Posted on 08/24/2007 8:40:01 AM PDT by HarleyD
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who has been put on the “fast track” to sainthood, was so tormented by doubts about her faith that she felt “a hypocrite,” it has emerged from a book of her letters to friends and confessors. Shortly after beginning her work in the slums of Calcutta, she wrote: “Where is my faith? Even deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. If there be a God — please forgive me.” In letters eight years later she was still expressing “such deep longing for God,” adding that she felt “repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal.” Her smile to the world from her familiar weather-beaten face was a “mask” or a “cloak,” she said. “What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true.” Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 and was beatified in record time only six years later, felt abandoned by God from the very start of the work that made her a global figure, in her sandals and blue and white sari. The doubts persisted until her death.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Acts 2:37-47
She acted on her faith, unlike lots of people who espouse unshakable faith and act like pagans.
And pass judgment upon others. Unreal.
Amen, brother.
Let it be so, Brother.
I can’t believe people are passing out tracts on someone’s grave.
Hardest book I ever read.
DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
by
Saint John of the Cross
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/john_cross/dark_night.txt
Spiritual persons, we are told, do not enter the second night immediately
after leaving the first; on the contrary, they generally pass a long time,
even years, before doing so, [10] for they still have many imperfections,
both habitual and actual (Chapter ii). After a brief introduction (Chapter
iii), the Saint describes with some fullness the nature of this spiritual
purgation or dark contemplation referred to in the first stanza of his poem
and the varieties of pain and affliction caused by it, whether in the soul
or in its faculties (Chapters iv-viii).
“Hardest book I ever read”
Wait until you get to “Ascent to Mt. Carmel” and “Spiritual Canticle”.
They are worth every effort.
St. John bases everything on Scripture.
A few quotes from him:
“The language God hears best is silent love”.
“God leads each soul along different roads and there shall hardly be found a single spirit who can walk even half the way which is suitable for another”.
“He that bears malice believes that others bear malice, his judgment proceeding from his own malice; and the good man thinks well of others, his judgment proceeding from the goodness of his own thoughts”.
“Savory and durable fruit is gathered in a cold and dry climate”.
” I believe Lord, help Thou my unbelief”
Please read some of her other writings. Keep in mind that Satan sends those closest to God the heaviest crosses to bear. He desires nothing more than our eternal defeat. The stronger the resistence to his lies the heavier are the weapons he uses against us. Satan sent Mother Teresa a cross of doubt. Which can weigh very heavily on one who has dedicated her life to bringing the love of Christ to the world. If she had kept these doubts inside rather than express them I think they would have been more of a poison to her soul. Instead she shared them with others and let a secret burden be known. It was an act of humility to admit that she, who so many thought as having a direct pipeline to God, knew the dark night of the soul.
She could have said “ I doubt God exists, so I will stop worshipping Him and become an atheist”
That would have been easy. In fact it would have endeared her to much of the secular West. She choose the hard road. Doubting but doing everything for Christ’s sake not her own. Shapiing her life in the outline in faith. Knowing deep in her heart that acts of faith yield as they must to facts of faith. She loved Christ above all and I pray that she died in a state of grace and know shares in His Glory with all the faithfull departed.
It is God’s grace that gives us faith. But we have the freewill to accept or reject that grace. That is Catholic teaching. And her quote of choosing should be put in that context. God desires us to know and love Him with all our hearts. And to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. But He does not force anyone.
I feel sorry for those who say no to God’s grace. What a wonderful gift they spurn.
Why then would a loving God give us free will?
I feel sorry for those who say no to God’s grace. What a wonderful gift they spurn.
Does God feel sorry for them? Or does he exercise his free will and throw them into hell?
In mid-life, she had a “conversion” experience, as good as John Wesley desired. What she felt afterwards , and this was her cross, was the “absence” of that same experience.
We demand "proof" to bolster our beliefs, but when presented with it, we only bolster our skepticism, and demand even more proof.
I'm confident GOD loves us; we must keep him constantly amused by our silliness.
I like the “personal heroism” part.
It’s so under-rated.
The personal heroism of the man like so many fathers who has to work two jobs to make ends meet; the stay-at-home mom who chooses to be there to raise her own children but pays the price in isolation and loneliness because so many other women are gone all day to augment the income; the caregiver of a very ill parent or spouse; the parent seeing it through a grievous time with a wayward kid; the person dealing with the sentence of an illness that will mean a slow and painful death.
This is just a faint blip of all the scenarios of personal heroism. And it has nothing to do with big theological debates, positions and words and a lot to do with what can poetically be called the “Nazareth Life”—that kind of quiet and reverent life that doesn’t make big noises but houses the Lord Himself in its midst.
You are so right to call to mind the small miracles and the personal heroism.
But there is strong evidence that she was a heretic.
I’m glad you came on board with your posts.
What I think is not a good witness is to make, as a subject for “theological” debate, the state of the soul of Mother Teresa with her God.
It isn’t even debatable. It’s between her and God and we can’t know that.
Evidently she LIVED in such a way as to bear a great witness.
Bump for this excellent post.
Thanks, Annie.
I looked at your homepage :-)
I hope you will get to read a ping I plan to send to you and some others here on this thread before the day is over.
Right now I’m waste deep in alligators.
Again, thanks
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