FEATURE: Sr. Prema: ‘Mother Teresa Was Icon of Unity’... from ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States for Friday, 2 September 2016

FEATURE: Sr. Prema: ‘Mother Teresa Was Icon of Unity’... from ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States for Friday, 2 September 2016
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FEATURE: Sr. Prema: ‘Mother Teresa Was Icon of Unity’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Mother Teresa has been an icon of unity, tolerance, acceptance, and of loving each person.”
Sr. Mary Prema Pierick, the current Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious institute founded by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, said this to ZENIT in the Vatican this morning. She was responding to how the figure of Mother Teresa of Calcutta can help make India understand that Christianity is a religion of peace as often times in the country, there is religious intolerance toward minorities and Christians.
The German nun noted how loved Mother Teresa was: “We saw this at her funeral. Everyone was there,” she said, noting how faithful of other religions are drawn to Mother’s selfless example.
“India has a love and great respect for Mother,” she said, smiling. “Everyone saw the sanctity, even in their own religious concept.”
The sister stressed how Mother Teresa’s legacy still can actively bring together those who otherwise could have remained indifferent.
Sister Prema was one of those speaking at the briefing this morning in the Holy See Press Office. In her intervention, she noted how she met Mother Teresa in 1980 and how impressed she was by her, and how touched she was to have received the crucifix from her.
“She was our mother and teacher,” she said, adding, “she lived religious life with so much joy and enthusiasm that we all wanted to be close to her.”
Turning to how down-to-earth Mother Teresa was, Sr. Prema shared with the journalists how Mother shared the dormitory with the other sisters, always had meals together with them, and never would tolerate being treated differently than the others.
“She never accepted anything that was not the same for the other sisters,” Sr. Prema said, noting, “She loved us and continues to bring us closer.”
“She never did anything to lead others to herself, but only to Jesus and Mary,” she said. “Mother’s love for Jesus was put into action.”
“Even in old age,” Sr. Prema recalled, “she tried to be the first one in the chapel to show Jesus how much she loved him.”
Speaking on how Mass always empowered Mother, the Superior General noted how after Mass, Mother was always there to take on whatever needed to be done.
“She guided us in how to live in a practical way the high demands of total surrender and trust, always with a smile,”
“I believe Mother’s smile was her gift to Jesus and the world,” she said noting how in the midst of the sadness in the world today, people need joy and hope.
The sister highlighted the soon-to-be canonized saint’s obedience, noting, “If a doctor prescribed medicine, she took it like an obedient child.”
Speaking on Mother’s vision of the world and people, she explained that “everyone is infinitely loved by God, and that everyone is meant to love and be loved.”
Sr. Prema noted how Mother Teresa was insightful and was very aware that without people realizing their own worth and being loved by God, they would not be at peace.
Her true poverty, sharing the pain with those around her, was another distinguishing mark of Mother. This legacy inspires the Missionaries of Charity to fulfill their mission.
Rather than one saying that “she loved the people of Calcutta,” Sr. Prema explained, it would be more correct to say, “She loved the individual sufferer and wanted to make a difference in each individual’s life.”

Pope Praying That Sacraments, Scripture Turn Christians Into Evangelizers by ZENIT StaffIn September, the Pope is praying that Christians might become aware of the mission we all share: to spread the Gospel.
The Apostleship of Prayer announced the intentions chosen by the Pope for September.
His universal prayer intention for September is: “That each may contribute to the common good and to the building of a society that places the human person at the centre.”
His intention for evangelisation is: “That by participating in the Sacraments and meditating on Scripture, Christians may become more aware of their mission to evangelize.”

Program for Pope’s Sept. 20 Assisi Visit by ZENIT Staff
Pope Francis will return to the Italian town of Assisi on Sept. 20, just over a month after his Aug. 4 visit, this time to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Meeting of Prayer for Peace, desired by John Paul II on Oct. 27, 1986.
Related: Read more on the history and the meaning of the Assisi meetings.
Here are the details of Francis’ program:
10.30 Departure from Vatican City’s Helicopter Pad
11.05 Landing at Assisi’s Migaghelli Sports Field near the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels.
Pope Francis will be greeted by Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi and the local authorities
11.30 Arrival at the Holy Convent of Assisi
The Pope will be greeted by:
Father Mauro Gambetti, Custodian of the Holy Convent, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, a Muslim reprepresentative, Dr Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Syro-Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Efrem II, a Jewish representative and the Supreme Head of Tendai Buddhism (Japan)
They then move to the Cloister of Sixtus IV where the representatives of Christian denominations and World Religions are waiting.
12.00 The Holy Father greets all the representatives one by one.
13.00 Lunch together in the refectory of the Holy Cnvent that also will be attended by several war victims.
15.15 Pope Francis meets individually with the following:
Bartholomew I, a Muslim representative, Archbishop Justin Welby, Patriarch Efrem II and a Jewish representative.
16.00 Prayers for Peace
ECUMENICAL PRAYER OF CHRISTIANS taking place in different places in the Lower Basilica of St. Francis
17.00 All the participants exit from the Lower Basilica and meet with the Representatives of other religions who have prayed in different places and they move to the podium in the Square.
17.17 CLOSING CEREMONY in St. Francis Square
Greeting by Bishop Domenico Sorrentino.
Messages read by:
A testimony from a victim of war, Patriarch Bartholomew I, a Muslim representative, a Jewish representative, Japanese Buddhist Patriarch, Professor Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio Community, address by Pope Francis, Letter appealing for peace that will be handed to children in various countries, a moment of silence for the victims of war, the signing of an Appeal for Peace and the lighting of two candles, exchanging the sign of peace
18.30 Pope Francis leaves by car for the St. Mary of the Angels Heliport.
19.30 Arrival at the Vatican City Heliport.

The Journey With Christ Is the Way of Mercy by Archbishop Francesco Follo
Roman Rite
Wis 9.13 to 18; Ps 90; Phmn 1, 9-10.12-17; Lk 14.25 to 33
Ambrosian Rite
Is 30, 8-15b; Ps 50; Rm 5, 1-11; Mt 4.12 to 17
First Sunday after the martyrdom of St. John the Precursor
1) Paradoxical needs for a paradoxical journey.
After having left the banquet where Jesus said that we must live in humility and generosity (see last Sunday’s Gospel), Jesus resumes his journey to Jerusalem. His journey, more than a “geographical” one, is a journey of the heart that led him to open his hands and to let them be nailed to the cross.
On this road to Jerusalem, the Redeemer is accompanied by “a large crowd that went with him” (see Lk 14, 25). This “going” is the journey of life. To go with him is the meaning of our life because we are among the many people traveling with him. We too, like the first disciples and the crowd that was following him, are called to make up our minds, to take the decisive step and to become His disciples following him.
Often in the Gospel and not only in today’s passage, Christ calls to go with him, inviting to follow him in the path of his heart, which is a heart that saves, heals and forgives: a merciful heart. However, none of his teachings seems as hard, not to say disconcerting, as the one we hear today: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. “(Luke 14: 25-27). Three times Christ says that we can be his disciples only if we
1) hate[1] the loved ones and even our own life,
2) carry the cross,
3) renounce all our possessions.
A question arises: how is it possible that Jesus, model of meekness, spoke words so harsh that seem to contradict other recommendations he himself had repeated several times, for example those that suggest to honor the parents and to love not only the neighbor but also the enemies?
These are not contradictions but paradoxes[2]. In fact, also in various other passages of the four Gospels there are paradoxical teachings: “Blessed are you poor … …”; “If anyone wants to be first must be last and servant of all”; “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it”, etc. These are paradoxical expressions as paradoxical are the three indications remembered by the Messiah required as conditions necessary to follow Him. They are disconcerting indications expressing the need for a behavior that goes far beyond what is called common sense. However, these evangelical paradoxes are not unreasonable, but have a real and profound logic.
2) The Christian paradox.
To understand the truth and the reasonableness of the “paradoxes” of Christ required to follow Him, it is important to remember that, to be his followers, we need a superior love, a “more” which cannot come from us, but always assumes the substance of the Cross. To follow Jesus we must have for him a love bigger than the one for our family, a love greater than the one that each of us has for his or her own life. Moreover, we must carry our own cross.
But who is capable of this? Jesus calls us to do a good deal. It is a strange deal. The less one has, the great are his possibilities to succeed. The more one counts on Jesus in total surrender and loving trust, the more he is strong in the Lord (see. 2 Cor 12:10). The more we are poor of ourselves, the more we are rich of Christ and full of his strength which supports and forgives. To follow Jesus, then, we must “give up all our possessions.”
More than contradiction, this call of Christ sounds craziness. Christ’s call is not crazy and unreasonable. It is logic. In fact, the Savior asks to “give up everything” because it is not possible to make compromises nor to have a heart eyed and split, otherwise the result would be to die tormented. It is necessary to “give up everything” because, to be his “disciples” and save the world, we must have “all” his love and “all” his Grace. Mixing these with the infected resources of our carnal frailty would make everything useless. We are called to “give up all the assets”, from money and properties to will, leaving the field open to the love and grace of God.
3) Mother Teresa of Calcutta: a current example of discipleship.
A recent example of how it is possible to follow Christ, taking seriously the three logical and reasonable requirements expressed in the today’s Gospel: 1) to “hate” the loved ones and even his own life, 2) to carry the cross, 3) to renounce all possessions, is offered by Mother Teresa of Calcutta that today, September 4, 2016 will be canonized by Pope Francis.
This Saint had a strong experience of God who called her, loving her. For her, in her daily life on which weighted the consciousness of her own weakness and spiritual aridity, the experience of God has always had the upper hand. She understood that her life was being with Christ, who thirsts for our thirst.
Saint Teresa replied to the call that the Lord made directly to her with total abandon, loving trust and joy. In this way she has become an exemplary witness to Christians and non-Christians of the words of the beloved disciple: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us “(1 Jn 4: 11-12)”. Let this love continue to inspire us to be like Missionaries of Charity, to give ourselves wholeheartedly to Jesus, and to serve the poor and the sick, the lonely and the abandoned.
The thirst that Christ has for us on the Cross made Mother Teresa of Calcutta understand that the humanity of Jesus is the supreme sign of God’s revelation to man, the portal through which one must pass in order to understand what charity is and what divine life is. Charity is God who descends between us, who bends over us and quenches our thirst for love and meaning in life. At the same time, from our side, love is to embrace the humanity of Jesus. In welcoming the poor, our brothers, let’s accept Jesus. We are Jesus for one another.
God, who is the living water, needs our poor water and needs our yes to him to give us his life. In this way, the Redeemer introduces us to a journey of gradual identification with him. Through his thirst he makes us aware of our thirst and of our true needs.
With the water of His mercy He refreshes us. For our part, through the example and the intercession of Mother Teresa, we must respond to the cry of Jesus on the Cross: “I thirst.” If we listen with our heart, we will feel, understand and experience deeply that Jesus thirsts for us, for each one of us, and will welcome the invitation of the new saint: “Follow His footsteps in search of souls. Carry Him and His light into the houses of the poor, especially the neediest souls. Spread the charity of His Heart wherever you go, so as to quench His thirst for souls. “The mother of the poorest of the poor adds:” Do you realize it? God is thirsting for you and me to quench His thirst. “
How do the consecrated Virgins in the world and in the Church respond to this thirst? The specific form of the consecration of the Ordo Virginum by which these virgin women respond to the thirst of Christ, is characterized by a commitment to lead a life of faith and evangelical radicalism in the ordinary conditions of existence. The Virgins consecrated in the world and totally given to Christ, conform to Christ by living the Gospel radically and, in doing so, they reply to His thirst for us.
With their “proposita” they undertake forever the commitment to “follow Christ more closely … betrothed mystically to the Son of God” (canon 604, § 1) to serve the Church in the world. In this world, these consecrated Virgins pray the work, “doing it” with Him, “doing it” for Him, “doing it” to Him. In doing so, they love Him. Loving Him, they become more and more one with Him, and allow Him to live in them His Life. “This life of Christ in us is holiness “(see St Teresa of Calcutta).
For this Sunday, instead of the patristic reading, I propose a beautiful prayer composed by the Fathers Missionaries of Charity following the teachings of the new Saint.
I THIRST FOR YOU…
It is true. I stand at the door of your heart, day and night. Even when you are not listening, even when you doubt it could be Me, I am there. I await even the smallest sign of your response, even the least whispered invitation that will allow Me to enter.
And I want you to know that whenever you invite Me, I do come always without fail. Silent and unseen I come, but with infinite power and love, and bringing the many gifts of My spirit. I come with My mercy, with My desire to forgive and heal you and with a love for you beyond your comprehension- a love every bit as great as the love I have received from the Father ( As much as the Father has loved me, I have loved you…”[John.15:9]). I come – longing to console you and give you strength, to lift you up and bind all your wounds. I bring you My light, to dispel your darkness and all your doubts. I come with My power, that I might carry you and all of your burdens; with My grace, to touch your heart and transform your life; and My peace I give to still your soul.
I know you through and through – I know everything about you. The very hairs of your head I have numbered. Nothing in your life is unimportant to Me. I have followed you through the years, and I have always loved you – even in your wanderings. I know everyone of your problems. I know your needs and your worries. And yes, I know all your sins. But I tell you again that I love you- not for what you have or haven’t done – I love you for you, for the beauty and dignity My Father gave you by creating you in His own image. It is a dignity you have often forgotten, a beauty you have tarnished by sin. But I love you as you are, and I have shed My Blood to win you back. If you only ask Me with faith, My grace will touch all the needs changing in your life; and I will give you the strength to free yourself from sin and all its destructive power.
I know what is in your heart- I know your loneliness and all your hurts- the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations. I carried it all before you. And I carried it all for you, so you might share My strength and victory. I know especially your need for love – how you are thirsted in vain, by seeking that love selfishly, striving to fill the emptiness inside you with passing pleasures- with the even greater emptiness of sin. Do you thirst for love? “Come to Me all of you who thirst…”(John 7:37). I will satisfy you and fill you. Do you thirst to be cherished? I cherish you more than you can imagine – to the point of dying on a cross for you.
I thirst for you. Yes, that is the only way to even begin to describe My love for you: I THIRST FOR YOU. I thirst to love you and to be loved by you – that is how precious you are to Me. I THIRST FOR YOU. Come to Me and I will fill your heart and heal your wounds. I will make you a new creation and give you peace, even in all your trials. I THIRST FOR YOU. You must never doubt My mercy, My acceptance of you, My desire to forgive, My longing to bless you and live My life in you. I THIRST FOR YOU. If you feel unimportant in the eyes of the world, that matters not at all. For Me, there is no one any more important in the entire world than you. I THIRST FOR YOU. Open to Me, come to Me, thirst for Me, give Me your life- and I will prove to you how important you are to My Heart.
Don’t you realize that My Father already has a perfect plan to transform your life, beginning from this moment? Trust in Me. Ask Me every day to enter and take charge of your life- and I will. I promise you before My father in heaven that I will work miracles in your life. Why would you I do this? Because I THIRST FOR YOU. All I ask of you is that you entrust yourself to Me completely. I will do all the rest.
Even now I behold the place My Father has prepared for you in My kingdom. Remember that you are a pilgrim in this life, on a journey home. Sin can never satisfy you or bring the peace you seek. All that you have sought outside of Me has only left you more empty, so do not cling to the things of his life. Above all, do not run from Me when you fall. Come to Me without delay. When you give Me your sins, you give Me the joy of being your Saviour. There is nothing I cannot forgive and heal, so come now and unburden your soul.
No matter how far you may wander, no matter how often you forget Me, no matter how many crosses you may bear in this life, there is one thing I want you to always remember, one thing that will never change: I THIRST FOR YOU – just as you are. You don’t need to change to believe in My love, for it will be your belief in My love that will change you. You forget Me, and yet I am seeking you every moment of the day- standing at the door of your heart and knocking. Do you find this hard to believe? Then look at the cross, look at My Heart that was pierced for you. Have you not understood My cross? Then listen again to the words I spoke there – for they tell you clearly why I endured all this for you: ”I THIRST….”(John 19:28). Yes, I thirst for you – as the rest of the psalm-verses I was praying says of Me: “I looked for love, and I found none…”(Ps 69:21). All your life I have been looking for your love- I have never stopped seeking to love you and be loved by you. You have tried many other things in your search for happiness; why not try opening your heart to Me, right now, more than you ever have before.
Whenever you do open the door of your heart, whenever you come close enough, you will hear Me say to you again and again, not in mere human words but in spirit: “No matter what you have done, I love you for your own sake. Come to Me with your misery and your sins, with your troubles and needs, and with all your longing to be loved. I stand at the door of you heart and knock…Open to ME, for I THIRST FOR YOU…” (Missionaries of Charity Fathers)
—[1] Of course, St. Luke does not use the word “hate” in its true meaning. He knows that parents need to be loved and respected. It is, for him, not hate, but detachment and preference for the Kingdom. Yet he has used the verb “misein” that means a particularly radical detachment. It is not only to break ties with family or just a general detachment from self. The example of Jesus is very specific and precise: we must be willing to carry the cross (Lk 14, 27), the real and total self-sacrifice [2] The etymology of the word “paradox” helps to better understand its meaning. It is a word of Greek origin “ para-doxos”(= contrary to common opinion, therefore unexpected and shocking) that indicates a statement in clear contrast with expectations and normal experiences but that – if considered with a critic and deep examination- shows to be definitively valid. Moreover, it manifests a truth particularly rich and deep, therefore “unexpected” and shocking.

Not Since Francis of Assisi Has Someone Had Such an Echo Outside the Church by ZENIT Staff
[From Vatican Radio]
Tens of thousands of faithful are expected to turn out for the canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta on Sunday. Founder of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa dedicated her life to helping the poorest of the poor, the sick, the dying and unloved. She received numerous awards for her work, including the Nobel peace prize in 1979. Mother Teresa died on September 5th, 1997 at the age of 87. She was beatified bby Pope John Paul II in 2003.
Missionary of Charity Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk was postulator for her canonization cause. He told Vatican Radio’s Tracey McClure, “She was very gifted humanly speaking. She was intelligent, very practical, a born teacher, organizer… she sang, had a beautiful voice; she played an instrument, she wrote poetry. She had many gifts.”
He added that Mother Teresa expected the 4,000 sisters who now make up the order to be devoted to Jesus and to live a life of simplicity: “The sisters who joined were very talented doctors, nurses and others – but they were supposed to live simply as all the other sisters. And she herself did it.”
“She disguised the profundity of her holiness by the exterior simplicity of her life and of her words, even.”
“If I ever become a saint, I will surely be one of Darkness”
“If I ever become a saint, I will surely be one of Darkness,” Mother Teresa once said. She also believed she would be “absent from heaven.” Asked what she meant by this, Fr. Brian explained:
“I think it was Mother Teresa’s ‘mission statement’ of what she will be doing when she, as she used to say, ‘goes home to God.’ From the letters that we discovered [after her death] when we began collecting the documents that were published in “Mother Teresa Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta,” to the surprise, if not shock of everyone, even the sisters closest to Mother Teresa, we discovered that her interior experience was what she called ‘the Darkness’ and that she is a woman passionately in love with Jesus.”
The shock was greatest because Mother Teresa’s seemingly never-ending energy and organizational skills had led everyone to believe she lived with the consoling knowledge of Jesus’ love for her.
Yet the letters revealed “that she is feeling unloved, unwanted by Jesus,” noted Fr. Brian. “She feels that she cannot love Jesus as she wants to love him: as he’s never been loved before – which is a daring resolution to even make if you’re taking it seriously.”
Fr. Brian recalled reading some of her correspondence to the sisters in the mother house in Calcutta, India, who knew her well. “They were really crying because you were reading them and you know Mother, it’s your mother, and then you’re hearing this and you have a sense of how she’s suffering…”
Some of the most revealing of her letters were addressed directly to Jesus, to whom she described her agony over doubts about the strength of her faith and Jesus’ love for her.
She wrote, ‘I am willing to go through this for all eternity even if this is for your pleasure or if others can benefit from this, if it were possible’ explained Fr. Brian. “The magnanimity, the great soul in this is just tremendous: ‘I want to satiate your thirst with every drop of blood that you can find in me.’ So that’s why when you are reading this or hearing this, the sisters were crying in the mother house. If that’s not love for God, then I don’t know what is.”
Did Mother Teresa know she would be made a saint?
Asked what Mother Teresa would have said if she knew that she would indeed be made a saint, Fr. Brian answered:
“I think that she was innocent and pure but she wasn’t stupid or naive. So I think that she had a sense that…. You know, at a news conference, a journalist would ask: ‘Well Mother Teresa, why do you think people call you a living saint?’ And then, she would say, … ‘you or we shouldn’t be surprised if you see Jesus in me because it’s an obligation for all of us to be holy.’”
“I think she must have had some sense that she would be (made a saint) but that said, I think one of her other outstanding virtues is humility,” continued Fr. Brian. “Because she was one of the most admired women in the 20th century – not just in the Church – not since St. Francis of Assisi has someone had that echo outside the Church. Of course we have other great saints but (who) has that echo? … Even in the culture, you’ll see in a movie or in a book or something, someone will say, ‘who do you think I am, Mother Teresa?’ There’s a sense that they just identify Mother Teresa with goodness, kindness, charity….”
The Miracle
The miraculous healing of Marcilio Haddad Andrino in 2008 in Brazil has been attributed to Mother Teresa’s intervention. Fr. Brain notes that Marcilio was “diagnosed as having a bacterial brain infection that led to multiple abscesses which led to hydrocephaly – water in the brain … his wife Fernanda began a novena to pray for his recovery.”
She kept praying through December 9th, recounted Fr. Brian, when “he was in such extreme pain from all the pressure of water on the brain that he went into a coma. Basically, on that day he was dying. So they kept praying – a doctor wanted to do an operation to drain the liquid and they couldn’t do it the normal way because there was a problem in the throat and the anesthesiologist was afraid to do it. Around 6:00, Marcilio was in the operating room, and around 6.10 pm the doctor left to try to find I think the endocrinologist or someone to do it in another way.”
When the doctor returned to the operating room at about 6:40 pm, Fr. Brian explained, “Marcilio who was already in a deep coma, 3 on the Glasgow scale – 15 is conscious and 3 is like near death – and then [suddenly], Marcilio is awake, no pain, and he looks around the operating room and says, ‘what am I doing here?’ At that time, his wife was also praying intensely.”
Neurosurgeons in Brazil and Rome who examined Marcilio’s before and after brain scans were dumbfounded: they “said there’s no way you can go from here to here,” Fr. Brian added. The doctor who treated Marcilio said of the thirty patients in his care for the same condition, Marcilio is the only one to have ever survived.
The “side” miracle, Fr. Brian says, is the fact that Marcilio and his wife, who had been told they would never be able to have kids, discovered that Fernanda was pregnant and went on to have two children.

Canonization Painting of Mother Teresa the Work of American Artist Chas Fagan by ZENIT Staff
The portrait of Mother Teresa that will be displayed on the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica at her Vatican canonization on Sunday was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus and painted by renowned American artist Chas Fagan.
The official canonization image was commissioned by the Knights as a gift to the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa in 1950. The gift also includes the printing by the Knights of more than one million prayer cards bearing the new image, primarily for distribution at the canonization Mass that will be led by Pope Francis. Reproductions of the portrait will also be given to Missionaries of Charity and the poor they serve around the world.
“The Knights of Columbus has been privileged to work closely with Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity since the 1970s,” said Knights CEO Carl Anderson. “We always felt a special affinity with Mother Teresa since our first principle is charity. As with her, that principle manifests itself in our own work and also through our help and support for the poor and vulnerable – those on the margins of society.”
The recent printing is not the first such assignment for Mother Teresa’s congregation that has been tackled by the Knights at their New Haven printing plant.
In 1988, Mother Teresa personally delivered her order’s constitutions and official book of prayers for production by the same K of C printing plant that is now supporting her canonization. In a talk at the time to nearly 600 K of C employees, she thanked “the Knights of Columbus for all the good things they have done for the people of God.”
In 1992, Mother Teresa was chosen as the first recipient of the Gaudium et Spes Award, the highest honor that the Knights bestow.
A graduate of Yale University, Chas Fagan has painted portraits of all the U.S. presidents — a collection that regularly tours the country for the White House Historical Association. He lives and works in Charlotte, N.C. Also an accomplished sculptor, Fagan’s pieces include a bronze of President Ronald Reagan that stands in the Capitol rotunda and likenesses of Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks that are carved into the stone detail of the narthex of Washington’s National Cathedral.
The painting of Mother Teresa will be on display at the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, Conn., for several weeks, starting Friday, Sept. 2, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The display, “Mother Teresa: Saint of the Streets,” is free and open to the public and features memorabilia from the life and ministry of the new saint.

The Necessity of Music by Bishop James Conley
This is the latest column from Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, reprinted from the Southern Nebraska Register.
It was an extraordinary experience to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament at Copacabana Beach in Brazil, at World Youth Day in 2013. Catholic musician Matt Maher led us in worship—more than 3 million people, and Pope Francis, sang “Lord, I need you, Oh, I need you,” as Matt Maher softly played the guitar.
At the Mercy Center in Krakow this summer, nearly 20,000 young people knelt before the Eucharist, praising the Lord as Maher and musician Audrey Assad led songs of praise and thanksgiving. I watched as tears streamed down faces, and young people touched by the moment lined up for the sacrament of confession.
Music can be a powerful part of our relationships with Almighty God. And every culture and generation sings songs and hymns of praise and thanksgiving that speak the love of their hearts.
As a child in the Protestant church, I learned the canon of hymns most treasured in America— “How Great Thou Art,” “Amazing Grace,” “Nearer my God to Thee.” As a young man, I learned the inspiring folk songs of Ireland, England, and France. Those songs helped me to grow in devotion to God. They helped me to keep the Lord in the forefront of my mind. They gave language to my praise and gratitude to the Lord. They became a part of my devotional life. And, because I shared them with others, they became a part—an important part—of the Catholic culture I continue to share with my family and friends.
We need singing, and music, and songs in our family life, the life of our community, and the life of our prayer. Scripture calls us to “make a joyful song unto the Lord,” and St. Augustine tells us that “he who sings, prays twice.”
It is almost impossible to imagine a robust Christian civilization, or a robust spiritual life, without music. The Second Vatican Council taught that music is “a treasure of inestimable value,” that “adds delight to prayer” and “fosters unity of minds.” The Church has long known that we especially need music during our most important, and most sacred moments of worship: during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In fact, the Second Vatican Council said that music “forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy” of the Mass.
But music at Mass has a different purpose than the devotional music of our families, communities, and personal prayer lives. The Church says that sacred music, sung during our liturgies, is for the glory of God, and for our sanctification. At Mass, we offer our lives to God through worship, unified with the Eucharistic sacrifice. And we receive the graces that make us saints, and draw us into relationship with God. The Church says that certain kinds of music, developed over centuries, help us to actively participate in the Mass, and to more fruitfully receive the graces of the Eucharist. The Second Vatican Council taught these kinds of music should be preferred during Mass.
In the first place, when it is possible, the prayers and responses of the Mass itself should be sung, including short introductory reflections, and short musical meditations, called antiphons. And the Second Vatican Council taught that the ancient custom of Gregorian chant should “be given pride of place” when it is possible. Other kinds of music, like beautiful sacred polyphony, also should have a special place in Mass.
Sacred music in Mass is different from the devotional and folk music that impacts so many of our lives. Sacred music amplifies the sacred words of the Mass, pointing us more deeply into the mystery of the Eucharist, and uses tones and rhythms that aid us in contemplation. Through careful reflection over thousands of years, the Church has developed a sense of the music that best fits the mystery of the Mass, and when sung with reverence and humility, gives glory and honor to Christ’s sacrifice.
The Church does not teach that we should only use old music during Mass. In fact, Pope John Paul II encouraged composers and musicians to write new music, that speaks to modern man, but that is rooted in continuity with the genius and richness of the Church’s tradition. Today, many composers write beautiful sacred music, building upon the richness of all that has come before, and faithful to the wisdom and teachings of the Church.
This week, more than 200 musicians from across the Diocese of Lincoln gathered at our first annual “Sacred Music Clinic,” to learn and practice the principles and traditions of the Church’s liturgical music. Many of them will introduce the beautiful customs they learned in their parishes, in small ways. Many of our priests have begun learning to chant the prayers of the Mass, and many lay Catholics are learning to do the same. All of these efforts help us to glorify God in the Mass, and to contemplate the mystery of the Eucharist.
Father Daniel Rayer, chair of the Diocesan Liturgical Commission, the planning committee chaired by Father Rayer, Amy Flamminio and Jessica Ligon, and all the members of the liturgical commission worked very hard and so well to plan and organize our sacred music clinic this year. I’m grateful for their work.
It is clear to me that in the Diocese of Lincoln, the Holy Spirit is at work. The Lord is helping us to grow in deeper understanding of the meaning of music in the sacred Mass. In that way, we can grow closer to the Lord. And at Mass, or in our families, or in our cars on the way to work, or on a beach with three million people, when we praise the Lord with song, we lift our hearts to him, and he touches our hearts in love.

Mother Teresa’s Legacy: Fulfillment Is Found Only in Others by Rita Ricci
The canonization will soon take place of Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, known to the world as Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It will be officiated by Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday and is one of the most awaited ceremonies of this Jubilee of Mercy.
To learn more about the spiritual journey and the life of the Founder of the Missionaries of Charity, born of Albanian parents at Skopje, Macedonia, in 1910, in the time of the Ottoman Empire, ZENIT met with her biographer, Father Lush Gjergji, present Vicar General of the Diocese of Kosovo, who, like the Religious, is also of Albanian origin.
A writer and journalist and author of numerous publications and books on the saint, Father Gjergji followed closely the exemplary life of “Sister-Courage,” from 1969 to 1997, the year of her death.
ZENIT: Father Lush, can you tell us who Mother Teresa really was?
Father Lush: Anjeze Gonxhe was a girl like many, who dreamed of being a teacher, with a remarkable inclination for music and dance, whose dreams were interrupted at the age of 12 by the first call of the Lord, who claimed her as His bride. It was then that she came across a real and proper “battle with God,” as she herself liked to describe it, which lasted six years until her “armistice” and obedience to the call. It was in fact August 14, 1928, that the future Mother Teresa began her noviciate in the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto. The strong Catholic education imparted by her parents, the Albanian tradition of hospitality and her assiduous frequentation of the Sacred Heart parish certainly influenced the choice of the young Gonxhe (Bud), encouraging her to follow Jesus’ footsteps.
ZENIT: Pope Francis will canonize her on Sunday, September 4. Why is she being proclaimed a Saint?
Father Lush: Her life itself, at the service of the sick and disinherited, is a living example of her sanctity. From her first years of life in the family she worked in the Sacred Heart parish, to then choose the noviciate in the Irish Order of the Missionary Sisters of Loreto, with the objective of going to India. At first she attended the University of Calcutta, studying History and Geography and in turn teaching the children of colonials. And she did this for 20 years, dividing herself between teaching and the direction of school institutes. And, finally, “the call within the call” came, as Teresa herself described it: another call of Jesus, which convinced her to give up the comforts of her Religious Order to go down to the streets, amid the poorest of the poor. And so for 50 years, from 1946 to 1997, she was at the service of the marginalized and the sick, in the slums of Calcutta, shantytowns lacking any hygienic service, where she founded her houses of hospitality and the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, recognized by the Church in 1950.
ZENIT: How did Mother Teresa succeed in speaking to the heart of all – Christians, Hindus, Muslims – with the same efficacy?
Father Lush: Mother Teresa is a rare and unique phenomenon in the history of humanity. She is not only a Saint for Christians but, in a certain sense, also for atheists, unbelievers, Hindus and Muslims. She succeeded in addressing the economic, social and spiritual evils of a country like India, thanks to the development of a civilization of love, also challenging the Indian social order of castes, approaching thepariah and choosing as habit a pale blue sari, the color of the Untouchables, the lowest in the Indian social scheme. She represents the carrying out of the fifth gospel in flesh and bone.
ZENIT: Can you tell us an unknown episode in the Saint’s life?
Father Lush: Yes, certainly, I still remember when, as parish priest, she took my hand and said to me: “Look carefully at your hand. You have five fingers. Every morning ask yourself what you will do today for the Lord with these five fingers and, in the evening, examining both palms, ask yourself what good you did for Jesus and for humanity and what you will do tomorrow.” She was a living example of divine goodness and charity: tireless in her mission of rescue.
ZENIT: In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. What was the reaction in Albania, her land of origin?
Father Lush: The Marxist dictatorial regime established by Enver Hoxha from 1941 to 1985 did not allow the confession of the Catholic religion, or the celebration, in fact, of his fellow citizen’s Nobel Prize. Mother Teresa was also prohibited from visiting her family at Tirana up to 1989, when religious freedom was re-established and, for the first time, she obtained an Albanian passport only after the collapse of the Communist regime. Her family privation, together with her displeasure for her own country, subjected to a rigid dictatorship, made the desire grow in her to be useful to others, as she herself declared when receiving the Nobel Prize: “Works of love are works of peace; love of neighbor is a great medicine.” Today, instead, October 19 has been instituted as a national holiday in Albania to commemorate the Nobel Prize of the most famous Albanian in the world.
ZENIT: What would Mother Teresa say to young people to react to this wave of attacks of Islamic fundamentalism?
Father Lush: For Mother Teresa the answer was love: to serve and give oneself to God means to love one’s neighbor with no distinctions. With her exemplary life she was able to bring together the Indian castes, beyond cultural, religious or sex differences. Her message is: “One is fulfilled only in others.”
ZENIT: The government of Kosovo has prepared a concert of classical music in her honor. When will it take place?
Father Lush: On the evening of Saturday, September 3, in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, on the eve of her canonization the concert “Hymn to Mother Teresa” will be held, composed and performed by the Albanian popular singer Diana Toska. A celebration dedicated to the fragile missionary Sister that, 20 years after her death, still unites peoples and creeds, as the components of the orchestra demonstrate, almost all Muslims, who offered themselves gladly to play in her honor, in keeping with her spirit of peace and her universal message. The ceremony will unfold in the presence of the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and of Monsignor Juliusz Janusz, Apostolic Delegate in Kosovo.[Translation by ZENIT]
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