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.