Mother Teresa- Mother for the poor and needy

Mother Teresa (1910–1997) was a Roman Catholic nun. She devoted her life in serving the poor and needy all around the world. In India, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, an organisation devoted to help those in need.

She was born in 1910 in Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Very less is known about her early life, but at a very young age she became a nun to serve the lord through helping the poor. On her arrival in India, she began by working as a teacher. The widespread poverty of Calcutta put a great impression on her and thus she started a new order called “The Missionaries of Charity”. The primary objective of this mission was to help the needy, look after those who were disowned by the society.

“It is not how much we do,
but how much love we put in the doing.
It is not how much we give,
but how much love we put in the giving.”

– Mother Teresa

She opened her first home for the dying in 1952, which allowed people to die with dignity. Mother Teresa spent the whole of her life among these people and loved everyone as her children. She felt their pain with them, she cried with them, she healed their wounds be it outer or inner. She fed them and was in the true sense a real mother. She showered love wherever she went and never let any one ever come to her without leaving happier.

Over time, the missions started operations overseas as well. And by 2013, there were 700 missions operating in over 130 countries. The scope of their work also expanded to include orphanages, helpless women, aged people who are left on road by their children and hospices for those with terminal illnesses.

In 1979, Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize “for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace”. And, when was asked how to promote world peace, she replied,”Go home and love your family”. In the last stage of her life, she suffered from many health problems but never stopped serving the poor and needy till her last breath. She said, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”