Women of Mystery Women of Hope

Hat tip to Emily.

"Sister Prema, whose name means love, is the new superior of the Sisters of Mother Teresa"

From AsiaNews

Kolkata (AsiaNews) – In Sanskrit “Prema means love,” love that is pure and holy, a name that befits the new superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, Brother Paul told AsiaNews. The 41-year-old British priest is a member of the male branch of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious congregation founded by Mother Teresa.
Sister Prema met the Blessed for the first time in 1980, in Berlin, after reading Something Beautiful for God, a book by BBC journalist Malcolm Muggeridge who wrote about his meeting with Mother Teresa in 1969 when he was making a documentary on the nun from Kolkata that would make her known worldwide.

“I know Sister Prema. She is a visionary, a deeply spiritual person with an implicit trust in God. She has a clear understanding of her mission, with the charism of the Missionaries of Charity implanted in her heart, to serve Jesus by serving the poorest of the poor,” said Brother Paul who has been posted for the past seven years in the Shanti Bhavan, or House of Peace, in Kolkata.

The general chapter of the Missionaries of Charity held in Dum Dum picked the German-born nun to replace Indian-born Sister Nirmala Joshi as the head of the congregation to reflect its international reach, which now includes some 4,500 nuns in 133 countries.

Mgr Lucas Sircar, archbishop of Kolkata, said that Sister Prema was elected on the first round of voting, getting more than two thirds of the votes cast by 163 delegates.

For Brother Paul the new superior general’s country of origin does not represent any change since “God looks not at nationalities, but at hearts.”

Sister Prema’s task now is “to guide the Missionaries of Charity towards the holiness of our Blessed Mother Teresa.”

"German Elected to Lead Missionaries of Charity"

From ZENIT

Mother Teresa's Successor Steps Down

CALCUTTA, MARCH 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- German Sister Mary Prema was elected as superior-general of the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation founded by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

The Union of Catholic Asian News reported today that the election took place during the congregation's general chapter, which ended today in Calcutta.

Sister Mary Prema succeeds Sister Nirmala Joshi, who has headed the congregation since the founder's death in 1997.

Sister Nirmala was re-elected for the third time, but UCAN cited sources inside the congregation that revealed she requested to be relieved of her obligations for health reasons, and because she wanted to dedicate herself to a more contemplative life within the Missionaries of Charity.

Some 163 sisters voted at the general chapter, of whom 74 are of Indian origin and the rest are from other countries of the world.

Spiritual exercises

The outgoing superior, Sister Nirmala, was invited to preach spiritual exercises to directors of Asia's diocesan Caritas chapters at a meeting planned for this September in Taipei, Taiwan.

The meeting is being organized by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the dicastery responsible for coordinating the charitable activities of the Catholic Church, which already convoked a similar meeting for Latin America in Guadalajara, Mexico, in June 2008.

Sources of the dicastery confirmed to ZENIT that Sister Nirmala has not declined this invitation, and will honor the commitment to preach the spiritual exercises, together with other prelates of the Asian continent.

"German Nun to Lead Missionaries of Charity"

From Earth Times

New Delhi - German-born Sister Mary Prema has been elected the new head of the Missionaries of Charity, a congregation founded by Mother Teresa in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, a spokeswoman for the order said Thursday. The appointment has to be ratified by the Vatican.

"Sister Mary will be reaching Mother House [the global headquarters of the order in Kolkata] on Friday," said Sister Christie, spokeswoman for the Missionaries of Charity. "We will be able to give more details only after she is here."

The congregation's general chapter elected Sister Mary Prema as superior general Tuesday, Sister Christie said.

Sister Mary Prema, 55, was born as Mechtild Pierick in Recken in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia state.

She joined Mother Teresa's order at the age of 27 and has since been a member of the congregation, serving in Rome and Nepal among other places.

Known to be close to Mother Teresa, the low-profile Sister Mary Prema is one of the seniormost nuns of the order.

She was chosen as one of the four leaders to lead the congregation at the general chapter held in 2003. The order holds a general chapter every six years to evaluate the functioning of the congregation.

The 2009 general chapter elected her to lead the order after current superior general Sister Nirmala said she wanted to dedicate herself to a more contemplative life within the Missionaries of Charity, the Union of Catholic News website reported.

Sister Nirmala, 74, has headed the Missionaries of Charity since Mother Teresa's death in 1997.

A total of 163 nuns voted at the general chapter to choose Sister Mary Prema to take over as the new leader, the Union of Catholic Asian News reported.

Seventy-four of the nuns were from India and the rest were from the more than 130 countries where the order has branches.

Albania-born Mother Teresa lived and worked in Kolkata for more than 45 years ministering to the sick, dying and orphans. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Kolkata in 2003.

The Missionaries of Charity now has more than 4,000 nuns as part of the order and runs more than 700 branches round the world.

Sister Nirmala Meets Orissa Chief Minister, Prays With Him For Peace

From the Union of Catholic Asia News

BHUBANESWAR, India (UCAN) -- The head of the Missionaries of Charity congregation met the chief minister of Orissa on Oct. 7 to express the Church's concern over anti-Christian violence in the eastern Indian state.

Sister Nirmala Joshi, who succeeded Blessed Teresa of Calcutta as congregational leader, told UCA News on Oct. 8 their "cordial" meeting ended with both praying together for peace in the state.

The diminutive nun met Naveen Patnaik, who heads Orissa's two-party coalition government, and presented him a letter explaining the Church's concern over the six-week-long Hindu violence against Christians in the state.

At the end, Patnaik, Sister Nirmala and local Missionaries of Charity superior Sister Suma prayed together Saint Francis of Assisi's famous prayer, "Lord make me a channel of your peace."

The meeting took place inside the chief minister's office in the state capital of Bhubaneswar, 1,745 kilometers southeast of New Delhi. Sister Nirmala's letter thanked the chief minister for the "strong action" he has taken in the past few days to check the violence.

According to sources in Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese, the situation in the state is "better now," with no violence having been reported since Oct. 3. The violence began after the murder of a Hindu leader on Aug. 23 and has claimed at least 52 lives to date.

Hindu extremists have also burned down around 4,500 houses and 100 churches. The most-affected area is Kandhamal district, where the slain Hindu leader was based. Some 50,000 Christians have been driven from their homes there and hundreds were forced to convert to Hinduism.

Sister Nirmala's letter said it was "sad to see" innocent people being attacked and forced to live without their religious freedom. Such acts degrade Hinduism, which respects all religions, remarked the nun, a Hindu convert to Catholicism.

Her letter said she wanted the chief minister to continue taking "strong actions" to help restore peace and normalcy in the state, particularly in Kandhamal.

Meanwhile, the state police reported they have arrested 1,000 troublemakers from the affected areas. They also claimed to have arrested five people who were in a mob that attacked a Catholic priest and nun on Aug. 25, as well as the man who raped the 28-year-old nun.

Sister Nirmala told UCA News she was glad the administration has started taking "strong action" and expected such measures to continue and help build confidence among people so they can go back to their villages from relief camps.

An estimated 25,000 people now live in 17 relief camps, including one Sister Nirmala's nuns run about 20 kilometers from Bhubaneswar. Almost an equal number of people reportedly live scattered in city slums and with relatives elsewhere, archdiocesan sources said.

Sister Nirmala's letter brought to the chief minister's notice that the camp dwellers live without the chance to practice their faith, and she stressed the need for them to be able to return to their villages.

Meanwhile, a group of some 40 riot-affected people met Orissa Governor M.C. Bhandare on Oct. 7. State opposition leader J.B. Patnaik led them, demanding a high-level probe into the sectarian violence. The governor represents the Indian president in a state.

They reportedly dismissed the state's claim that affected people have started to return to villages from the relief camps. People leave relief camps, they acknowledged, but go to distant places because they do not feel safe in the villages.

Interview with Mother Teresa

This is an excerpt of one of the last interviews with Mother Teresa conducted by Edward W. Desmond in 1989 for Time magazine. Excerpts from the interview appeared in Time magazine and the full text of the interview appeared in The National Catholic Register.

Time: What did you do this morning?

Mother Teresa: Pray.

Time: When did you start?

Mother Teresa: Half-past four

Time: And after prayer

Mother Teresa: We try to pray through our work by doing it with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us to put our whole heart and soul into doing it. The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved they are Jesus in disguise.

Time: People know you as a sort of religious social worker. Do they understand the spiritual basis of your work?

Mother Teresa: I don’t know. But I give them a chance to come and touch the poor. Everybody has to experience that. So many young people give up everything to do just that. This is something so completely unbelievable in the world, no? And yet it is wonderful. Our volunteers go back different people.

Time: Does the fact that you are a woman make your message more understandable?

Mother Teresa: I never think like that.

Time: But don’t you think the world responds better to a mother?

Mother Teresa: People are responding not because of me, but because of what we’re doing. Before, people were speaking much about the poor, but now more and more people are speaking to the poor. That’s the great difference. The work has created this. The presence of the poor is known now, especially the poorest of the poor, the unwanted, the loved, the uncared-for. Before, nobody bothered about the people in the street. We have picked up from the streets of Calcutta 54,000 people, and 23,000 something have died in that one room [at Kalighat].

Time: Why have you been so successful?

Mother Teresa: Jesus made Himself the bread of life to give us life. That’s where we begin the day, with Mass. And we end the day with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I don’t think that I could do this work for even one week if I didn’t have four hours of prayer every day.

Time: Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God’s grace in the world.

Mother Teresa: But it is His work. I think God wants to show His greatness by using nothingness.

Time: You are nothingness?

Mother Teresa: I’m very sure of that.

Time: You feel you have no special qualities?

Mother Teresa: I don’t think so. I don’t claim anything of the work. It’s His work. I’m like a little pencil in His hand. That’s all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used. In human terms, the success of our work should not have happened, no? That is a sign that it’s His work, and that He is using others as instruments - all our Sisters. None of us could produce this. Yet see what He has done.

Time: What is God’s greatest gift to you?

Mother Teresa: The poor people.

Time: How are they a gift?

Mother Teresa: I have an opportunity to be with Jesus 24 hours a day.

Time: Here in Calcutta, have you created a real change?

Mother Teresa: I think so. People are aware of the presence and also many, many, many Hindu people share with us. They come and feed the people and they serve the people. Now we never see a person lying there in the street dying. It has created a worldwide awareness of the poor.

Time: Beyond showing the poor to the world, have you conveyed any message about how to work with the poor?

Mother Teresa: You must make them feel loved and wanted. They are Jesus for me. I believe in that much more than doing big things for them.

Time: What’s your greatest hope here in India?

Mother Teresa: To give Jesus to all.

Time: But you do not evangelize in the conventional sense of the term.

Mother Teresa: I’m evangelizing by my works of love.

Time: Is that the best way?

Mother Teresa: For us, yes. For somebody else, something else. I’m evangelizing the way God wants me to. Jesus said go and preach to all the nations. We are now in so many nations preaching the Gospel by our works of love. “By the love that you have for one another will they know you are my disciples.” That’s the preaching that we are doing, and I think that is more real.

Time: Friends of yours say that you are disappointed that your work has not brought more conversions in this great Hindu nation.

Mother Teresa: Missionaries don’t think of that. They only want to proclaim the Word of God. Numbers have nothing to do with it. But the people are putting prayer into action by coming and serving the people. Continually people are coming to feed and serve, so many, you go and see. Everywhere people are helping. We don’t know the future. But the door is already open to Christ. There may not be a big conversion like that, but we don’t know what is happening in the soul.

Time: What do you think of Hinduism?

Mother Teresa: I love all religions, but I am in love with my own. No discussion. That’s what we have to prove to them. Seeing what I do, they realize that I am in love with Jesus.

Time: And they should love Jesus too?

Mother Teresa: Naturally, if they want peace, if they want joy, let them find Jesus. If people become better Hindus, better Moslems, 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.

Time: You and John Paul II, among other Church leaders, have spoken out against certain lifestyles in the West, against materialism and abortion. How alarmed are you?

Mother Teresa: I always say one thing: If a mother can kill her own child, then what is left of the West to be destroyed? It is difficult to explain , but it is just that.

Time: When you spoke at Harvard University a few years ago, you said abortion was a great evil and people booed. What did you think when people booed you?

Mother Teresa: I offered it to our Lord. It’s all for Him, no? I let Him say what He wants.

Time: But these people who booed you would say that they also only want the best for women?

Mother Teresa: That may be. But we must tell the truth.

Time: And that is?

Mother Teresa: We have no right to kill. Thou shalt not kill, a commandment of God. And still should we kill the helpless one, the little one? You see we get so excited because people are throwing bombs and so many are being killed. For the grown ups, there is so much excitement in the world. But that little one in the womb, not even a sound? He cannot even escape. That child is the poorest of the poor.

Time: Is materialism in the West an equally serious problem?

Mother Teresa: I don’t know. I have so many things to think about. I pray lots about that, but I am not occupied by that. Take our congregation for example, we have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not a mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. This is the only fan in the whole house. It doesn’t matter how hot it is, and it is for the guests. But we are perfectly happy.

Time: How do you find rich people then?

Mother Teresa: I find the rich much poorer. Sometimes they are more lonely inside. They are never satisfied. They always need something more. I don’t say all of them are like that. Everybody is not the same. I find that poverty hard to remove. The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.

Time: What is the saddest place you’ve ever visited?

Mother Teresa: I don’t know. I can’t remember. It’s a sad thing to see people suffer., especially the broken family, unloved, uncared for. It’s a big sadness; it’s always the children who suffer most when there is no love in the family. That’s a terrible suffering. Very difficult because you can do nothing. That is the great poverty. You feel helpless. But if you pick up a person dying of hunger, you give him food and it is finished.

Time: Why has your order grown so quickly?

Mother Teresa: When I as young people why they want to join us, they say they want the life of prayer, the life of poverty and the life of service to the poorest of the poor. One very rich girl wrote to me and said for a very long time she had been longing to become a nun. When she met us, she said I won’t have to give up anything even if I give up everything. You see, that is the mentality of the young today. We have many vocations.

Time: There’s been some criticism of the very severe regimen under which you and your Sisters live.

Mother Teresa: We chose that. That is the difference between us and the poor. Because what will bring us closer to our poor people? How can we be truthful to them if we lead a different life? If we have everything possible that money can give, that the world can give, then what is our connection to the poor? What language will I speak to them? Now if the people tell me it is so hot, I can say you come and see my room.

Time: Just as hot?

Mother Teresa: Much hotter even, because there is a kitchen underneath. A man came and stayed here as a cook at the children’s home. He was rich before and became very poor. Lost everything. He came and said, “Mother Teresa, I cannot eat that food.” I said, “I am eating it every day.” He looked at me and said, “You eat it too? All right, I will eat it also.” And he left perfectly happy. Now if I could not tell him the truth, that man would have remained bitter. He would never have accepted his poverty. He would never have accepted to have that food when he was used to other kinds of food. That helped him to forgive, to forget.

Time: What’s the most joyful place that you have ever visited?

Mother Teresa: Kalighat. When the people die in peace, in the love of God, it is a wonderful thing. To see our poor people happy together with their families, these are beautiful things. The real poor know what is joy.

Time: There are people who would say that it’s an illusion to think of the poor as joyous, that they must be given housing, raised up.

Mother Teresa: The material is not the only thing that gives joy. Something greater than that, the deep sense of peace in the heart. They are content. That is the great difference between rich and poor.

Time: But what about those people who are oppressed? Who are taken advantage of?

Mother Teresa: There will always be people like that. That is why we must come and share the joy of loving with them.

Time: Should the Church’s role be just to make the poor as joyous in Christ as they can be made?

Mother Teresa: You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me. Clear.

Time: If you speak to a political leader who could do more for his people, do you tell him that he must do better?

Mother Teresa: I don’t say it like that. I say share the joy of loving with your people. Because a politician maybe cannot do the feeding as I do. But he should be clear in his mind to give proper rules and proper regulations to help his people.

Time: It is my job to keep politicians honest, and your job to share joy with the poor.

Mother Teresa: Exactly. And it is to be for the good of the people and the glory of God. This will be really fruitful. Like a man says to me that you are spoiling the people by giving them fish to eat. You have to give them a rod to catch the fish. And I said my people cannot even stand, still less hold a rod. But I will give them the fish to eat, and when they are strong enough, I will hand them over to you. And you give them the rod to catch the fish. That is a beautiful combination, no?

Time: Feminist Catholic nuns sometimes say that you should pour your energy into getting the Vatican to ordain women.

Mother Teresa: That does not touch me.

Time: What do you think of the feminist movement among nuns in the West?

Mother Teresa: I think we should be more busy with our Lord than with all that, more busy with Jesus and proclaiming His Word. What a woman can give, no man can give. That is why God has created them separately. Nuns, women, any woman. Woman is created to be the heart of the family, the heart of love. If we miss that, we miss everything. They give that love in the family or they give it in service, that is what their creation is for.

Time: The world wants to know more about you.

Mother Teresa: No, no. Let them come to know the poor. I want them to love the poor. I want them to try to find the poor in their own families first, to bring peace and joy and love in the family first.

Time: Malcolm Muggeridge once said that if you had not become a Sister and not found Christ’s love, you would be a very hard woman. Do you think that is true?

Mother Teresa: I don’t know. I have no time to think about these things.

Time: People who work with you say that you are unstoppable. You always get what you want.

Mother Teresa: That’s right. All for Jesus.

Time: And if they have a problem with that?

Mother Teresa: For example, I went to a person recently who would not give me what I needed. I said God bless you, and I went on. He called me back and said what would you say if I give you that thing. I said I will give you a “God bless you” and a big smile. That is all. So he said then come, I will give it to you. We must live the simplicity of the Gospel.

Time: You once met Haile Mariam Mengistu, the much feared communist leader of Ethiopia and an avowed atheist. You asked him if he said his prayers. Why did you risk that?

Mother Teresa: He is one more child of God. When I went to China, one of the top officials asked me, “What is a communist to you?” I said, “A child of God.” Then the next morning the newspapers reported that Mother Teresa said communists are children of God. I was happy because after a long, long time the name God was printed in the papers in China. Beautiful.

Time: Are you ever been afraid?

Mother Teresa: No, I am only afraid of offending God. We are all human beings, that is our weakness, no? The devil would do anything to destroy us, to take us away from Jesus.

Time: Where do you see the devil at work?

Mother Teresa: Everywhere. When a person is longing to come closer to God he puts temptation in the way to destroy the desire. Sin comes everywhere, in the best of places.

Time: What is your greatest fear?

Mother Teresa: I have Jesus, I have no fear.

Time: What is your greatest disappointment?

Mother Teresa: I do the will of God, no? In doing the will of God there is no disappointment.

Time: Do your work and spiritual life become easier with time?

Mother Teresa: Yes, the closer we come to Jesus, the more we become the work. Because you know to whom you are doing it, with whom you are doing it and for whom you are doing it. That is very clear. That is why we need a clean heart to see God.

Time: What are your plans for the future?

Mother Teresa: I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus.

Time: And the future of the order?

Mother Teresa: It is His concern.

"Indian bishops demand police take action against nuns' attackers"

By Catholic News Service

NEW DELHI (CNS) -- The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India is demanding police officials take action against people who attacked Missionaries of Charity nuns in central India.

On Sept. 5, about 300 Hindu fundamentalists barged into a train coach and took four infants from two Missionaries of Charity nuns and two helpers, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. The nuns from Raipur were taking the babies, all younger than two months, to an orphanage their congregation operates with a government license in Indore, about 500 miles south of New Delhi.

Divine Word Father Babu Joseph, spokesman for the bishops, called the attack "heinous" and "most contemptible." In a Sept. 6 statement, he appealed to law-enforcement agencies to "take stringent action against the perpetrators of crimes against the hapless religious women who have given their life for the sake of the most unfortunate ones in society."

"It is most regrettable," he added, "that organizations that claim to represent Hindu interests show utter insensitivity toward those whose services are received by members of their own community."

Sister Mamata, one of the Missionaries of Charity nuns, recounted the incident to UCA News Sept. 8, saying that Hindu extremists entered their coach at Durg, about 25 miles into the journey.

The intruders shouted anti-Christian slogans and forced the nuns off the coach, she said. Some women among the extremists snatched the babies while others verbally abused Christian missionaries in general for converting the poor under the pretext of service, she said.

Police took the nuns, their helpers and the Hindu extremists to their office at the railway station. Sister Mamata said the police and Hindus had closed-door talks, while the police denied the nuns permission to use the station's telephone to seek assistance. She said the radicals forcibly took the adoption papers from the nuns, alleging they were false.

Someone who happened to arrive at the station allowed the nuns to use his cell phone to contact the Raipur archbishop's residence. Priests at the residence informed a Missionaries of Charity convent in Bhilai, and two nuns came to help their colleagues.

However, the Hindu radicals beat up one of the Bhilai nuns and their driver and deflated their vehicle's tires before police intervened, Sister Mamata said.

She said that even while the nuns were under police protection the Hindu extremists continued to abuse them.

"They even threatened to kill us, saying, 'This is your last journey,'" Sister Mamata recalled. She said the police kept the nuns and their helpers in custody and returned the sisters to the respective convents in Bhilai and Raipur by 3 a.m.

The infants were reportedly admitted to a government hospital in Durg, Sister Mamata reported.

"Come what may, I will fight to get them back," she said.

The incident occurred on the 11th anniversary of the death of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who founded the Missionaries of Charity. On that day, nuns at the order's headquarters in Calcutta prayed for peace in Orissa, where Hindu-Christian violence that began in late August had left 27 dead by Sept. 9.

"Recruiting Missionaries of Charity is placed in God's hands"

Members serve the poor in body and spirit, avoid personal attention

From the Arkansas Catholic
By Tara Little

Published: July 19, 2008

Sister M. Francesca of New York City gives the sign of peace during Mass celebrating the Missionaries of Charity 25th anniversary in Little Rock April 24. She was present at Mother Teresa's deathbed in 1997. Photo by Tara Little

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta founded the Missionaries of Charity to love Jesus disguised in the "poorest of the poor." Since 1950, these sisters have been feeding him, clothing him and giving him shelter through "the least" among us.

By doing these "little works of love" the sisters aim to give those they serve "a sense of God's tender love for them," said Sister M. Marcella, MC, of St. Louis.

To be able to love in this way, Mother Teresa stressed devotion to the Eucharist, because "Jesus in the Eucharist leads us to Jesus in the poor," Sister Marcella said.

The founder also taught her sisters to serve the poor with joy and gratitude.

"If it wasn't for poor people who accept our works of love, then we wouldn't have that opportunity to show our love," Sister Marcella explained. "We don't do anything spectacular; our ways are very small and down to earth. The poor are so humble to accept the small things we do, and allow us to show our love for Jesus in that way."

Mother Teresa's mission began in the slums of Calcutta, India, with only 12 sisters. Today the congregation has nearly 5,000 members worldwide.

Becoming a Missionaries of Charity sister involves an initial formation process, then postulancy and a novitiate. This training is offered in a candidate's home country. In the United States, postulants go to the Bronx, N.Y., and novices continue their training in San Francisco. After completing the novitiate process a sister can be assigned outside her homeland.

Sister Marcella said her religious order does not recruit sisters and relies entirely on God to "direct vocations." Single women interested in learning more are encouraged to "come and see" at the postulancy house in New York.

These sisters take the normal vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but also take a fourth vow of "wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor."

The poorest are those who are "not being taken care of by someone else in a better way," Sister Marcella explained.

In most cases, this means those who are materially poor, but it can include those who suffer from the poverty of loneliness, especially if they are sick or dying.

Mother Teresa often spoke of how the poverty in the West differs from that of developing nations.

"In my opinion," she wrote, "if abortion is allowed in the rich countries, who possess all that money can provide, then those are the poorest among the poor." ("Heart of Joy: The Transforming Power of Self-Giving" Servant Books, 1987)

She died in 1997 but her spirit lives on through her sisters, who affectionately call her "Mother."

"She is our mother, and all that implies is that we're children of the same family," Sister Marcella said.

Sister M. Nirmala, MC, superior general and successor of Mother Teresa based in India, has preserved that sense of family, Sister Marcella said.

No matter what "corner of the world we call her from, Sister is there to hear what we need and help us to make decisions," she said.

As a rule, Missionaries of Charity are not allowed to speak to members of the press. And it was Sister Nirmala herself who granted Sister Marcella permission to speak with Arkansas Catholic.

Sister Marcella spoke with the newspaper by phone in April following a celebration to mark the 25th anniversary of her order's presence in Arkansas.

She is regional superior for the 17 MC convents in the central United States and Canada, which includes Little Rock.

In 1982, Mother Teresa visited the city and agreed to send four of her sisters to run Abba House, a 13-bed homeless shelter for women, pregnant mothers and their young children. The Diocese of Little Rock established it in 1981. The sisters took over the ministry in 1983. Their convent is next to the shelter on South Oak Street, which is part of an impoverished neighborhood Little Rock's inner city.

Aside from Abba House, the sisters visit the poor, elderly, shut-ins and prisoners. They distribute food weekly to those in need and run a month-long Vacation Bible School each July for poor children unable to afford other programs.

Sister Marcella said her congregation doesn't focus on how many people they serve because "Mother asked us not to worry about being successful, just faithful. ... Many, many, many souls have passed through (Abba House) and hopefully they've received something of God's love."

There are always four sisters in Little Rock. Their assignments normally last three years, but Sister Marcella only served in the city for a few months from 2002-2003.

When asked why her term was so short, she said, "In our society, we just prefer to leave things in God's hands. We never ask why. Whatever is asked of us is what God wants of us. Mother always said, 'Give God a free hand.'"

As missionaries they can be sent anywhere in the world at a moment's notice.

"Our mother's spirit is that we're free, that we're not so attached to the place or so attached to the work that we think it can't go on without us," Sister Marcella explained.

This freedom means not "accumulating things that would hold us down."

Each sister has two blue and white saris (their habit), sandals and an "apostolate bag" which holds rosaries, religious medals, holy cards and holy water to give to the poor when they visit them.

They do not own property or receive personal gifts. They live modestly without modern conveniences such as air conditioning, home appliances, computers or cell phones.

Although Sister Marcella did say she is from the United States, she would not be more specific because she didn't want this story to draw attention to herself. The same goes for her age, which she struggled to remember, because she -- like the other sisters -- no longer celebrates her birthday.

The sisters do not eat meals outside their convent, a custom designed to protect the poor from giving "their last bit of food" to their guests.

In addition to service, the sisters' daily routine includes participating in Mass and prayer, especially a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament.

Sister Marcella repeatedly quoted Mother Teresa throughout the interview to explain how she lives. She said this is because "Mother's words are a light for us."

In a 1996 book, "Blessings of Love," Mother Teresa is quoted describing who her sisters should be. "Each time anyone comes into contact with us, they must become different and better people because of having met us. We must radiate God's love."

Even before her death, Mother Teresa was believed by many to be a living saint. Pope John Paul II, who called her "one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th century," beatified her in 2003.

Missionaries of Charity Family

In addition to her active sisters, Mother Teresa also founded the following orders:

Missionaries of Charity Brothers, 1963;
Missionaries of Charity Contemplative Sisters, 1976;
Missionaries of Charity Contemplative Brothers, 1979;
Missionaries of Charity Fathers, 1984;
Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, 1969;
Lay Missionaries of Charity, 1984.

For more information, visit the Missionaries of Charity Fathers Web site at www.mcpriests.com. To speak to a sister in Arkansas, call the Little Rock convent at (501) 663-3596.

Advice for her sisters

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta asked her sisters to follow these virtues. "God needs our poverty, not our abundance. These are means of being humble:

• Speak as little as possible about oneself
• Take care of one's personal matters
• Avoid curiosity
• Do not meddle in the affairs of others
• Accept contradictions with good humor
• Do not focus on the faults of others
• Accept reproach, even if undeserved
• Yield to the will of others
• Accept insults and abuse
• Accept feeling uncared for, forgotten, despised
• Be courteous and sensitive, even if someone provokes you
• Do not try to be admired and loved
• Do not hide behind one's own dignity
• Yield in arguments, even if one is right
• Always choose what is most difficult."
  
  
  Source: "Heart of Joy: The Transforming Power of Self-Giving" by Mother Teresa, Servant Books, 1987

"Mother Teresa's sisters bless Little Rock for 25 years"

Mass marks 25th year of order in Arkansas
Published: May 3, 2008

From the Arkansas Catholic

Photo by Malea Hargett

Altar servers lead a procession down South Oak Street followed by more than 25 Missionaries of Charity from the United States and Canada who attended the April 24 jubilee Mass.

By Tara Little
Associate Editor

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" Bishop Andrew J. McDonald made this exclamation during an April 24 Mass expressing his gratitude for the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta, who for the past 25 years have loved "the poorest of the poor" in Little Rock.

The bishop emeritus celebrated Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church to mark the silver anniversary of the sisters' presence in the Diocese of Little Rock. In addition to the four sisters from Abba House, a shelter for pregnant mothers, their children and homeless women, more than 25 other Missionaries of Charity attended, representing 17 convents from across the central United States and Canada.

A one-mile Eucharistic procession, from Abba House down busy 12th Street, preceded Mass at the nearby church. Altar servers led the sisters, and about 60 others sang hymns and prayed the rosary as they walked. One server followed incensing the Blessed Sacrament, which was carried by Father Terrence Gordon, FSSP, of St. John the Baptist Latin Mass Community in North Little Rock.

More than 200 people attended the 5 p.m. Mass. During his homily, the bishop said the 1982 visit of the late Mother Teresa, now Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, and the sisters had an impact on the diocese.

It was during her visit that Mother Teresa agreed to send her sisters to run Abba House, which is located on South Oak Street in a poor, midtown neighborhood. She spoke from the balcony of the shelter to people who had gathered outside to pray the rosary.

"If I live to be 100 years old, I will remember her words. Those words are seared into my mind and my heart: 'Gold and silver I have not. That which I have I will give you. I will send you my sisters. Together with you, we will make something beautiful for God,'" the bishop recalled.

Four Missionaries of Charity first arrived in Little Rock in 1983. Many have come and gone since, but there are always four serving at Abba House at any given time.

The sisters live in poverty and simplicity like the people they serve.

"A large portion of their day is given to prayer. They serve the needs of homeless women and children; they instruct the poor children in the neighborhood and feed them; they visit the jails on Saturday and comfort the prisoners. Like Jesus, 'They go about doing good,'" said Bishop McDonald, who is the chaplain for St. Joseph's Home for the Elderly in Palatine, Ill.

"Many rich blessings" have come to the diocese in its 165-year history, but among the greatest was the visit from Blessed Teresa and "to have her sisters touch the minds and hearts of the poorest of the poor," he said. "If it were left to me, I would raise Mother Teresa to the altars of the Church as a saint this very day."

Nine other priests concelebrated the Mass, including the current and former pastors and associate pastors of Good Counsel and others who have celebrated daily Mass at Abba House through the years. Among them was Father Joseph Neilson, OCD, of Marylake Monastery in Little Rock. He established Abba House and led the effort to bring the Missionaries of Charity to Little Rock.

The Carmelite priest and others approached the bishop about buying the property for Abba House and inviting the Missionaries of Charity to run it.

"I told Father Joseph and the others, I can get the money from generous people and I did, but I think you're asking the impossible, when you suggest that we invite Mother Teresa," the bishop recalled saying.

Much to his surprise, she came and her sisters followed.

Having the Missionaries of Charity in Little Rock is "a great grace from God," Father Neilson told Arkansas Catholic. "It is a blessing to any city where they are."


"Mother Teresa is here in the person of these sisters because they are doing her work," he said. "Their work is never ending."

Two former volunteers who helped him establish Abba House, Patricia and James Grabher, attended the jubilee Mass. They now live in Tucson, Ariz.

Patricia Grabher said it all started when she saw Father Neilson praying outside an abortion clinic in Little Rock in 1979.

Before long the priest was bringing pregnant women who had no place to stay to Grabher's doorstep. When her apartment was outgrown, she and her husband moved into a home in southwest Little Rock where they continued to take in pregnant women in need. Soon more space was needed and they found the former Teen Challenge house and rental house next door for sale on South Oak, where the Abba House shelter and the sisters' convent is today.

The diocese bought the property in 1981 and Grabher ran Abba House until the demands became too great at a time when she had small children of her own. That was when the bishop wrote Mother Teresa to ask her to send sisters to take over the ministry, which they did in 1983.

"These young women needed a father so we called it the Abba House," Grabher said.

"In my opinion, they are the best nuns in the world, the most loving nuns in the world," Grabher said.

Even though many praise the sisters for their service, they are quick to redirect all attention to God. And as a rule, they are not allowed to give media interviews without permission from Sister M. Nirmala, MC, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and successor of Mother Teresa.

Arkansas Catholic requested and was granted permission April 26 to interview Sister M. Marcella, MC, regional superior of the 17 Missionaries of Charity convents in the central United States and Canada, which includes Little Rock.

Sister Marcella, of St. Louis, was among the 25 Missionaries of Charity who were guests at the Mass and reception. The sisters came to Little Rock from Memphis where they held their regional retreat.

Also in attendance was Sister M. Francesca, MC, of New York City. She was the 10th nun to join the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta 58 years ago. She knew Blessed Teresa well and was with her when she died in 1997.

Sister Marcella served at Abba House for a few months in 2002-2003. "It was very precious time," she said.

The mission, she said, is to care for the "poorest of the poor, meaning those who are not being taken care of someone else in a better way."


In Little Rock this means continuing to care for pregnant women and their small children who have no place to go. Abba House also serves as an emergency shelter for homeless women.

Susan Holmes, longtime volunteer for Abba House and one of the coordinators of the jubilee celebration, said the sisters provide shelter, food and clothing for the women who may stay two to six weeks after giving birth until they find a place to live. The emergency shelter is available to the homeless for up to three weeks.

Holmes said the shelter has 13 beds, but the number of people staying there varies.

The sisters also visit the poor, elderly, shut-ins and prisoners. They distribute food weekly to those in need and run a month-long Vacation Bible School each July.

Serving the poor doesn't always mean just those in need of food and clothing, Sister Marcella said.

"Maybe the poverty in the U.S. is not as it is in India, but Mother used to say that the poverty of the western world is actually more difficult than the poverty of India because of the poverty of loneliness, of the people being so lonely or so isolated, not having faith or not having hope or not having families who care for them," she said.

Sister Marcella could not quantify how many people have been served by the Missionaries of Charity in Little Rock. Though the sisters do keep records, they do not keep track of numbers.

"Mother would say that what we do is like a drop in the ocean. If that drop weren't there, the ocean would be that drop less. So the most important thing is we do what we do out of great love for Jesus and for the Church and the good of the souls that God has entrusted to us, and do it without counting the cost," she said.

Holmes said the sisters take Jesus to parts of Little Rock "where he would not be if they were not there."

"There's not a way to numerically or statistically say this is their impact, but they are a presence, they are a statement," Holmes said. "The people in that neighborhood all know who those sisters are and they all respect them. And that is the neighborhood where there is the greatest spiritual poverty, where people need to have the presence of Jesus the most."

The sisters spend hours each day in prayer, especially in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

"Without our love in adoration for Jesus in the Eucharist, we won't be able to recognize him as he is disguised in the poor," Sister Marcella said. "Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist and he knows we have a need to return that love to him so he makes himself the hungry one, he makes himself the homeless one. He comes to us in the poor so we can return that love to him."

Blessed Mother Teresa taught the sisters not to "make the poor come to us, we should go to them. That's why our homes are usually in places were the poor are," she said.

The sisters do not have many possessions. They wear a white and blue sari, which is the traditional dress for women in India, and they carry an "apostolic bag," which is a cloth tote that holds rosaries, religious metals, holy cards and holy water.

"Mother always wanted us to bring something of God to the poor," Sister Marcella said.

The sisters handed out holy cards with cloth and metals that had been touched to the tomb of Blessed Mother Teresa following Mass.

Though Abba House owns a van, the sisters do not have cars. While they do have electricity, they don't use appliances, such as microwaves, dishwashers or washing machines. They don't have computers, cell phones, televisions, air conditioning or even carpet in their home. They do have a heater, but it is rarely used.

"We do give for our poor people in Little Rock air conditioning in (Abba House) because they're expectant mothers," Sister Marcella said. "We don't expect the poor to make the sacrifices that we're making because we choose to make those sacrifices out of love."

The sisters do not accept individual attention and don't celebrate their birthdays.

As a custom, the sisters do not eat outside their convents to prevent the poor they visit from sharing what little food they have with them. During the reception held in their honor April 24, the sisters visited with the guests but did not eat.

Before they left the reception, the sisters presented Bishop McDonald with a garland that Sister Francesca made from scraps of silver and gold wrapping paper cut into the shape of flowers. Sister Marcella said it is an adapted Indian custom to honor someone on a special occasion.

They sang to the bishop, "We thank you with the love of the Lord for we see in you the glory of the Lord," which Sister Marcella called their "little hymn of gratitude."