TIME ARTICLE: Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith
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I bought the latest issue of TIME magazine. Very interesting coz it gives u an insight into the faith of faithful Christians like Mother Teresa. Part in BOLD ORANGE is for Mr. Earth and other Atheist guys:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html
Her secret letters show that she spent almost 50 years without sensing the presence of God in her life. What does her experience teach us about the value of doubt?
Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.
— Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979
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." .........................
But for most people, Teresa's ranking among Catholic saints may be less important than a more general implication of Come Be My Light: that if she could carry on for a half-century without God in her head or heart, then perhaps people not quite as saintly can cope with less extreme versions of the same problem. One powerful instance of this may have occurred very early on. In 1968, British writer-turned-filmmaker Malcolm Muggeridge visited Teresa. Muggeridge had been an outspoken agnostic, but by the time he arrived with a film crew in Calcutta he was in full spiritual-search mode. Beyond impressing him with her work and her holiness, she wrote a letter to him in 1970 that addressed his doubts full-bore. "Your longing for God is so deep and yet He keeps Himself away from you," she wrote. "He must be forcing Himself to do so — because he loves you so much — the personal love Christ has for you is infinite — The Small difficulty you have re His Church is finite — Overcome the finite with the infinite." Muggeridge apparently did. He became an outspoken Christian apologist and converted to Catholicism in 1982. His 1969 film, Something Beautiful for God, supported by a 1971 book of the same title, made Teresa an international sensation. -
maybe God's doing the same now to me huh...
u know, its really heartening to know that even great pillars of the christian faith faces down time, doubts, etc. it makes me feel better about myself.
i mean, some churches' believers are always prancing around, and life is like full of rainbows, sunshine and butterflies, it just don't feel real. -
x2. Over the years,its always been the "underdog" saints that impress me the most. Great successes don't impress me. The Pope doesn't impress me. John Calvin doesn't impress me. But guys like Peter, Paul, St Augustine, worthless pieces of junk that God gracefully used. These are the guys that inspire me the most. I guess I'll be adding Mother Teresa to that list...Originally posted by dumbdumb!:maybe God's doing the same now to me huh...
u know, its really heartening to know that even great pillars of the christian faith faces down time, doubts, etc. it makes me feel better about myself.
i mean, some churches' believers are always prancing around, and life is like full of rainbows, sunshine and butterflies, it just don't feel real. -
most Christians go through some level of crisis of faith sometime or another. just that Mom Teresa is a personality so her crisis of faith seemed bigger that ours.
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our Parish Priest has always taught us this:
God may test us. However, He will never set us up to do things that are beyond our capabilities. Our faith in Him will enable to overcome these difficulties. -
Hmm... what a coincidence! Today I met with a priest and he told me exactly the same thing.Originally posted by the Bear:our Parish Priest has always taught us this:
God may test us. However, He will never set us up to do things that are beyond our capabilities. Our faith in Him will enable to overcome these difficulties.
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Why do we doubt that Saints do doubt? In Scripture we see St Thomas doubting.
Nothing to worry about, pray that the veil of doubt be removed from you. -
Hi guys, i have a question...
why didn't God reveal himself to someone like Mother Teresa?
It was written in Deuteronomy 4:29 - "But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul."
But she had waited over 50yrs for God to speak to her, and found only silence. I believe it is true that God's love for mankind had been manifested through her, and no one will say that she was not a faithful servant.
So my question is why did God choose to remain silent towards her when it is written plainly that one will him if one looks for him with the right attitude and with enough faith? -
"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29 - NIV)
Deut 4:29 is not about God REVEALING HIMSELF PHYSICALLY to the seeker, but that the seeker is able find God in what the seeker is doing. -
because that's in the bibleOriginally posted by Honeybunz:Hmm... what a coincidence! Today I met with a priest and he told me exactly the same thing. -
surely God will not reveal himself physically...Originally posted by Chin Eng:"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29 - NIV)
Deut 4:29 is not about God REVEALING HIMSELF PHYSICALLY to the seeker, but that the seeker is able find God in what the seeker is doing.
Mother Teresa had head knowledge of who God is and all her life she did her best to do what she thought was his will for her.
But from her writings it is clear that she hungered for God to respond to her in some way.
In Luke 11:1-13, it was recorded that Jesus said, "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."
I'm sure Mother Teresa had asked God for some response from him and has sought him with much more fervor and faith than many brothers and sisters, but still she didn't get what would reinforce her faith. Why? -
I cannot even begin to pretend to know what's going in Mother Teresa's mind. I also don't think that anyone of us is able to do that. At best, we can only speculate....Originally posted by le cruz:surely God will not reveal himself physically...
Mother Teresa had head knowledge of who God is and all her life she did her best to do what she thought was his will for her.
But from her writings it is clear that she hungered for God to respond to her in some way.
In Luke 11:1-13, it was recorded that Jesus said, "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."
I'm sure Mother Teresa had asked God for some response from him and has sought him with much more fervor and faith than many brothers and sisters, but still she didn't get what would reinforce her faith. Why?
It does, however, echoes the sentiment from some of us that at some point in our lives, we cannot feel God or perhaps we have lost our directions, at which point, some of us will echo the same words....
At the crucial point of Christ's work, isn't He the one who uttered "Father, Father, why have Your forsaken me?"
Therefore, to reiterate, I don't think anyone can give an answer to your question. Nonetheless what can be concluded are:
1. Crisis of faith can happen to the greatest of saints.
2. The work of God continues, inspite of this crisis.
Also, isn't it true that throughout scripture, the many patriachs, prophets and leaders, too suffered the crisis of faith? Can we ask for anything less? -
Bible so big. How come got so choon, the priest said this and the bear said the same, both on the same day.Originally posted by dumbdumb!:because that's in the bible -
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sammyboymod/messages/?msg=151619.1
I read one of the replies here abt Mother Teresa and it makes me go "DUH"
No prizes for guessing what denomination this person comes from, if he is a Christian:
She belivee in herself more then she believe in GOD.
Jesus came to earth becos he wants us to have life and more life abundantly. He did not die on the cross , looking poor , single young for nothing. In Exchange for his life, we have richness/prosperity, we die at the age we want and we have a fruitful marriagelife.
I dont know what Mother Theresa has been going through. But i think she is very pitiful.
"It's a sign of holiness - to suffer as Jesus suffered "
Jesus has already bore all these things for us when he die on the cross.There is a purpose for it, his broken body and his life. All this is shield. So that we can have a overcoming life on this earth. Mother Theresa has no need to die like jesus or suffer what Jesus has suffer, as JESUS has done on the cross for us. For Mother Theresa to die a million times is also of no use. Because her blood is unclean.