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.