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Mother Teresa Did Not Feel Christ's Presence for Last Half of Her Life, Letters Reveal
Fox News ^ | 08/24/2007 | Unknown

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; General Discusssion; Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: christianity; faith; letters; motherteresa; nohinteresa; pharisees; religion; theusualsuspects
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To: Campion
An extreme traditionalist website that's either schismatic or within a hairs-breadth of it.

How about a quote from the Houston Chronicle?

On whether she tried to convert Hindus:
"Of course I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you've found God, it's up to you to decide how to worship him."

61 posted on 08/24/2007 12:49:20 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe; Campion

If any source proof-texts, out of context, someone’s work, and that source has demonstarted an agenda to denigrate that someone’s work, it may be certainly legitimate to note that agenda, even without denying the authenticity of the quotes.

A good quote provides an example as to one’s thoughts. It’s often not hard at all to provide a misleading example. An irreputable source may be likely to provide misleading examples without the examples themselves being false.

>> Would you be willing to state that anyone who said such things was preaching heresy? <<

If it were the entirety of her message, it could certainly lead someone to heretical inferences. But it is not heresy, itself.


62 posted on 08/24/2007 12:49:47 PM PDT by dangus
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To: OpusatFR; xzins; P-Marlowe; blue-duncan
I guess all of us working with the most poor, most destitute, dying and badly treated of the world without seeing much improvement have questions.

It's one thing to question God's will; it's a very different thing to question His existence. Don't you think?

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)" -- Hebrews 10:22-23

"He is faithful." It would seem very possible that if Mother Teresa had not gone the route of the universalist and instead had remained faithful to the narrow way of Jesus Christ that she would not have felt so bereft and uncertain for so many years.

"Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." -- Titus 1:15-16

Even the good works of the reprobate mean nothing because "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).

63 posted on 08/24/2007 12:50:54 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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Comment #64 Removed by Moderator

To: P-Marlowe

Her quote is a denial that she is proselytizing, a charge which could get thousands of her fellow sisters martyred. To use that quote as evidence that she has no desire that any of the people she helps would accept Christ is unfounded; all she is doing is ascribing free will to the people she helps and to God.

In India, millions of people accuse her of trying to use her charity to bribe people into accepting Christ. She insisted that she was not doing that, that she loves them because of who they are, not that she only loves them because she’s trying to proselytize them. She merely cares for them. Would she be delighted if every dying sole she touches makes a deathbed confession in Christ? Would she want her ministry to grow, so that every dying soul in India has the same opportunity to do so? If you doubt that, you know nothing at all of her.

She doesn’t have to proselytize. She loves. And everyone she touches knows who she regards as the source of that love. Those who she inspires to seek, will find.


65 posted on 08/24/2007 1:00:07 PM PDT by dangus
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To: dangus; P-Marlowe

a note about other posts about not knowing Mother Therese so well:

I have not read her works so well as to know she has not misspoken, or to know what secrets she has held in her heart.


66 posted on 08/24/2007 1:03:20 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

For you to insinuate (by Biblical quotes) that Mother Teresa was a “reprobate”, or that she had “not remained faithful to the narrow way of Jesus”, is conjecture, presumption, detraction and rash judgment.


67 posted on 08/24/2007 1:03:27 PM PDT by Running On Empty (The three sorriest words: "It's too late")
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To: ScubieNuc
What is one of the tennets of the Catholic Church? That a person can NOT know if they are saved or not. (The sin of Presumption.)

The sin of presumption is the sin of believing you can commit any sin, die unrepentant of it, and still go to heaven, or alternatively, that you can commit any sin and expect the grace of repentance as if it were your due.

A Catholic can have a moral, though not an infallible, certainty that he or she is in a state of grace and an heir of heaven.

68 posted on 08/24/2007 1:15:15 PM PDT by Campion
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To: P-Marlowe
Would you be willing to state that anyone who said such things was preaching heresy?

What you claimed she said was heresy. What she actually said was not.

Which was why I asked.

69 posted on 08/24/2007 1:20:22 PM PDT by Campion
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To: dangus
I have not read her works so well as to know she has not misspoken, or to know what secrets she has held in her heart.

If you don't know anything about her, then you are in no position to defend her. She appears to be a universalist heretic.

If you can show me anywhere where she has ever stated flatly that there is no other path to heaven except through Jesus Christ, then maybe you might have something to defend her with.

As it stands right now, however, all the quotes I can dig up from her suggest that she believed that Christianity was her chosen path to Heaven and that Hinduism is the Hindu's path and Islam is the Muslim's path, etc. i.e., that somehow it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are faithful in the practice of your chosen religion.

70 posted on 08/24/2007 1:24:07 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: Campion
What you claimed she said was heresy. What she actually said was not.

So if those quotes are accurate, then you would agree she was a heretic?

Can you show me some evidence that she was misquoted?

71 posted on 08/24/2007 1:26:16 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: dangus
All I know is that some journalist took quotes out of context.

So are you saying that Mother Teresa KNEW she was saved?

The reason I ask is because every Catholic I have asked the question "If you died right now, would you go to Heaven?" answers in the "I hope so." or "I don't know." fashion. When I dug into why that was so, I was pointed in the direction of "presumption." This was explained to me that it was a sin for a Catholic to "presume" to know that they were saved. From the verses I posted and many others, I find no support for that Catholic belief.

Now, maybe the Catholics around me are poorly trained in their own doctrine, but it sure fits with what was printed about Mother Teresa's apparent questions of salvation.

Paul said, “Work out your salvation in fear and trembling.”

I really don't have enough time right now to fully answer your above quote, but here is a quick answer...

When you read the whole context surrounding that verse (Philipians 2:12) you see that Paul is talking about people who 'talk the talk but don't walk the walk'.

The word that gets translated in the King James Version to "work out" is katergasomai. The modernized idea of "work out your salvation" is wrongly understood as "do it yourself" salvation. (Like when my son tells me his fishing line is fouled up and I tell him "work it out.") What katergasomai means is demonstrate or show.

So the verse you posted without context is simply saying..."12 Demonstrate or show your salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure."

When you read the whole chapter you see the emphasis on "showing" the results of the work Christ has done inside of you (salvation) by "doing his good pleasure." What is "his good pleasure?" Verse 3 talks about esteeming others over yourself. That would be taking care of or looking out for the needs of others over your own needs.

To take that one verse out of context and believe that individuals work out or earn their salvation through works is to contradict the direct reading of Philipians and the other teachings of Paul and Christ.

Sincerely
72 posted on 08/24/2007 1:47:45 PM PDT by ScubieNuc
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To: P-Marlowe
So if those quotes are accurate, then you would agree she was a heretic?

No, I just said that what she said wasn't heretical.

73 posted on 08/24/2007 1:51:25 PM PDT by Campion
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To: Dr. Eckleburg; Hacksaw

“Eckleburg replied as if the person was talking about legitimate victims, and used it to slur Catholics as a whole. He is not an honest guy.” He? (snicker)


74 posted on 08/24/2007 1:57:12 PM PDT by Augustinian monk (Peace if possible, truth at all costs- Martin Luther)
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To: Campion
No, I just said that what she said wasn't heretical.

So Jesus Christ is not the only way? Do you believe there are parallel paths to heaven other than through Jesus?

If I am a good Hindu and worship the Hindu gods in a loving and respectful manner and do good works, and feed the poor, will that all be accounted unto me for righteousness?

75 posted on 08/24/2007 2:05:39 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: HarleyD

This is a very unfair attack on Mother Teresa.

Christians on the way to mystical union with God undergo terrible trials of Faith where things are so black it seems God has abandoned them. Remember Christ on the Cross? “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Does Christ fail your standard because He doubted?

The mystical path mirrors the path of Calvary - persecution, torture, insults, false accusations, trials of Faith, abandonment, death and resurrection. Some experience a spiritual resurrection in this life, others suffer until death. The Church is going through this process right now.

If anyone wants to understand the concept read Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila. St. John of the Cross is excellent as well but his works are a little more intense. Interior Castle is approachable and easier reading.


76 posted on 08/24/2007 2:22:58 PM PDT by Canticle_of_Deborah (Catholic4Mitt)
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To: P-Marlowe
So Jesus Christ is not the only way? Do you believe there are parallel paths to heaven other than through Jesus?

No, which is why I asked you to prove that Mother Teresa had actually said that. She hasn't.

If I am a good Hindu and worship the Hindu gods in a loving and respectful manner and do good works, and feed the poor, will that all be accounted unto me for righteousness?

If you're a Christian, and you thump your chest in public about how "saved" you are, and carry a great big Bible to church on Wednesday night, while privately you wallow in all sorts of egregious sins (because, after all, you're "once saved always saved"), will all of that be accounted unto you as righteousness?

77 posted on 08/24/2007 2:28:46 PM PDT by Campion
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To: Campion
If you're a Christian, and you thump your chest in public about how "saved" you are, and carry a great big Bible to church on Wednesday night, while privately you wallow in all sorts of egregious sins (because, after all, you're "once saved always saved"), will all of that be accounted unto you as righteousness?

No.

Now why don't you answer my question:

If I am a good Hindu and worship the Hindu gods in a loving and respectful manner and do good works, and feed the poor, will that all be accounted unto me for righteousness?

Yes or no?

78 posted on 08/24/2007 2:47:27 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe; Dr. Eckleburg
"Of course I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you've found God, it's up to you to decide how to worship him."

Mary, Mother of Jesus: "Do whatever He says."

Jesus: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Doesn't really look like she was following either Mary or Jesus.

79 posted on 08/24/2007 3:20:40 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain And Proud of It! Those who support the troops will pray for them to WIN!)
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To: P-Marlowe; Campion

It seems to me that in His own parable, Jesus counted as righteous the good deed done by the Samaritan, and again, Jesus was pleased with the Samaritan (whom He had cured), singling him out as the one of ten who was cured who came back to give thanks.

Jesus also promised “living water” to the Samaritan woman at the well.

In two of these instances,(one a parable and one a real happening) Jesus counted as righteousness the acts of the Samaritans; first for compassion, and second, for gratitude.

In the third, he reached out to a Samaritan. In all cases, as a Jew, he was supoosedly not to have anything to do Samaritans.

Yet He found rightouesness in a Samaritan.

God’s ways are not our ways.


80 posted on 08/24/2007 3:26:44 PM PDT by Running On Empty (The three sorriest words: "It's too late")
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