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Msgr. Esseff reflects on Blessed Mother Teresa whom he met in 1984 in Beruit, Lebanon. Msgr. Esseff worked alongside Blessed Mother Teresa in Calcutta, Lebanon, West Africa, Haiti and elsewhere and would go on to serve as a spiritual director and confessor for Mother Teresa and her sisters.  (The last few minutes of the reflection are particularly poignant)

Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website “Building A Kingdom of Love”

There is an endless collection of reflections on the life, teachings, and work of  Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta…all wonderful and worth exploration.  One however stands out for me, and that is the writings of Fr. Joseph Langford, co-founder with Mother Teresa of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers.  In particular, “Mother Teresa:  In the Shadow of Our Lady”

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Join Bruce and I as we talk with Fr. Langford about Mother Teresa and Our Lady

“Stay very close to Our Lady. If you do this, you can do great things for God and the good of people.” –Mother Teresa of Calcutta

As it was for Mother Teresa, so it can be for the rest of us. By standing close to Our Lady we can find the grace and courage to overcome our own personal trials and crosses. Summon the same powerful presence and aid of Our Lady by following the example of Mother Teresa. From dawn to dusk, decade to decade, Mother Teresa’s life had been spent, in every sense of the word, in the shadow of Our Lady. Our Lady helps us, as Mother Teresa found in her vision, to become contemplatives at the foot of the cross–to discover God’s presence and love, even in the midst of our trials and dark nights. Nothing was impossible for Mother Teresa while she clung to Our Lady, and as Mother Teresa tells us, “nothing is impossible for all who call Mary mother.”

“Sitting with Mother Teresa, watching her tend to the sick and the dying, feeling the aura of holiness around her person, seeing her bent in prayer, lost in God–how often I asked myself if I was not seeing something of Our Lady, experiencing a glimpse of the Virgin of Nazareth” –-Author and co-founder of Mother Teresa’s priests’ community, Joseph Langford, MC

 

This is a very special book, check it out!

On this the feast day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:

The Fruit of Prayer
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.

If We Pray
If we pray, we will believe;
If we believe, we will love
If we love, we will serve.

Love to pray
Feel often during the day the need for prayer and pray.
Prayer opens the heart, till it is capable of containing God himself.
Ask and seek and your heart will be big enough to receive Him
and keep Him as Your Own.

Ninth Day – Holiness is Jesus Living and Acting in Me

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Thought for the day:
“Charity for each other is the surest way to great holiness.”

Ask for the grace to become a saint.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

Eighth Day – Jesus Made Himself the Bread of Life and the Hungry One

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Thought for the day:
“Believe that He, Jesus, is in the appearance of Bread and that He, Jesus, is in the hungry, naked, sick, lonely, unloved, homeless, helpless and hopeless.”

Ask for the grace of a deep faith to see Jesus in the Bread of Life and to serve Him in the distressing disguise of the poor.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

Seventh Day – God Loves a Cheerful Giver

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Thought for the day:
“Joy is the sign of union with God, of God’s presence.  Joy is love, the normal result of a heart burning with love.”

Ask for the grace to find joy in loving and to share this joy with all you meet.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

Sixth Day – True Love is Surrender

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Thought for the day:
“Allow God to use you without consulting you.”

Ask for the grace to surrender your whole life to God.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

Fifth Day – Trust Jesus Blindly

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Thought for the day:
“Confidence in God can do all things. It is our emptiness and lowliness that God needs and not our plenitude’”

Ask for the grace to have an unshakeable trust in  God’s power and love for you and for all.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

Fourth Day – Our Lady Will Help You

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Thought for the day:
“How close we must keep to Our Lady who understood what depth of Divine Love was being revealed as she stood at the foot of the Cross and heard Jesus cry out: ‘I thirst.’”

Ask for the grace to learn from Our Lady to quench Jesus’ thirst as she did.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

First Day – Know the Living Jesus

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Thought for the day:
“Don’t search for Jesus in far lands; He is not there. He is close to you; He is in you.”

Ask for the grace of an intimate knowledge of Jesus.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

text © Missionaries of Charity

Show 4 ” Building a Kingdom of Love” – The Power of Baptism: a story of Bl. Mother Teresa, a princess, and a baby named Cecilia