12/29/03

I read this book titled No Greater Love written by Mother Teresa.  Theres some good stuff in it, so if you can get you hands on a copy, I recommend you read it as well.  Ill share with you some of the things I got out of it.

The first chapter is on prayer.  I really resonated with some of the things she says about prayer.  I know that my own prayer life has been so lacking, especially while Im at home.  Anyway, I typed out that chapter because I want you to read it. 

I really like what she says about love: "We do not need to carry out grand things in order to show a great love for God and for our neighbors.  It is the intensity of love that we put into our gestures that makes them into something beautiful for God."  I know that I often question, what can I do to show a person love, when I really ought to be thinking about expressing love for the people I encounter through my daily actions and words.  It is not necessarily about going out of our way to do something for someone, but just in what we do day-to-day, to let our love pour out in that.  I know at times it is hard to maintain a loving attitude, to let love be a part of who we are, but this is what Jesus calls us to every second of our lives.  And the key is to look for Christ in everyone we encounter, no matter how hard it may be to see Christ in that person. 

Another thing she says about loving people, "It is easy to love those who are far away.  It is not always easy to love those who live right next to us." Heh, so true.  It is easy for me to love AH and SC because I dont live near them and I dont see them, but my suitemates whom I see everyday, yeah.  I mean it would be more practical to love my suitemates because theyre more accessible and I can do more for them, and yet I spend more time thinking about ways that I can help AH and SC when there isnt very much that I can do.  Funny how it works out like that.  And then in regards to physical and spiritual hunger, and youve sort of heard this a lot from me just because its something Ive battled with, but she says it so well: "The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love, hungry to be wanted, to be loved.  They are hungry to feel the presence of Christ...it is much harder and, perhaps more challenging to turn our attention and concern toward the poor who live right next door to usI find it is easy to give a plate of rice to a hungry person, to furnish a bed to a person who has no bed, but to console or to remove the bitterness, anger, and the loneliness that comes from being spiritually deprived, that takes a long time." 

Something else, "If you are discouraged, it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers.  Never bother about peoples opinion.  Be humble and you will never be disturbed.  The Lord has willed me here where I am.  He will offer a solution."  I guess we've discussed this topic before, but it never hurts to bring it up again.  I've often been told that thoughts of discouragement come from the enemy, and we shouldnt listen to them.  We shouldnt be listening to the enemy.  I don't disagree but I also think what she says is true, that discouragement comes from the pride within and a lack of trust in God.  Its like we think that we are responsible for the outcomes of things and it is our own abilities that control that.  But it isnt.  And things that happen that we see as failures arent necessarily failures, but perhaps all a part of Gods plan. 

Her comments on giving - "Have you ever experienced the joy of giving?  I do not want you to give to me from your abundanceI want you to give of yourself.  The love you put into the giving is the most important thingI dont like people to send me something because they want to get rid of it.  Giving is something different.  It is sharing.  I dont want you to give me what you have left over.  I want you to give from what you want until you really feel it!"  A couple things to this.  Some things we have an overflow of, but we want to keep it for ourselves.  There is value in giving these things away even though we have it in abundance.  And then what she says about giving in our tight situations.  For instance, something that we seem to have a shortage of is time, so giving of our time to serve others would be a good application.  But then most important thing is not the time or the money that we give, but it is to give of ourselves, to put love into the things and the ways we give.

Another quote on love that reiterates message about how its not in the great and the grand that you do, but the love that you put into the little things and big: "If you are really in love with Christ, no matter how small your work, it will be done better; it will be wholehearted.  Your work will prove your love.  You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself, but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless.  To work without love is slavery."

She talks a little bit about how it is our doing, our lack of love, our injustices that poverty exists and people suffer and people die.  So weve had discussions about this before, about how the sufferings in the world are a result of our sins.  I was thinking about what you told me one time about a discussion you had with your suitemate.  You said that one of the things he had trouble with was the question on how there can be God who we claim to be good and yet people die from poverty and illnesses and disasters and all this pain and suffering.  I remember talking with you about this, but I dont quite remember what we discussed.  But Mother Teresa talks about this, about how all the suffering is our doing, but God remedies this through us as well.

Last thing, she talks about the Missionaries of Charity, "If one of the sisters is not in at least a serene mood, I do not allow her to go visit the poor.  The poor already have so many reasons to feel sad how could we take them the affliction of our own personal bad moodsWe must work hard to conquer ourselves."  So yeah, whenever I fall into feelings of coldness or bitterness or things of that sort, I try to isolate myself, but more out of just not wanting to be around people than to keep them from having to deal with my troubles.  But instead, we need to face feelings and to fight them off.  I like how she puts it, conquering ourselves.  I dont deny that we have emotional needs, that we are human and we grieve, but just that we need to be sensitive not to give greater burden to those we serve.  And also to recognize that some of our feelings stem from selfishness.

Well, I think Ive shared most of the things I got out of the book.  Hopefully you got something out of that.