of Charity today. But I returned, picked her up and took her to a local hospital. If I had not, the Society would have died. Feelings of repugnance are human but if I see the face of Jesus in His distressing disguise, I will be holy.

August 20

We all speak of the terrible hunger that has been in Ethiopia, that has been in other places, where people in hundreds and thousands are facing death just for a piece of bread, for a glass of water. People have died in my hands. And yet we forget, why they and not we?

August 19

It is not how much we really "have" to give but how empty we are - so that we can receive fully in our life. Take away your eyes from yourself and rejoice that you have nothing - that you are nothing - that you can do nothing. Give Jesus a big smile each time your nothingness frightens you.

August 18

For all kinds of diseases there are medicines and cures. But for the disease of being unwanted, except where there are willing hands to serve and there is a loving heart to love, I don't think this terrible disease can ever be cured.

August 17

You are a rich nation but on your streets I saw a man lying drunk and no one picked him up, no one seemed to bother about him, no one tried to restore to him the human dignity, to bring back to him the sense that he is a brother, a child of God.

August 16

Let us raise funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace and again let us begin in the place where we are with the people with whom we are the closest, and then spread out. So let us protect this work, this mission, from anything that will make people think we are raising money except out of sacrifice.

August 15

To business people, Lions, Rotarians, Knights and others who come with generous cheques: I hope that what you give me comes not from your surplus but it is the fruit of a sacrifice made for the love of God. You must give what costs you, go without something you like, then you will truly be brothers to the poor who are deprived of even the things they need.

August 14

To be able to see the face of God you need a heart that is completely pure, clean and free. As long as we in our own hearts are not able to hear that voice, the voice of God when He speaks in the silence of our hearts, we will not be able to pray, we will not be able to express our love in action.

August 13

Prayer by J.H.Newman: "Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as you shine; so to shine as to be a light to others; the light O Jesus, will be all thine; none of it will be mine; it will be you, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach you without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do; the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you. Amen.

August 12

This is the prayer by Newman that I once gave to the President of India and which he said gave him consolation in times of stress and difficulty: "Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus."

August 11

When once a chairman of a multinational company came to see me, to offer me a property in Bombay, he first asked: "Mother, how do you manage your budget? I asked him who had sent him here. He replied: "I felt an urge inside me." I said: Other people like you came to seem e and say the same. It was clear God sent you, Mr.A, as He sends Mr.X, Mrs Y, and they provide the material means we need for our work. The grace of God is what moved you. You are my budget. God sees to our needs, as Jesus promised. I accepted the property he gave and named it Asha Dan (Gift of Hope).

August 10

I always say I am a little pencil in God's hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and He has to sharpen it a little more. Be a little instrument in His hands so that He can use you any time, anywhere. We have only to say "yes" to God.

August 10

What are these drops of oil in our lamps? They are the little things of everyday life: fidelity, little words of kindness, just a little thought for others, those little acts of silence, of look and thought, of word and deed.

August 8

Do not imagine that love to be true must be extraordinary. No, what we need in our love is the continuity to love the One we love. See how a lamp burns, by the continual consumption of little drops of oil. If there are no more of these drops in the lamp, there will be no light.

August 7

Silence is the beautiful fruit of prayer. We must learn not only the silence of the mouth but also the silence of the heart, of the eyes, of the ears and of the mind, which I call the five silences. Say it and memorize it on our five fingers.

August 6

Once I picked up a child and took him to our Children's Home, gave him a bath, clean clothes, everything. After a day the child ran away. He was found by somebody else but again he ran away. Then I said to the Sisters: Please follow when he runs away. And the child ran away the third time. There under a tree was the mother. She had put a small earthenware vessel on two stones and was cooking something she had picked out of the dustbin. The Sisters asked the child: "Why did you run away from the Home?" And the child said: "This is my home because this is where my mother is." Mother was there. That was home.

August 5

I was surprised to see so many young boys and girls given to drugs. And I tried to find out why. And the answer was: Because in the family there is no one to receive them. Our children depend on us for everything - their health, their mission, their nutrition, their security, their coming to know and love God. For all of this, they look to us with trust, hope and expectation. We are talking of love of the child, which is where love and peace begin.

August 4

If there is not that obedience and surrender of the father and mother to each other, there can be very little courage in the parents to ask that obedience of their children. And if today we are having all the troubles with family life, I think it begins. here.

August 3

The most natural thing is the family life. What keeps the family together, what nourishes the life of the family together, is that surrender to each other; is that obedience; is that accepting of each other.

August 2

A little child has no difficulty in loving, has no obstacles to love. And that is why Jesus said: "Unless you become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of God."

August 1

God is joy, joy is prayer. Joy is a sign of generosity. When you are full of joy, you move faster and you want to go about doing good to everyone. Joy is a sign of union with God - of God's presence.