about the life of Mother Teresa.
Truth be told I am abbreviating it a bit, this book is a little text-heavy for Bella. But if we keep coming back to it, we may well work through most of it today. I must confess that, though I love Mother Teresa, I’ve never sat down and read about her life. I have absorbed some of the essential facts from various articles I’ve stumbled across online, especially when the most recent controversy about her dark night erupted. I am learning something new today.
This book is lovely. There are a few typos and some slight errors; but I love, love, love the illustrations.
I do wish I had some clue as to how to pronounce her birth name, however. I feel foolish every time I stumble over Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. (Well, I get the Agnes part…)
I have an especial devotion to Mother Teresa after my sister-in-law sought her intercession for me when I was diagnosed with uterine cancer last year. It turned out to have been a false positive; but I firmly believe that her intercession was instrumental in carrying me through those dark days while I waited for the tests to come back. We received a beautiful novena booklet from the Missionaries of Charity that Bella loves to have me read to her at nap time, though we haven’t read it in a while. Dom also has a relic presented to him by some of the Missionaries when they visited our parish.
Charlotte has some beautiful Mother Teresa coloring pages here. We may print one out later today.
Who is Jesus to me?
Jesus is the Word made Flesh.
Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Jesus is the Victim offered for our sins on the Cross.
Jesus is the Sacrifice at Holy Mass for the sins of the world and mine.
Jesus is the Word – to be spoken.
Jesus is the Truth – to be told.
Jesus is the Way – to be walked.
Jesus is the Light – to be lit.
Jesus is the Life – to be loved.
Jesus is the Joy – to be shared.
Jesus is the Sacrifice – to be given.
Jesus is the Bread of Life – to be eaten.
Jesus is the Hungry – to be fed.
Jesus is the Thirsty – to be satiated.
Jesus is the Naked – to be clothed.
Jesus is the Homeless – to be taken in.
Jesus is the Sick – to be healed.
Jesus is the Lonely – to be loved.
Jesus is the Unwanted – to be wanted.
Jesus is the Leper – to wash his wounds.
Jesus is the Beggar – to give him a smile.
Jesus is the Drunkard – to listen to him.
Jesus is the Little One – to embrace him.
Jesus is the Dumb – to speak to him.
Jesus is the Crippled – to walk with him.
Jesus is the Drug Addict – to befriend him.
Jesus is the Prostitute – to remove from danger and befriend her.
Jesus is the Prisoner – to be visited.
Jesus is the Old – to be served.To me—
Jesus is my God,
Jesus is my Spouse,
Jesus is my Life,
Jesus is my only Love,
Jesus is my All in All,
Jesus is my Everything.
Amen.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for us.
I’ll have to see if our library has “The Glass Harmonica”, it sounds interesting. Maybe I’ll give David Copperfield a try, too. I enjoy Dickens, but got bogged down in “Bleak House”. Everybody needs a “Mrs. Hastead’s class” in their past. Mine was “Mr. Baker”.
It’s easy to get bogged down in Dickens. In fact, I think I may have been the only one in our class to actually finish Bleak House. We did group projects and I know I was the only one in our group who’d actually read the entire novel… which meant I got stuck doing most of the work. Our task was to edit the novel, cutting it down by a quarter or a third. Which I thought was a fun project. I think all my friends thought I was nuts.
I’m not sure why the novel clicked with me so much at the time. Perhaps it was because of Mrs. Hastedt’s approach to analyzing the small details. That was the semester I recall learning about diction and syntax and I began to recognize Dickens’ craftmanship. And perhaps it was because wrestling with Dickens’ characters and plotting in an attempt to edit the novel helped me to appreciate the structure.
+JMJ+
I would love to have been in that class, Melanie. =)