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 ...
Yep...She was a universalist.
CC&E
I’d love to read the sources. Anyone who reads the works lot of extraordinary faith are familiar with a “spirtual dryness” during which the holy people experience a lack of sensory awareness of God’s presence. This is not a lack of faith, but a faith that is so strong it needn’t the constant reminder of sensation. St. Therese Lisieux (”the Little Flower”) was known for such ecstasy during prayer that she seemed to float above the ground. Yet in her very public writings which have become the most-read writings since the Bible and which have inspired so many, she writes of spiritual dryness which would devestate me.
I believe — and I hope — that this is what Mother Therese is writing of, and that she has been taken out of context. Some of St. Therese’s writings, out of context, certainly could be sensationalized in terrible ways.
Yes, Paul knew when he wrote to Timothy... but he had finished his course. Previously, he had worked out his salvation with fear and trembling.
It is disturbing though that she leaned toward universalism. That could have certainly caused a lot more doubt than normal.
And by the way, Billy Graham has been talking Universalist/Inclusivist nonsense for a long time too so it’s not just her. There are many protestants saying the same thing.
“Mother Teresa Did Not Feel Christ’s Presence for Last Half of
Her Life, Letters Reveal”
Big deal.
She got her “marching orders” and stayed the course.
She got no “counter-manding orders” and stayed “on mission”.
GOOD for her!!!
Personally, I’m comforted when some evangelist/preacher/pastor admits
to never having “heard G-d (personally) talking to them”.
One of the prominent examples I can recall is Charles (Chuck) Swindoll.
And yet he remains faithful and engaged into practicing and promoting
the Christian vision.
Maybe that’s the sort of conduct to be expected from a fellow that
graduated from divinity school...then had to do a hitch in the US Marine Corps!
http://www.insight.org
Really? Paul said this in a moment of dispair, when he felt all had left him. If the Roman government would have given Paul a reprieve, and he lived for another 20 years, what would Paul have said; "DRAT"?
I think Paul's attitute serves in sharp contrasted to Mother Teresa's. Should we all be able to say like Paul that we have fought the good fight instead of doubting whether God exists?
The Thomas Crapper was a version of toilet common in Britian during World War I. It is where the term crap comes from -- an abbreviation of Thomas Crapper
Where did she say that, and what, exactly, did she say?
The Thomas Crapper is famous in history. It was a instrument in a Water Closet in England at the time of World War I. US Soldiers referred to going to the Water Closet after the war as going to the Thomas Crapper.
(Hmmm... I think I used a sledge hammer to make my point about articles written by Time Magazine and its wonderful CEO or former CEO Ted Turner -- ideas of Ted Turner that is)
One does not fear and tremble at a God one doubts exists.
That doesn't follow logically, and I can assure you from personal experience that, in this case, logic does not mislead. If you're not sure of God's existence, how can you be sure of his benevolence?
"Doubting" or "not sure" is not the same as one who denies God's existence (and is fixed in his denial); in the case of that sort of person, I would agree with you.
Excerpted from the original article:
Rev. Kolodiejchuk maintains that Mother Teresa did not suffer “a real doubt of faith,” but that, on the contrary, her agonizing demonstrates her faith in God’s reality.
On the other hand, St. Therese of Lisieux quite excellently expounds the futility of doing works to earn salvation. Not having read Mother Therese’s writings myself, For the little I know, it could be that she was heretical, holding some notion that she was trying to earn God’s love. But seeing the fruits of her work, it is hard to fathom that. And by the fruits of her work, I do not even mean all the souls she comforted, but rather the vast numbers who have turned their entire lives over to Christ because of her.
Many times she talked about Christ not being the only route to heaven. And now we know why. She didn't have much of a clue as to which road to really take. Obviously, her lack of true faith and trust in God's word permitted her to embrace so much error...
A first-up from google...
In 184 pages, there was nothing stating that salvation was through Jesus alone. She wrote, "I've always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic" (p. 31). There is no attempt to let others know that Jesus is the only way. There is no hint that "Mother" Teresa or her "sisters" believed the narrow way Jesus preached (cf. Matt. 7:13-14)... In 12/96, a former nun in "Mother" Teresa's order wrote the following letter (Source: FBIS, 2/1/97):
"But my main worry was the corporal penances used by the sisters and kept in small hand-made drawstring bags, along with toothbrush, needle and thread, etc. These include a whip made of rope and bracelets and waist-chains made of something similar to gardening wire which pierce the flesh. These penance implements are made by the novices in Rome. This is dangerous to the health, but is kept secret." (Signed, Pamela Hursch, England).""I love all religions. ... If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there." [On another occasion, she again demonstrated her false gospel that 'there are many ways to God': "All is God -- Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc., all have access to the same God."]...
"I myself was in Mother Teresa's order, the Missionaries of Charity. I am now a Christian. I was saved on 3/3/96 ... You are quite right about the pagan influences on the order. When I was a postulant in Rome, we had Hindu-style meditation techniques from a book called "Sadhana" by Father Antony De Mello. Mother Teresa behaves like a Hindu guru. She visits each convent at six monthly to yearly intervals. The sisters seem to live for these visits and sit worshipfully at her feet when she gives one of her talks. On the special occasion when she presented us with our personal rosaries (in the postulancy in Rome) she said, "My words are scripture for you," and of course she was right. All the letters which she writes on "spiritual" matters are kept, printed and copied and bound into volumes. Each convent has a copy of these volumes of her words which are studied daily as Christians study the Bible. Cuttings of Mother Teresa's hair and pieces of her saris are kept in a cupboard in Rome, ready to be made into relics when she is canonized.
Do you doubt God’s existence?
Yeah.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
-- Isa. 42:3 [ESV]
Doubt and faith are not antithetical. The opposite of faith is antipathy or hostility, not doubt. It takes incredible resilience of faith to hold on and believe when every fiber of your being cries out how screwed up this world is, and seeks to indict God. But, as in Ps. 73, we may be foolish, myopic, and short-sighted, but God upholds us even through our doubts.
Heck - if doubt were some sort of unforgivable sin, than a large number of the Psalms - which were written in raw doubt - would be sinful, and Christ's cry of "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!?" would be sinful.
The interesting story in Mother Theresa is not that she struggled with doubting God. Frankly, any human who didn't struggle with doubt after seeing what she saw on the streets of Calcutta would be some sort of unfeeling sociopath. Far more intriguing - and uplifting - is how Mother Theresa clung onto her faith in the midst of her doubt, and continued the acts of mercy she felt Christ called her to. Despite deep doubt and despair gnawing at her from within, she pressed on without wavering. That's simply amazing.
Now, as regards the orthodoxy of certain statements of Mother Teresa, I take no position. Too many of those statements are quoted by people with agendas unfriendly to Mother Theresa, wholly divorced from their context. Furthermore, wasn't she Macedonian? Did she speak English well, if at all?
When I was a postulant in Rome, we had Hindu-style meditation techniques from a book called "Sadhana" by Father Antony De Mello.
I don't think much of this, however.
Now? Not at all.
Twenty-some years ago, you bet I did.
How do we know this isn't another Maria Monk? Anyone can ***claim*** to be an ex-member of Mother Teresa's order.
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