July 11

A woman brought a ten-week-old baby to me. The child had Down's Syndrome. Tears streamed down the mother's face as she begged me to pray that her child survive the heart operation she was about to undergo. I told her: God has given you this great gift of life. If He wants you to give the gift back to Him, give it willingly with love.

July 10

I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. Be that good news to your own people first. Very often we are all smiles outside, but we are all sad inside and when we come home we have no time to smile.

July 9

When I was crossing into Gaza, I was asked at the checkpost whether I was carrying any weapons. I replied: Oh yes, my prayer books.

July 8

I think we should teach our children to love one another at home. They an learn this only from their father and mother, when they see the parents' love for each other.

July 7

Maybe there is a rich person who has not one to visit him; he has plenty of other things, he is nearly drowned in them, but there s not that touch and needs your touch. I was walking down the street and a man walked up to me and said: "Are you Mother Teresa?" And I said: Yes. "Please send one of your Sisters to our house. I'm half blind and my wife is nearly mental and we are simply longing to hear a human voice." When I sent the Sisters there they found it was true. They had everything but no one to call their own. Their sons and daughters were very far from them. They were unwanted now, unusable, so to say, unprofitable and so they were dying of sheer loneliness.

July 6

We must never think any one of us is indispensable. God has His ways and means. God may allow everything to go upside down in the hands of a very talented and capable person. Unless the work is interwoven with love, it is useless. God will not ask that person how many books he has read but God will as him if he has done his best for the love of Him.

July 5

Give love in action. Our works of love are nothing but works of peace. Let us do them with greater love and efficiency: each in his or her own work, in daily life, at home and with one's neighbor. Be happy and at peace. Accept whatever He gives and give whatever He takes with a big smile.

July 4

I remember my mother, my father and the rest of us praying together each evening. It is God's greatest gift to the family. It maintains family unity. So go back to family prayer and teach your children to pray and pray with them. Through prayer you will find out what God wants you to do.

July 3

My aim is to bring people closer to God through the work of charity. The soul alone faces God's gift of faith. It is for the soul to accept or refuse the gift. The act of acceptance or refusal causes conversion. Therefore, conversion is the work of God in the soul - and not mine to give.

July 2

Even if you write a letter for a blind man, or you just sit and listen to someone, or you take the mail for him, or you visit somebody or bring a flower to somebody, or wash clothes for somebody or clean the house - small things, but God sees everything great.

July 1

Make every effort to walk in the presence of God. To see God in everyone you must live your morning meditation throughout the day. Smile at one another. It is not always easy. Sometimes we find it hard to smile at somebody, then we pray.

June 30

This sharing of love in His poor has brought us all so close to each other and so, closer to the poor; and by doing so we have come to know the poor. This knowledge has led us to love and sacrifice, to personal service for our neighbor. Therefore I appeal to every one of you, rich, young or old, to give your own hands to serve Christ in the poor and your hearts to love Him in them.

June 29

We have to realize that to be forgiven, we have to be able to forgive. If only the people in Northern Ireland and in other places could learn to forgive, I think peace would come to them.

June 28

We need to find God and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees and flowers and grass - grown in silence. See the starts, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.

June 27

Sanctity is not a luxury for the few. It is a simple duty for you and me. I have to be a saint in my way and you in yours. Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful you will become more and more like Christ, for His heart was meek and He always thought of others.

June 26

I do not agree with the big way of doing things. To us, what matters is an individual. To get to love a person, we must come in close contact with him. If we wait till we get numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers, and we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person. I believe in person-to-person; every person is Christ for me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment.

June 25

I don't want that you give from your abundance. I want you to understand through direct contact. The poor need deeds, not words. It is not my task to evaluate existing systems, economic, social, or political structures and ideologies. Everyone has a conscience and must follow it.

June 24

I will remember always the last time I visited Venezuela in South America. A rich family had given the Sisters land to build a children's home, so I went to thank them. And there in the family I found their eldest child was terribly disabled. And I asked the mother: What is the child's name? The mother answered: "Professor of Love, because this child is teaching us the whole time how to express love in action." There was a beautiful smile on the mother's face. "Professor or Love" they called their child, so terribly disabled, so disfigured!

June 23

Charity for the poor is like a living flame; the drier the fuel, the brighter it burns. In your service to the poor do not give only your hands but also your hearts. Charity to be fruitful must cost us. Give until it hurts. To love, it is necessary to give: to give it is necessary to be free from selfishness.

June 22

We must not drift away from the humble works, because these are the works nobody will do. They are never too small. We are so small we look at things in a small way. Een if we do a small thing for somebody, God, being almighty, sees everything as great. For there are many people who can do big things. But there are very few people who will do the small things.

June 21

If we are full of sin, God cannot fill us, because even God himself cannot fill what is full. That's why we need forgiveness to become empty, and then God fills us with Himself.

June 20

It is easy to love people far away, very easy to think of the hungry people in India. You must see first that there is love at home and at your next-door neighbour's and in the street you live in, in the town you live in and only then outside.

June 19

Often when you see small and big wires, new and old, cheap and expensive electric cable that are useless, for until the current passes through them there will be no light. The wires are you and me, the current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us - to use us - or refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread.

June 18

Everything starts with prayer. Love to pray - feel the need to pray often during the day and take the trouble to pray. If you don't want to pray better, you must pray more. The more you pray the easier it becomes. Perfect prayer does not consist of many words but in the fervour of the desire which raises the heart to Jesus.

June 17

Dear God, when it comes to helping those in need, help me to see more than myself. I don't think there is anyone who needs God's grace and help more than I do. feel so foresaken and confused at times. And I think that is exactly why God uses me, because I cannot claim any credit for what gets done. On the contrary, I need His help twenty-four hours a day.

June 16

In Yemen, which is entirely a Muslim country, I asked one of the rich people to build a Masjid there. People needed a place to pray, I said to him. They are all Muslim brothers and sisters. They need to have a place where they can meet God.

June 15

Overcome the finite with the infinite. Christ has created you because He wanted you. I know what you feel - terrible longing, with dark emptiness - and yet, He is the one in love with you. I do not know if you have seen these few lines before, but they fill and empty me: "My God, my God, what is a heart that thou shouldst so eye and woo, pouring upon it all thy heart, as though it thou hadst nothing else to do?"

June 14

The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us. All our words will be useless unless they come from within. Why not try and hold your tongue? You know what you can do but you do not know how much the other can bear.

June 13

None of us, I am sure knows what is the pain of hunger but one day I learned it from a little child. I found the child i the street and I saw in her face that terrible hunger that I have seen in many eyes. Without questioning her I gave her a piece of bread, and then I saw that the little child was eating the bread crumb by crumb. And I said to her, eat the bread. And that little one looked at me and said, " I am afraid because when the bread is finished I will be hungry again."

June 12

Have you ever gone to help any charitable organization in your own country? If you have never gone, I think you should not miss such an opportunity in life. It gives you the experience of sheer joy and fulfilment. You will get in touch with Christ as you would nowhere else.

June 11

Our work should not be superficial but deep. We must reach the heart. To reach the heart we must do - love is proved in deeds. People are attracted more by what they seen than by what they hear. If people wish to help, let them come and see - the reality is more attractive than the abstract idea.

June 10

If I was told, you may only stay here and work for the poor if you give up your faith, your religion, which would I choose? My religion nobody can take from me, and therefore they cannot refuse it, they cannot take it from me. This is something within me. If there is no alternative and if that is the only way that Christ wants to come amongst these people by radiating His life, His love for them through my actions and so draw them to Him, I would stay to serve them. I wouldn't give up. I would be ready to give my life, but not my faith.

June 9

How can we help students to see the richness of community service? Teach them. And ask them to love in their own family. Love begins at home. Lots of love always brings lots of peace. That's why it is important for the family to pray together, and they will stay together and love one another. The it will be easier to be a fountain of love for each other.

June 8

Joy is love, the normal result of a heart burning with love. Joy is a need and a physical power. Our lamp will be burning with sacrifices made out of love if we have joy.

June 7

Love does not live on words nor can it be explained by words - especially the love which serves God. Simple acts of love and care keep the light of God burning.

June 6

When we say no to violence, we always imagine a knife, a bomb, a gun. However, to me, violence is caused by our attitude. For example, telling people that they are good for nothing, that they are lazy, and that they are this, and that they are that. I think this a great violence. If you and I cold only make that one strong resolution that we will say "no" to violence, and say "yes" to peace by our kindness, by our attitude towards each other, even in a small thing - a smile when we meet each other, it would help more than anything.

June 5

Young people, make a strong resolution today, that we will keep our purity pure, our chastity chaste, our virginity virgin! The greatest gift you can give to each other on the day of your wedding, or to God, on the day when you join the priesthood or religious life, is a pure heart, a pure body.

June 4

How can we stress respect for life - from the womb to those who are dying on the streets? We must realize the greatness of life. Every child is a gift from God. I think it is important to realize that we have been created for greater things - to love and to be loved. When we destroy love, then who will be there for us? Every single person, young and old, must realize this. When we realize this, the we will be able to share that love. We will be able to accept each other. We will be really free and able for Jesus.

June 3

What a shame if one of our brothers or sisters dies of hunger because of our neglect and selfishness. We will never feel what the poor feel, because we do not have to worry about our next meal, about our clothes, our comforts, we have them all in abundance. Love means to share with others

June 2

Start by making your own home a place where peace, happiness and love abound, through your love for each member of your family and for your neighbor.

June 1

I think the world today is upside down. Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches and so on. There is much suffering because there is so very little love in homes and in family life. We have not ime for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other. In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.

May 31

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. Just keep the joy of Jesus as your strength - be happy and at peace, accept whatever He takes with a big smile.

May 30

Thous shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul and with al thy mind. This is the command of our great God, and He cannot command the impossible.

May 29

My prayer for you will be that you may grow in the likeness of Christ through your kindness, through your compassion and through your healing power that God has entrusted to you. And you pray for us that we may keep doing God's work with great love, that we don't spoil His work.

May 28

To the students of medicine: I beg of you not to add to the millions of doctors already present who are just doing out medicines. You must treat each patient with love and compassion and fulfill all the hopes they come with. Your hands are instruments of peace and are used to restore life while at the same time others use them to cause destruction. Peace in the world is brought about not by force but by love.

May 27

The same is true for our sufferers of leprosy, the same for our crippled, for our unloved, for our uncared. It is the same thing; they need love, they need compassion, they need a human touch. Touch the sufferer of leprosy with your kindness.

May 26

I can give you nothing, I have nothing to give - but what I want from you is that when we look together and we see the poor in our own family, we begin at home to love until it hurts. If we know our own people we will know then who is our next door neighbor. Do we know the people around us? In one of the houses the Sisters visited, a woman living alone had been dead for many days before she was found and the people around her did not even know her name.

May 25

Let us ask our Lady, in a very special way: Mary, mother of Jesus, be a mother to each of us, that we, like you, may be pure in earth, that we, like you, love Jesus; that we, like you, serve the poorest for we are all poor. First let love our neighbors and so fulfill God's desire that we become carriers of His love and compassion.

May 24

When I was invited to China, I was asked, "What is a communist to you?" And I said: A child of God, my brother and my sister. And nobody had another word to say. There was perfect silence. And it is true, because the same loving hand created you, created me, created the man on the street.

May 23

Every human being comes from God. We all know what is the love of God for us. Whatever we believe, we know that if we really want to love, we must learn to forgive. We must radiate God's love.

May 22

Love begins at home; love lives in homes, and that is why there is so much suffering and so much unhappiness in the world today. If we listen to Jesus, He will tell us what Je said before: "Love one other, as I have loved you." He has loved us through suffering, dying on the Cross for us, and so if we are to love one another, if we are to bring that love into life again, we have to begin at home.

May 21

Become holy. Each one of us has a capacity to become holy and the way to holiness is prayer.

May 20

Give a person tender love and care. Your radiating concern, your radiating joy will give that person great hope.

May 19

Whereas you work to bring about peace, why is it you do not work, they ask, to lessen war? If you are working for peace, that peace lessens war. But I won't mix in politics. War is the fruit of politics, and so I don't involve myself, that's all. If I get stuck in politics, I will stop loving. Because I will have to stand by one, and not by all. This is the difference.

May 18

Even though I cannot personally meet and talk to each one of you, you are in my daily prayer. My deep gratitude to you for all the ways in which you help us by serving the poor alongside us, and for all your prayers and sacrifices. Your sufferings accepted in love by Jesus are the source of many graces. You are sharing wholeheartedly in all we do.

May 17

For us to be able to love we need to see, we need to touch, and that is why we read in the Scriptures, Jesus made the poor the hope of salvation for you and for me.

May 16

I think it is very important for us as co-workers to put that understanding love into action. A co-worker is not a name only. A co-worker is not first belonging to something. Any person who carries that love, who shares that love is a co-worker in action. And so let us come to this simple definition of a co-worker: "A co-worker is a person who puts her love for God into living action and service for the poor. Where? In the family first and then for others. We must not neglect our homes and go out before we have started inside and begin with ourselves first. Then, because we have practiced that, we are able to give to others.

May 15

To women: "You and I, being women we have this tremendous thing in us, understanding love. I see that so beautifully in our people, in our poor women, who day after day, meet suffering, accept suffering for the sake of their children. I have seen mothers going without so many things, even resorting to begging, so that the children may have what they need.

May 14

A gentleman once came to me and said that he wanted to give a big donation. After giving the donation, he said, "That is something outside of me,, but I want to give something of me." Sp he comes regularly to the Home for the Dying at Kalighat and talks to the people there who are sick and dying, helps them to bathe and shave. He wanted to give something of himself and now he is giving it.

May 13

Riches can suffocate if they are not used in the right way, whether they are spiritual riches or material.

May 12

It is one thing to say I am a sinner, but let someone else say that about me and then I feel it - I am up in arms. If I am falsely accused I may suffer, whereas if correction be founded on even a small reality - something in me having deserved it - then often it hurts more. We must be happy that our faults are known as they are.

May 11

I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: What would I say if I was in her place? And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would have said: I am hungry, I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain, or something. She gave me much more than I gave her. This is the greatest love.

May 10

Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people. One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition. I told the Sisters: You take care of the other three; I will take care of the one who looks worse. So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only; "Thank you" - and she died.

May 9

When I pick up a hungry person from the street, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society - that spiritual poverty is much harder to overcome.

May 8

For me, life is the most beautiful gift of God to mankind, therefore people and nations who destroy life by abortion and euthanasia are the poorest. I do not say legal or illegal, but I think that no human hand should be raised to kill life, since life is God's life in us, even in an unborn child.

May 7

I feel Indian to the most profound depths of my soul. The Missionaries of Charity share in their way of dressing, the way of life of the poorest in this world. Of course India needs technicians, skilled men, economists, doctors, nurses for her development. She needs plans and a general co-ordinated action. Meanwhile, people have to live, they have to be given food to eat, be taken care of and dressed. Our field of work is the present India. While these needs continue, our work will continue.

May 6

We must acknowledge the dignity of the poor, respect them, esteem them, love them, serve them. Often I think they are the ones to whom we owe our greatest gratitude. They teach us by their faith, their resignation, their patience in suffering. They allow us to help them. We should experience not pity but compassion towards the poor.

May 5

What do we ask? "Give us this day our daily bread." What is our daily bread? It is peace and love. Besides the bread for our bodies, we need that other bread for our sous to be able to live. For man does not live on bread alone. And each of us before we pass the prayer on to somebody else, let us put that prayer into life. Let us spread the good news that prayer is our strength.

May 4

Pray at home for only five minutes. Prayer is simple talking to God. He speaks to us, we listen. We speak to Him, He listens. A two-way process: speaking and listening.

May 3

I am sure that all people know deep down inside that the little child in the mother's womb is a human being from the moment of conception, created in the image of God to love and to be loved. Let us pray that nobody wil be afraid to protect that little child, to help that little child to be born. Jesus said: "If you receive a little child in my name, you receive me."

May 2

I appeal to you, young people - you the hope of our country, you the joy of our country, bring that joy with peace in our homes, in our country, and we will be able to be the sunshine of God's love in the whole world.

May 1

People who love each other fully and truly are the happiest people in the world. They may have little, they may have nothing but they are happy people. Everything depends on how we love one another.

April 30

It is so beautiful that we complete each other! What we are doing in the slums, maybe you cannot do. What you are doing at the level where you are called - in your family life, in your college life, in your work - we cannot do. But together you an we are doing something beautiful for God.

April 29

We can never know how much good a simple smile can do.

April 28

Holiness is not something extraordinary, not something for only a few with brains, with intellectual powers that can reason, that can discuss, that can have long talks and read very wonderful books. Holiness is for every one of us as a simple duty - the acceptance of God with a smile, at all times, anywhere and everywhere.

April 27

When I received the news of the Nobel Peace Prize, I said: I am myself unworthy of the prize. I thank God for making the world acknowledge the existence of the poor and the works of love to be works of peace. On the same day, a tiny abandoned infant was brought to Shishu Bhavan (children's home) in Calcutta and was named Shanti (Peace). The infant survived.

April 26

The woman is the heart of the home. Let us pray that we women realize the reason of our existence: to love and be loved and through this love become instruments of peace in the world.

April 25

You will find Calcutta all over the world if you have eyes to see. The streets of Calcutta lead to every man's door. I know that you may want to make a trip to Calcutta, but it is easy to love people far away. It is not always easy to love those people who live beside us. What about the ones I dislike or look down upon?

April 24

I love all regions but I am in love with my own. If people become beter Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there. They come closer and closer to God. When they come closer, they have to choose.

April 23

Young people today aim at one thing only, to give all or nothing. And this is one of the reasons why I have accepted to come here because I hope that all people, the young men and women who will be involved in Gandhiji's work, will dedicate their lives to spread the gift of God that was given to Gandhiji - that love for his people, love for non-violence.

April 22

Let us be very sincere in our dealings with each other, and have the courage to accept each other as we are. Do not be surprised or become preoccupied at each other's failures - rather, see and find in each other the good, for each one of us is created in the image of God.

April 21

Once a man came to the Home for the Dying in Kalighat and he just walked right into the ward. I was there. After a while he came back and said to me: "I cam here with so much hate in my heart, hate for God and hate for man. I came here empty, faithless, embittered and I saw a Sister inside giving her wholehearted attention to that patient there and I realized that God still lives. Now I go out a different man. I believe there is a God and He loves us still." I want this to be imprinted on your ind that God loves the world through you and through me today.

April 20

You cannot love two persons perfectly. But you can love all men perfectly if you love the one God in them all. One should center his ind and heart, his life and activity on God and see him in every human sufferer.

April 19

We are grateful for the thousands of opportunities Jesus gives us to bring hope into a multitude of lives. By our concern for the individual sufferer we will help our troubled world at the brink of despair, to discover a new reason to live or to die with a smile of contentment on its lips, for at the end of life we go home to Jesus.

April 18

In the scriptures, it is written, "I looked for one to comfort me and I found none." Jesus is your child, your spouse, your neighbor, looking for someone to comfort Him. Are you there? Let us make a resolution: I will be there for my child, my spouse, my neighbor - not just in words, but by my sharing and sacrificing. Maybe just a beautiful smile instead of that ugly look, maybe a beautiful word instead of that angry word. Let us take the trouble to be that one to comfort him.

April 17

People throughout the world may look different or have a different religion, education or position, but they are all the same. They are the people to be loved. They are all hungry for love. The people you see in the streets of Calcutta are hungry in body, but the people in London or New York also have a hunger which must be satisfied. Every person needs to be loved.

April 16

Pray with me: Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow men throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands their daily bread and by our understanding love give peace and joy.

April 15

Even if my mouth is closed, with my eyes I can talk to you for a whole half hour. Looking at your eyes I can tell whether there is peace in your heart or not. We see people radiating joy, and in their eyes you can see purity. If we want our minds to have silence, keep a silence of the eyes. Use your two eyes to help you to pray better.

April 14

If sometimes people have had to die of starvation, it is not because God didn't care for them, but because you and I were not instruments of love in the hands of God, to give them bread, because we did not recognize Him, when once more the hungry Christ came in distressing disguise.

April 13

Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your eyes, kindness in your face, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greetings. We are all but His instruments who do our little bit and pass by. I believe that the way in which an act of kindness is done is as important as the action itself.

April 12

I will never forget my own mother. She used to be very busy the whole day, but as soon as the evening came, she used to move very hast to get ready to meet my father. At that time, we didn't understand, we used to smile, we used to laugh and we used to tease her. But now I remember what a tremendous, delicate love she had for him. It didn't matter what happened, she was ready there with a smile to meet him. Today we have not time. The father and the mother are so busy. The children come home and there's no one to love them, to smile at them. That's why I'm very strict with my co-workers. I always say: "Family first. If you are not there, how will your love grow for one another?"

April 11

To the cast of a musical performance in Calcutta, I said: "Your work and our work complete each other. What we are doing is needed in the world as never before. You are giving them joy by your action and we are doing the same by service. And it is the same action whether you are singing and dancing and we are rubbing and scrubbing. You are filling the world with the love God has given you.

April 10

Homelessness is not only of bricks but homelessness comes from that terrible loneliness that the unwanted, the unloved know along their way. Are we there? Do we know them? Do we see them?

April 9

I see Christ in every person I touch because He said: "I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was naked, I was sick, I was suffering, I was homeless and you took care of me."

April 8

At the Home for the Dying in Kalighat, a visitor wondered at the peace that pervaded everywhere. I said simply: "God is here. Castes and creeds mean nothing. It does not matter that they are not of my faith.

April 7

We have absolutely no difficulty regarding having to work in countries with many faiths. We treat all people as children of God. They are our brothers and sisters. We show great respect to them. Our work is to encourage these people, Christians as well as non-Christians, to do works of love. Every work of love done with a full heart brings people closer to God.

April 6

Once we had no sugar for our children. I don't know how, but a little child heard that Mother Teresa needed sugar. He went home and he told his parents: "I wil not eat sugar for three days. I will give my sugar to Mother Teresa." After three days, the parents brought the child to our house. In his hand, he had a little bottle of sugar. He could scarcely pronounce my name but he taught me that it i not how much we give but how much love we put in the giving.

April 5

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 know, loved and served." So we do not worry about the future.

April 4

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. It is a danger if we forget to whom we are doing it. This is where the respect and love and devotion come in, that we give it and do it to God, to Christ and that is why we do it as beautifully as possible. The beautiful experience that we have by serving, we must pass on to people who have not had it. It is one of the great rewards of our work.

April 3

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not there, I think the ocean would be less by that missing drop. We don't have to think in numbers. We can only love one person at a time - serve one person at a time.

April 2

A good and necessary way to prepare for Easter is to turn back to God if we have been away from Him. God loves each one of us with a most tender and most personal love. His longing for me is dearer than my longing for Him. If we are truly humble, we will see what keeps us away from Him, and will want to take it away. If you want to grow in holiness this Lent, put your hand in Mary's, and ask her to help you to become meek and humble.

April 1

I can't bear being photographed but I make use of everything for the glory of God. When I allow a person to take a photograph, I tell Jesus to take one soul to Heaven out of Purgatory.

March 31

Before God we are all poor. We are all handicapped in one way or another. Sometimes it can be seen on the outside, sometimes it is in the inside. The healthy person may be closer to dying or even more dead than the person who is dying. They might be spiritually dead, only it does not show.

March 30

There is not limit, because God is love and love is God. And so you are really in love with God, and God's love is infinite. And that's why it's not how much you do, but how much love you put into the action.

March 29

Self-knowledge puts us on our knees, and it is very necessary for love. For knowledge of God gives love, and knowledge of self gives humility.

March 28

I am not the centerpiece on a prize-giving day. It is Christ using me as his instrument to unite all the people present. That is what I see happening: people coming to meet each other because of their need for God. The wonderful thing about it is that there is a religious atmosphere; they all speak about God. This is a great experience for me. I feel that to bring all these people together to talk about God is really wonderful. A new hope for the world.

March 27

If we really want to pray, we must first learn to listen: for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence. to be able to hear God, we need a clean heart. Let us listen to God, to what He has to say. We cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made our connection with God. From the fullness of the heart, the mouth will speak, the mind will think.

March 26

In Calcutta, we cope with 9,000 people every day and the day we don't cook, they don't eat. One day, a Sister came and told me: "Mother, there is no more rice for Friday and Saturday; we will have to tell the people that we don't have it." On Friday morning at about 9 o'clock, a truck full of bread arrived. The Government had closed the schools for some reason. All the bread was brought to us and for two days our people ate bread, and bread and bread! I knew why God had closed the schools. Those thousands of people had to know that God loved them, that He cared for them.

March 25

In his passion Jesus taught us how to forgive out of love, how to forget out of humility. So let us at the beginning of the Passion of Christ examine our hearts fully and see if there is any unforgiven hurt, any unforgiven bitterness.

March 24

I remember that at the beginning of my work I had a very high fever and in that delirious fever I went before St.Peter. He said to me: "Go back. There are not slums in heaven!" So I got very angry with him and I said: "Very well! Then I will fill heaven with slum people and you will have slums there. Then you will be forced to let me in. We will all have to go home in God."

March 23

I don't want the work to become a business but to remain a work of love. I want you to have that complete confidence that God won't let us down. Take Him at His word and seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else will be added on. Joy, peace, and unity are more important than money. If God wants me to do something, He gives me the means.

March 22

We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, of killings, of wars, of hatred. If a mother can kill her own child, what is left for us to kill each other.

March 21

God has His own ways and means to work in the hearts of men, and we do not know how close they are to Him. By their actions we will always know whether they are at God's disposal or not.

March 20

A gentleman once asked me what we should do to remove poverty from India. I said; "If you want to love the poor you must share with them. If you want to remove poverty, share with the poor."

March 19

If you are humble, nothing will touch you. If you are a saint, thank God. If you are a sinner, do not remain so.

March 18

The fruit of prayer is the deepening of love, deepening of faith. If we believe, we will be able to pray, and the fruit of love is service. Therefore works of love are always works of peace, and to be able to put our hearts and hands into loving service we must know God, we must know God is love, that He loves us and that He has created us - each one of us - for greater things.

March 17

I will never forget the experience I had in visiting a hoe where they kept all the old parents of sons and daughters who had put them into an institution and perhaps forgotten them. These old people had everything - good food, comfortable place, television, everything, but everyone was looking towards the door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on the face. I turned to Sister and asked: "Why are they not smiling?" I am so used to seeing the smile on our people, even the dying ones smile. And Sister said; "This is the way it is nearly every day. They are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them." It is this neglect to love that brings spiritual poverty.

March 16

Let us remember that Jesus has said: "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me." Just think - that little smile that you give to a lonely person, that hand you give a blind person to cross the road, that little bit of food you sacrifice for someone who is hungry, you do it for Him.

March 15

Is my heart so clean that I can see the face of God in my brother, my sister who is that black one, that white one, that naked one that one suffering from leprosy, that dying one? And this is what we must pray for. Because God lives in us and makes us godly, we are one another's brothers and sisters - one big family of God's children.

March 14

We get so many visitors every day at Mother House in Calcutta. When I meet them I give each one my "business card." On it is written: "The fruit of silence is prayer; The fruit of prayer is faith; The fruit of faith is love; The fruit of love is service; The fruit of service is peace. This is very good "business!" And it makes people think. Sometimes, they ask me to explain it. But you see, everything begins with prayer that is born in the silence of our hearts. Among yourselves you can share your own experience of your need to pray, and how you found prayer, and what the fruit of prayer has been in your own lives."

March 13

Someone once asked me, if suddenly the need for your work among the poorest of the poor ceased to exist, what would you do with the rest of your life? I answered: "We would be unemployed like so many people who have lost their jobs. But Jesus said: "You will always have the poor with you."

March 12

When he was dying on the Cross, Jesus said: "I thirst." Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst of everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others, that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts.

March 11

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, for money one can get. I would like more people to give their hands to serve and their hearts to love - to recognize the poor in their own homes, towns and countries and to reach out to them in love and compassion, giving where it is most needed, and share the joy of loving with everyone.

March 10

I will never forget the day I was walking down a street in London and saw a man sitting all alone, looking so terribly lonely. I walked up to him and I took his hand and shook it. And he exclaimed: "Oh, after so long, this is the first time I've felt the warmth of a human hand." And then his face brightened up. He was a different being. He felt that there was somebody who really wanted him, somebody who really cared. I never realized before that such a small action could bring so much joy.

March 9

"Open your eyes and see." There is not just hunger for a piece of bread, there is hunger for understanding love, for the word of God. Nakedness is not only for a piece of cloth, nakedness is the loss of human dignity, the loss of that beautiful virtue of purity which is so misused nowadays.

March 8

How do we learn to pray? By praying. It is hard to pray if one does not know how. We must help ourselves to learn. Pray with absolute trust in God's loving care for you and let Him fill you with joy that you may preach without peaching.

March 7

Prayer is a joy. Prayer is the sunshine of God's love, prayer is hope of eternal happiness, prayer is the burning flame of God's love for you and for me. Let us pray for each other, for this is the best way to love one another.

March 6

It is a wonderful feeling to know the presence of God and how He takes care of us. Share that joy with others and by sharing it, give life back into the family. My prayer for you and your country is that we may realize the greatness of God's love for us and with that love protect the unborn child, the greatest gift of God for each of us and for the world.

March 5

Let anyone who comes to you go away feeling better and happier. Everyone should see goodness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile. Joy shows from the eyes, it appears when we speak and walk. It cannot be kept closed inside us. It reacts outside. Joy is very infectious.

March 4

We know that if we really want to love, we must learn to forgive. Forgive and ask to be forgiven; excuse rather than accuse. Reconciliation begins first, not with others but with ourselves. It starts with having a clean heart within. A clean heart is able to see God in others. We must radiate God's love.

March 3

What does God say to us? He says: "I have called you by your name, you are mine; water will not drown you, fire will not burn you, I will give up nations for you, you are precious to me, I love you. Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand." So also, the people who come in contact with you are precious to Him. Help them to grow in holiness because holiness is not a luxury reserved for a few. It is simple duty for you and for me and for all.

March 2

How do we begin that love, that peace and hope? The family that prays together stays together; and if we stay together, naturally we will love one another and want each other. I feel today we need to bring prayer back. Teach your children to pray and pray with them

March 1

God has created us to love and to be loved, and this is the beginning of prayer - to know that he loves me, to know that I have been created for greater things.

February 28

When the time comes and we can't pray, it is very simple: "If Jesus is in my heart let him pray, let me allow him to pray in me, to talk to his Father in the silence of my heart. If I cannot speak, he will speak for me; if I cannot pray, he will pray. That's why we say: "Jesus in my heart, I believe in your faithful love for me."

February 27

One day a lady came to me dressed in a very rich sari. She told me: "Mother, I want to share in your work." I prayed for a moment to get the right answer to give her about sharing in my work. And I told her: "I would begin with the sari. You start buying a cheaper sari each month, and the money you save, you bring it to me for the poor." So she started buying cheaper saris and she said it changed her life. She has really understood sharing. And she told me that she has received much more than she has given.

February 26

You and I have been created for greater things. We have not been created to just pass through this life without aim. And that greater aim is to live and be loved and we cannot love unless we know. Knowledge always leads to love and to love to service.

February 25

Prayer: Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted; to understand rather than be understood; to love rather than be loved, for it is by forgetting self that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Amen.

February 24

Let us pray and try to live the prayer for peace of St.Francis of Assisi and make it our own: Lord make me an instrument of your peace, where there is hatred, I may bring love, where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; where where is discord, I may bring harmony; where there is error, I may bring truth; where there is doubt, I may bring faith; where there is despair, I may bring hope. Where there are shadows, I may bring light; where there is sadness I may bring joy.

February 23

All works of love are works of peace. We do not need bombs and guns to bring peace, we need love and compassion. But we also need that deep union with God, prayer. We who have been gathered here for the sake of learning what is peace so as to give it to others, let us learn, let us understand that unless we are full of God, we cannot give that love, we cannot give that peace to others and we will not have peace in the world.

February 22

I do not think I have any special qualities. I don't claim anything for the work. It is His work. I am like a little pencil in His hand, that is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used by God.

February 21

Gandhiji loved his people as God loved him and one of the most beautiful things that struck me about him was his non-violence and also his comparing the poor with the service of love for God. He said: "He who serves the poor serves God." Gandhiji's non-violence, I understand, is not only not using guns and bombs. It is the love and peace and compassion in our own homes first. This is what spreads non-violence outside the home, if we have that love, if we have that compassion for each other. Jesus Christ said again and again: "Love one another as I have loved you."

February 20

Once a beggar came to me and said: "Everybody is giving you something. I also want to give you something." And he offered me a ten-paisa coin. If I accepted the money, he would go hungry, but it I didn't, he would be unhappy. I accepted it. And I felt within me, that his gift was greater than the Nobel Prize because he gave all that he had. I could see in his face the joy of giving.

February 19

In Calcutta, there are visible homes for the dying. In other countries, many of the young are in homes for the dying which are invisible, but none the less real. Speaking of the parable of the prodigal son, a boy in New York told me, "In my family it is not the son who left us - it's the father." There are parents who, although they take care of material needs, are in fact totally absent in the eyes of their children.

February 18

God is purity himself; nothing impure can come before Him. I don't think God can hate, because God is love and He loves us in spite of our misery and sinfulness. He is a loving Father and we have only to turn to Him. God cannot hate; God loves because He is love, but impurity is an obstacle to seeing God.

February 17

Don't search for Jesus in far lands - He is not there. He is close to you. He is with you. Just keep the lamp burning and you will always see Him. Keep on filling the lamp with all these little drops of love, and you will see how sweet is the Lord you love.

February 16

People today are hungry for love, which is the only answer to loneliness and great poverty. In some countries there is no hunger for bread. But people are suffering from terrible loneliness, terrible despair, terrible hatred, feeling unwanted, helpless, hopeless. They have forgotten how to smile, they have forgotten the beauty of the human touch. They are forgetting what is human love. They need someone who will understand and respect them.

February 15

Holiness is the acceptance of the will of God. Holiness is not a luxury of the few. It is not meant for some people only. It is meant for you and for me. It is a simple duty. Because you learn to love, you learn to be holy, and to be able to love, you must pray. My progress in holiness depends on God and myself.

February 14

In the face of all difficulties, doubts and objections, trust in Him. He will not let you down. If God does not grant the means, that shows He does not want you to do that particular work. If He wants it done, He will give you the means. Therefore, do not worry.

February 13

I take the Lord at His word. Faith is a gift of God. Without it there would be no life. And our work, to be fruitful and beautiful, has to be built on faith. Love and faith go together. They complete each other.

February 12

For parents: "Vast regions of the world are covered by spiritual deserts. There you will find young people marked by human abandonment, the result of broken relationships which affect them to their very depths. Even when they are thirsting for a spiritual life, many of the young are afflicted by doubt. They are unable to place their confidence in God, to believe, since they have not found confidence in those to whom life had entrusted them. Separations have wounded the innocence of their childhood or adolescence. The consequences are scepticism and discouragement. What's the use of living? Does life still have any meaning?

February 11

Every day I have to sign so many letters and sometimes I am very tired. So I have made a contract with Jesus: "God bless you. Mother Teresa MC" are twenty-tive letters, so I offer twenty-five acts of love for that person to whom the letter is addressed.

February 10

The quickest and the surest way towards thoughtfulness is the tongue - use it for the good of others. If you think well of others, you will also speak well of others. Violence of the tongue is very real - sharper than any knife, wounding and creating bitterness that only the grace of God can heal.

February 9

I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: "My son did this to me." I begged her: "You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to maker her say: "I forgive my son." Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand.

February 8

Once you know you have hurt someone be the first to say sorry. We cannot forgive unless we know that we need forgiveness, and forgiveness is the beginning of love.

February 7

Do we believe that God's love is infinitely powerful, His mercy more tender than the evil of sin, than all the hatred, conflicts and tensions that are dividing the world? Than the most powerful bombs and guns ever made by human hands and minds?

February 6

A cheerful giver is a great giver. Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous, mortified person, who forgetting all things, even herself, tries to please her God in all she does. It is often a cloak which hides a life of sacrifice, a continual union with God.

February 5

There was the man we picked up from the drain, half eaten by worms and, after we had brought him to the Home for the dying in Kalighat, he only said; "I have lived like an animal, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and cared for." Then, after we removed all the worms from his body, all he said, with a big smile, was: "Sister, I'm going home to God," and he died. It was so wonderful to see the greatness of a man who could speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything. This is the greatness of people who are spiritually rich even when they are materially poor.

February 4

To doctors: I have a special love for doctors. Yours is not only a profession but a vocation - the vocation to be God's love. God's compassion, God's healing power to the suffering. God has chosen you for a special mission. Being a doctor means going out and touching God in each of the suffering, whether it be the rich or the poor, for sickness strikes all.

February 3

You can pray while you work. Work doesn't stop prayer and prayer doesn't stop work. It requires only that small raising of the mind to him: I love you God, I trust you, I believe in you, I need you now. Small things like that. They are wonderful prayers.

February 2

Love cannot remain by itself - it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service. A mission of love can come only from union with God. From that union, love for the family, love for one's neighbor, love for the poor is the natural fruit.

February 1

God loves you. Love one another as He loves you. Love is sharing, love is giving the best we have. We are carriers of God's love and whoever you are, you can become one also.

January 31

Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. He gives most who gives with joy. If in your work you have difficulties accept them with joy, with a big smile. The best way to show your gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy.

January 30

Once we take our eyes away from ourselves, from our interests, from our own rights, privileges, ambitions - then they will become clear to see Jesus around us.

January 29

It is easy to smile at people outside your own home. It is so easy to take care of the people that you don't know well. It is difficult to be thoughtful and kind and to smile and be loving to your own in the house day after day, especially when we are tired and in a bad temper or bad mood. We all have these moments and that is the time that Christ comes to us in a distressing disguise.

January 28

We have small 'listening groups' of co-workers who go to the homes of old people and sit down with them and let them talk. Very old people love to have somebody listen to them and let them talk, even if they have to tell the story of thirty years ago. To listen, when nobody else wants to listen, is a very beautiful thing.

January 27

The very fact that God has placed a certain soul in our way is a sign that God wants us to do something for him or her. It is not chance; it has been planned by God. We are bound by conscience to help him or her.

January 26

When we have nothing to give, let us give Him that nothingness. Let us all remain as empty as possible, so that God can fill us. Even God cannot fill what is already full. God won't force Himself on us. You are filling the world with the love God has given you.

January 25

Please don't kill the child. I want the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and give him or her to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. At our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adoptive parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.

January 24

Don't neglect your family. Be at home. If today so many young people are misled, it is because the grandparents are in some institution, mother is os busy that she is not there when the child comes home from school. There is nobody to receive them or play with them and they go back into the street where there are drugs and drinks and so many other things. It is the same everywhere. Everything depends on how much we love one another.

January 23

Humility always radiates the greatness and glory of God. Through humility we grow in love. Humility is the beginning of sanctity.

January 22

Nowadays, young people especially, want to see. You speak of love, you speak of prayer. They want to know how you love and how you pray, and what compassion means to you. That is how they judge. How you really live the life of a co-worker, a carrier of God's love.

January 21

Let us beg from our Lady to make our hearts 'meek and humble' like her Son's was. We learn humility through accepting humiliations cheerfully. Do not let a chance pass you by. It is easy to be proud, harsh, moody and selfish, but we have been created for greater things. Why stoop down to things that will spoil the beauty of our hearts?

January 20

To teachers: Do not neglect the weaker children. Consider the problems of the slow-witted, the dropouts - what will they become in society, if you do not look after them? Among the poor we have the rich poor - children who are better gifted. The rich poor child can still have a place but it is the child who is so dull, stupid, hungry that I must work for.

January 19

There is much suffering in the world - physical, material, mental. The suffering of some can be blamed on the greed of others. The material and physical suffering is suffering from hunger, from homelessness, from all kinds of diseases. But the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, having no one. I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.

January 18

To doctors: Have you experienced the joy of loving? You can do that as doctors. You have a beautiful opportunity when the sick come to you with great trust and confidence not only to receive a few tablets from you but to receive your tender love and care and especially when you have to make a sacrifice to look after the poor. Jesus said; 'Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me."

January 17

God dwells in us. It doesn't matter where you are as long as you are clean of heart. Clean of heart means openness, that complete freedom, that detachment that allows you to love God without hindrance, without obstacles. When sin comes into our lives that is a personal obstacle between us and God. Sin is nothing but slavery.

January 16

There are sick and crippled people who cannot do anything to share in the work. So they adopt a Sister of a Brother, who then involves the sick co-worker fully in whatever he or she does. The two become like one person, and they call each other their second self. I have a second self in Belgium, and when I was last there, she said to me, "I am sure you are going to have a heavy time, with all the walking and working and talking. I know this from the pain I have in my spine." That was just before her seventeenth operation. Each time I have something special to do, it is she behind me that gives me all the strength and courage to do it.

January 15

In Minneapolis, a woman in a wheelchair, suffering continuous convulsions from cerebral palsy asked me what people like her could do for others. I told her: You can do the most. You can do more than any of us because your suffering is united with the suffering of Christ on the Cross and it brings strength to all of us. There is a tremendous strength that is growing in the world through this continual sharing, praying together, suffering together and working together.

January 14

Let us not be afraid to be humble, small, helpless to prove our love for God. The cup of water you give the sick, the way you lift a dying man, they way you feed a baby, the way you teach a dull child, they way you give medicine to a sufferer of leprosy, the joy with which you smile at your own at home - all this is God's love in the world today.

January 13

I believe God loves the world through us - through you and through me. We use Mother Teresa's name; it i only a name, but we are real co-workers and carriers of His love. Today God loves the world through us. Especially in times like these when people are trying to make God 'was', it is you and I, by our love, by the purity of our lives, by our compassion, who prove to the world that God 'is.'

January 12

Try to put in the hearts of your children a love for home. Make them long to be with their families. So much sin could be avoided if our people really loved their homes.

January 11

Have a deep compassion for people. To be ale to have a heart full of compassion we need to pray. Especially be kind, be loving to the poor. We think we do so much for the poor, but it is they who make us rich. We are in debt to them. Do you want something beautiful for God? There is a person who needs you. This is your chance.

January 10

To students: I pray that all those young people who have graduated, do not carry just a piece of paper with them but that they carry with them love, peace and joy. That they become the sunshine of God's love to our people, the hope of eternal happiness and the burning flame of love wherever they go. That they become carriers of God's love. That they be able to give what they have received. For they have received not to keep but to share.

January 9

It is simple yet so beautiful. Is this prayer fitting me? Can I say this prayer with an open heart, with a clean heart? Everything is there: God, myself, my neighbor. If I forgive them I can pray. There are no complications and yet we complicate our lives so much, by so many additions.

January 8

How do we learn to pray? When Jesus was asked by His disciples how to pray, He did not teach them any methods or techniques. He sai that we should speak to God as to our Father, a loving Father. Let us say this prayer and live it: Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.

Exposition of the Lord's Prayer by St.Francis of Assisi

January 7

Everything starts from prayer. Without asking God for love, we cannot possess love and still less are we able to give it to others. Just as people today are speaking so much about the poor but they do not know or talk to the poor, we too cannot talk so much about prayer and yet not know how to pray.

January 6

Sometime ago, a woman came with her child to me and said: "Mother, I went to two or three places to beg for food, for we have not eaten for three days but they told me that I was young and I should work and earn my living. No one gave me anything." I went to get some food for her and by the time I returned, the baby in her arms had died of hunger.

January 5

Charity begins today. Today somebody is suffering, today somebody is in the street, today somebody is hungry. Our work is for today, yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today to make Jesus known, loved, served, fed, clothed, sheltered. Do not wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow we will not have them if we do not feed them today.

January 4

It is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise there is no tru love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.

January 3

It is not enough for us to say: 'I love God.' I also have to love my neighbor. In the Scriptures, St.John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you do not love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if ou do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And he uses a very big word. 'You are a liar.' It is one of those words that is frightening to read, and yet it is really true.

January 2

Lord give me this seeing faith, then my work will never be monotonous. I will find joy in humouring the fancies and gratifying the wishes of all poor sufferers. O beloved sick, how doubly dear you are to me, when you personify Christ; and what a privilege is mine to be allowed to tend you.

January 1

Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet especially your family. Be holy - let us pray.