Mark's Notebook


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Mother Teresa: The joy of serving God

Christianity Today

Tuesday 30 August 2005, 12:38 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

by Ruth A. Tucker

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Albania in 1910. Her father was a businessman whose death when she was 9 years old left the family in difficult financial circumstances. But their faith sustained them. With her mother and brother and sister, Agnes attended church every day, and she sang in the church choir. Her widowed mother, though nearly destitute herself, volunteered in the neighborhood, caring for an invalid alcoholic woman and later taking six orphaned children into her own home. It was a model of servanthood that did not go unnoticed by young Agnes.

At age 12, Agnes sensed God calling her to his service, but she struggled with how she could know for certain. She prayed and talked with her mother and sister, but she had no real peace. Then she talked with her Father confessor. "How can I be sure?" she asked. He answered, "Through your joy. If you feel really happy by the idea that God might call you to serve him, then this is the evidence that you have a call. The deep inner joy that you feel is the compass that indicates your direction in life."

"By blood and origin, I am all Albanian.
My citizenship is Indian. I am a Catholic nun.
As to my calling, I belong to the whole world.
As to my heart, I belong entirely to Jesus." — Mother Teresa

http://www.ctlibrary.com/4397