Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul

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Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/23/2007 7:18:59 PM

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On Dec. 11, 1979, Mother Teresa, the "Saint of the Gutters," went to Oslo. Dressed in her signature blue-bordered sari and shod in sandals despite below-zero temperatures, the former Agnes Bojaxhiu received that ultimate worldly accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize. In her acceptance lecture, Teresa, whose Missionaries of Charity had grown from a one-woman folly in Calcutta in 1948 into a global beacon of self-abnegating care, delivered the kind of message the world had come to expect from her. "It is not enough for us to say, 'I love God, but I do not love my neighbor,'" she said, since in dying on the Cross, God had "[made] himself the hungry one — the naked one — the homeless one." Jesus' hunger, she said, is what "you and I must find" and alleviate. She condemned abortion and bemoaned youthful drug addiction in the West. Finally, she suggested that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind the world "that radiating joy is real" because Christ is everywhere — "Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive."

Yet less than three months earlier, in a letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an absent one. "Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/23/2007 7:29:03 PM

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Yeah, well withholding basic medical care, so that a newly baptized soul can ascent into heaven will do that for a person.

For her, keeping 'em healthy and alive here was less important than they accept redemption before they die. I understand her conflict.

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It's not every generation that gets to watch a civilization fall. Looks like we're in for a hell of a show.

ברוך אתה, אדוני אלוקינו, ריבון העולמים, מי יוצר צמחים ריחניים

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/23/2007 9:10:42 PM

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If a xtian hell exists she is roasting in it.

I still cannot believe that so few people actually looked past the public relations and fund raising machine to see what was really going on. Letting the poor suffer because it was their place in life and it made them noble and holy? A saint encouraged this? WTF!

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/23/2007 9:24:54 PM

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This was interesting for me to read - thanks for publishing it, Level. It seems she thought she was undergoing some kind of spiritual test (maybe she was). And then a cleansing and them growth - or all three at once. It was really an interesting read.

I think that anyone who can question their own value and mission, with that much depth, has a lot of humility. I think it's possible she was also very physically exhaused and depressed -wouldn't many people have been, having worked in those conditions for years on end? No matter how many poor people you help, you always know there will be more?

I maybe shouldn't say this, but I think it might be possible, that after all of those years working with people in poverty, and children in poverty, she was questioning the Catholic church's policy on No birth control - and felt very divided about it - but of course could never say that, being a nun. Maybe that was bothering her. I imagine that would bring a definite crisis of faith to someone who was as devout a Catholic as she was.

I just cannot believe that anyone would expect her to be perfect - she was a human being, and also a Catholic - if people know a thing or two about Catholic theology, might know why she did some of the things the way she did them. Maybe she screwed up a time or two. Why this would surprise some people is beyond me.

I hope people read this article, and take time to actually look at the pictures, too.

Even if she seems to not have done things the way some think they should have been done, all the time - I doubt many can fault her for devoting her enitre life to trying to help the poor and dying. She spent most of her time with the caste of "Untouchables" - nobody else would even give thme a place to stay - they were dying in the street.

No matter how you slice it - I just don't know any people who have spent their entire lives this way, dedicated to those ends (in whatever way they saw fit - which might not be everyone's way).

What am I doing with my week-ends? There is a slight contrast to her life: I am seeing movies, going to a spa, and I just returned from a vacation in Colorado. Oh yes - and practicing BDSM and writing notes on a BDSM message board. Gee - how I do suffer. I donate to charities, I've done volunteer work in my time, and I try to be a good person, sure, but nothing ever that compares to spending all of my time in a hell-hole in India, attempting to do the very absolute best I am able - as I see fit - to attempt to help (in my own way) those most in need of help.

Let those who does not also live in a glass house (of some kind), cast the first stone at her, I say.

- Susan

< Message edited by SusanofO -- 8/23/2007 10:22:22 PM >

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/23/2007 11:28:55 PM

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That kaniving bitch, since when did she get to make the rules?
And what the hell was she doing in Calcutta of all places?
Those people aren't even Catholic in India!
What are they, vegetarians or something?
She should have been in sunny South Florida "tending" to sick drug pushers in their retirement!
Most of them are or were Catholics and you can bet she'd have been driving a Mercedes instead of two sandals.
I could never figure her out or why people liked her.
I always thought from what I read that maybe she was mentally ill.
She'd have accomplished more in some other country than India.
She wouldn't have lasted long in a muslim country!
Maybe 3 days.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/23/2007 11:44:44 PM

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That's where she thought God told her to go. India. She did not necesarily try to convert to Catholicism those who came to her missions or hospices. If they converted, they did it willingly. And she certainly never made their religion an issue by denying care to non-Catholics. Ever.

- Susan

< Message edited by SusanofO -- 8/23/2007 11:46:55 PM >

_____________________________

"Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 12:09:23 AM

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And Bush thinks God told him to create "democracy" in Iraq.
I'm starting to see a "pattern" here.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 4:24:04 AM

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Too true popeye. God is a good excuse for a lot of things and is an abdication of personal responsibility.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 5:17:57 AM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: SusanofO

That's where she thought God told her to go. India. She did not necesarily try to convert to Catholicism those who came to her missions or hospices. If they converted, they did it willingly. And she certainly never made their religion an issue by denying care to non-Catholics. Ever.

- Susan

You got it all wrong... The denial of care came AFTER the baptism and assurance that they dead soul would go to heaven.

Dying a Cristian was more important to her than living as a heathen.

_____________________________

It's not every generation that gets to watch a civilization fall. Looks like we're in for a hell of a show.

ברוך אתה, אדוני אלוקינו, ריבון העולמים, מי יוצר צמחים ריחניים

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 6:24:27 AM

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I love these sorts of posts and stories ... "journalists" making money by "exposing" people. Keep in mind, I'm not defending Mother Theresa. I don't know enough about her to even attempt it. I can though, recognize smile-n-slam journalism when I see it.

As I get older, I wonder more about the world we live in. Too cynical, and too easy to assign guilt, and expect people to prove they are innocent. My goal is to fight growing up.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 7:48:31 AM

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Amazing coincidence that this Time article should have published yesterday... I let off some steam about that woman on another thread two days ago.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 9:44:29 AM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: caitlyn

I love these sorts of posts and stories ... "journalists" making money by "exposing" people. Keep in mind, I'm not defending Mother Theresa. I don't know enough about her to even attempt it. I can though, recognize smile-n-slam journalism when I see it.

As I get older, I wonder more about the world we live in. Too cynical, and too easy to assign guilt, and expect people to prove they are innocent. My goal is to fight growing up.

Let's examine the facts of this woman's life then.

She opposed any and all forms of family planning. She routinely kept newly converted people from receiving life saving medical care. She made gushing compliments about vicious dictators who gave her money, the Duvaliers for instance.

When she became ill she did not accept that it was her lot to suffer and die as the poor around her did every day. Instead she boarded a plane for California where she received top quality US health care even though she worked day to day in a clinic that she adamantly refused to spend money on improving the medical care it provided. Strangely rather than accepting her suffering as way to be closer to Jesus as she espoused for the poor who her order supposedly cared for she took painkillers after her various surgeries.

Her fundraising implied strongly that the money would be used to help the poor but instead the clinics and homes received barely enough funding to operate while she expanded her order and spent money on political causes both inside the Catholic church and in secular governments worldwide.

Both the Lancet and the British Medical Journal criticized her Calcutta clinic for its poor sanitation and reliance on faith healing and rejection of systematic medical diagnosis.

All in all a monstrous hypocrite.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 9:53:35 AM

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Bravo.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 12:43:59 PM

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Mother Theresa saw more suffering in a day than most of us see in our entire lives.

We cry out to God when one of our loved ones is taken from us saying life is not fair.
It makes us think about our own faith. That is a single person.

Imagine seeing millions of people live in despair and death. I find it human that she did wonder if
there was a God. In my mind there would be something wrong with her if she didn't question her
faith on a pretty regular basis.
In the end she helped people because she thought it was the right thing to do. Not necessarily because
she thought God thought it was the right thing to do.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 1:57:10 PM

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Anyone who criticizes Mother Teresa is a dumbass. You might as well criticize the NY firefighters and policemen on 9/11 or anyone willing to give up their lives for the benefit of other people. What have you done that's so important. Exactly.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 2:20:59 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: FootBuddy

Anyone who criticizes Mother Teresa is a dumbass. You might as well criticize the NY firefighters and policemen on 9/11 or anyone willing to give up their lives for the benefit of other people. What have you done that's so important. Exactly.

So the truth is irrelevant to you? All that matters to you is the PR machine not facts? Thanks for the info, I can safely ignore any further ignorant bleatings you may make.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 2:40:17 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: sub4hire

Mother Theresa saw more suffering in a day than most of us see in our entire lives.

We cry out to God when one of our loved ones is taken from us saying life is not fair.
It makes us think about our own faith. That is a single person.

Imagine seeing millions of people live in despair and death. I find it human that she did wonder if
there was a God. In my mind there would be something wrong with her if she didn't question her
faith on a pretty regular basis.
In the end she helped people because she thought it was the right thing to do. Not necessarily because
she thought God thought it was the right thing to do.

Well then she should have been criticising the government of India for allowing that to happen!
If India can afford a *nuclear arsenal* then they can afford to take care of their own people!
Oh sure, I want to donate money to help poor people in India while their government spends a hundred billion dollars on nuclear weapons.
And, people who are 8,000 miles away are not my "neighbors."

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 2:48:26 PM

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Sort of the same way we can afford to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on war and other things we shouldn't be involved in. Yet can't seem to get rid of our own homeless?
Or have decent paying jobs? The list goes on and on.
Doesn't that sort of make us the same as her in some regards. At least in not helping out the "proper" way.

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 2:56:44 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: sub4hire

Sort of the same way we can afford to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on war and other things we shouldn't be involved in. Yet can't seem to get rid of our own homeless?
Or have decent paying jobs? The list goes on and on.
Doesn't that sort of make us the same as her in some regards. At least in not helping out the "proper" way.

I agree with the first part of your statement.
Our govt. is doing a piss-poor job running this country and we need to get big business out of government.
Sorry but "Mother Theresa" never gave me the "warm and fuzzies."
A lot of people think that "all politics is local."
Fine, then let us and all the other countries start helping "their own."

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"But Your Honor, this is not a Jury of my Peers, these people are all decent, honest, law-abiding citizens!"

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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 8/24/2007 3:02:40 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen
All in all a monstrous hypocrite.

Interesting, DomKen. So what happened to the disappeared money? I seems as though she used the poor as a source of revenue, but for what purpose?
It also may be that she enjoyed the sight of people dying. Perchance even made sure that they did?

(in reply to DomKen)

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