Mother Teresa of Calcutta on Irish Television, 1974

I was hungry you gave me to eat when I was thirsty you gave me to drink when I was naked you clothed me mother Teresa these are words which we would all agree with but the difference between us and you is that we don't put them into action we don't do anything about them even though we might want to do it we still don't now all of these words don't to me do you just don't mean food and drink and clothes they mean love when did it all start for you when did you start to put these words into action since 1940 46 actually doing this close contact with the poorest of the poor but before that it was a vacation time I was 12 years old to her calling to be to belong to Jesus now at that time you were in Skopje in Yugoslavia where you were born with my own people was it difficult to leave your people it was that was the sacrifice that Christ asked was not that because we were very happy and very United family but what asked for the sacrifice for my people then from me were you a religious family had you been brought up to believe as you do know that everything was for God yes I think my mother was a very holy woman so she imparted that love for God and love for the neighbor very much and to all her children's hearts now when you got the calling and when you realized that you had to give up everything what did you do then how did you go about it I mean 12 was very young I didn't live home till I was 18 and then I got in contact with some of our missionaries in India and through them like well encounter with the Loretto nuns and then 46 years ago I came to rot Farnam and from there I went to India in 1929 and finished my novitiates and vows and I was with a lot of the nuns for 20 years in India can I just go back a little bit to read varlam because in Ireland you know we're a little bit interested in your time in rest on him how much do you remember of that time well I remember yesterday when I went to at Farnham after 46 years I saw the places where I had been as a young postulant and I remember the the community room and the chapel and refrigerator so that brought back all those happening that were happening at that time now when you were there had you that longing did it start there for your vocation as you call it a vocation within a vocation and no it was not at that time it was 20 years after when I was in India when you'd gone back to in years no sir I left flat Farnam only of the six six weeks an event wind a night I joined in October and then in January I went to India do the Nevada now you will teach your mother be a good teacher I couldn't tell you if you have to ask Oh sue oh my god did you enjoy it much I loved teaching I loved it now back in India 20 years later when you got the feeling that you had to do something else you had to go out to the poor how did you go about that because you had taken your final vows and it must been difficult for you to give up the final vows such was it I didn't have to give up anything because it vocation is belonging to Christ and the work is only a means to put our love for Christ into action and so I had only to change so to say the way of work the means I had to change to work for the poorest of the poor so my vocation was a continuation of belonging to Christ and being only his so you left Loretta but you kept with you all this vows the spiritual ceiling yes and then when we had that one I left Florida in 48 and in 1950 the Holy Father approved on the new congregation of the missionaries of charity and then in the new congregation our to the vows of the new congregation of love poverty chastity obedience and charity when you talk mother of the new congregation did you start this congregation a second you left it it went with you you became a missionary of charity instead of being Loretta insulted the approval came from Rome in 1950 and the 7th of October and thus since then the local congregation first in became a diocese and congregation and after 15 years and became a Pontifical now we are a Pontifical congregation with 850 sisters and as many as that yes and you find it easy to get sisters because vacations have gone down for other orders God has been very wonderful to us we have 182 novices in our three novitiates one in Rome and one in Calcutta and one in Melbourne and I hadn't used the other day from Calcutta to say that hundred nine aspirins have joined last June good gracious because two would be a lot in in Ireland in the average congregation tremendous gift of God for us because we are getting vocation from all over the world now now mother you've decided to become a missionary of charity you've gone into the streets of Calcutta can you tell me how you actually went about it because just to talk about somebody going into the streets and starting a new order and helping the dying how did you actually what was your first contact with a dying person I was I picked up the first person from the street then I found the woman lying in the street either not by rats and so on I took her to the nearest hospital they didn't seem to want her there but because I insisted so much at last they took her in and from there I decided that I will find the place for them myself and take care of them then I went to the municipality and I asked away for a place only that the rest I would do myself for them and they took me to this Kali temple in Kali God and offered me a place of rest that they used for the pilgrims that come to worship the goddess Kali and we have been there for 22 years now and we have picked over 29,000 people from the streets of Calcutta in this 22 years now when did your sisters start showing you because you were alone when you started when you picked up that first ladies since 1929 since uh not 29 that was the year I joined but since 1949 and how did it handle did you ask somebody here you know the first peoples to join were the student that I had taught in Loretto the first group we had we were about 12 by the time the congregation was established and since then a girl from all over the world have been joining what sort of girls with the Indian girls wear they are very high caste mixed we have high middle and ordinary and that is the most beautiful part of this young girls so fully dedicated and determined to give their all to Christ and they are all very anxious to live that life of both because for us it's very important if you really want to know the poor we must know what is poverty and that's why in our society poverty is our freedom and our strength so that we would have poverty then in your words right here in our homes here in Ireland you don't have to go to the streets of Calcutta so that's what you're saying but there's a lot poverty as a lot of things there is there is two kind of poverty we have the poverty of material life for example in some place like in India and Ethiopia and you may in other places where the people are hungry for a loaf of bread real hunger but there is much deeper much greater hunger and that is the hunger for love and that terrible loneliness and being unwanted unloved being abandoned by everybody some people you find in what they call them shut-ins people that are sleeping in the streets of London and are found in the homes may be that kind of unwanted nurse unloved they even in our own homes we may have somebody who is handicapped like that and nobody takes any notice nobody even recognizes that there is this child is this man this woman who is hungry for love hungry to be recognized than to accept with respect and love the person when most of us mother think of the appalling 'less of Calcutta and Rome you know the poor areas of these places where you have gone into and Bangladesh but we think how on earth does she do that how power nurse can one person look at all of that and say how can I help all of this do you ever feel absolutely despondent that you are doing what the whole nation should be doing do you feel it is a very heavy burden I don't feel like that because for me I can do only one because Jesus is only one and I take Jesus at his word he has said you did it to me and so my sisters and I and the brothers we take one person individual purse one person at a time we can serve only one at that eye we can love only one at the time yet the whole world oviya it sounds so big and so much and all that it is but only a drop in the ocean but if we didn't do that little drop that ocean would be one drop less and so it we have no reason to be despondent or discouraged all unhappy about it because we are doing it to Jesus so he had said I was hungry and you fed me so in each one you see reasons it is Jesus because Jesus has said so you did it to me and that's why the poor more and more become the hope of salvation for mankind because we are going to be judged on what we have done to them but we have been to them how we have accepted them this is what you said to the sandwich machine in Washington that they pour with the hope of mankind how did they take that they took it very well and I think it has had a tremendous influence because they have already working at it to answer the call of the poor of the world because I feel if the world today turns its back to the poor I think that turning their back to Christ you talked mother a few moments ago about the thousands that you have taken into your home in Calcutta now Kolkata is a very large place and the poor are very many how many do you turn away how many have you not got room for I don't know up to now we have never had to turn anybody away never because there is always as one more bed one more plate of rice one more blanket to cover who is that well the item again with a call that his world because we depend solely on divine providence that comes through to us through the love of the people and so he has taken care and he has shown such thoughtfulness and such kindness for our people in small details and so we have no reason but to to take to accept but he has said that we are more important to him than the birds of the earth and the flowers of the God there are a lot of people of it particularly in America would say where you've had just visited and talked to the Washington committee who have a lot of money and who probably have very good intentions but who would never in a million years do what you are doing or indeed part with any of that money willingly how do you get through to that type of person by giving them that chance to do works of love such as such a chance just to help somebody in their own family first and then next-door neighbor to find the poor around them and then that once that contact is made I never asked for money I never asked them to give me but I I always ask them come and see come and touch and once that contact has been made they know what they have to do are you in great need of money because I know that you don't take any government grants of any kind I have never been in need but I accept I never refuse what people give and I accept whatever so having nothing yet possessing all things you have co-workers all over the world and you have them in Ireland are we generous so the Irish got two very generous and it's been a wonderful time not with them especially I am very very anxious specially now that I've come round to meet our coworkers we have over nearly over 40,000 around the world and we're trying because a co-worker is a way of life and we are trying to bring that love and peace and joy that to our neighbor and to the industries we live and the town we live and then again to the whole world and I think love begins at home and we can bring that love I think we will be able to overcome the world with love there are some girls mother because you've just said the enormous number of pass students you get every year there are some girls who want to give a little more than just a co-worker's love which is quite a lot but they want to give just that bit more and they want to go over to you know if a girl wants to give up her life what happens how exactly does she do it well she has to first of all she must have those four conditions that are required to be a missionary of charity she must have health of mind and body she must have the ability to learn she must have plenty of common sense and cheerful disposition and if she has this form then she comes and sees the world like in the gospel our Lord said come and see whether she cholinergic she promised one of our houses and comes in gross contact with the poor with the people with the sisters and works with them prays with them stays with them and then she decides if this is what God wants from her then she joins and then she spends six months as a spire and six months as postulant two years as a novice and then the six years temporary vows and then one year before final vows she comes back again to the novitiate to deepen her spiritual life because we are not social workers we are trying to live a contemplative life when spreading love and compassion of Jesus in the world by doing works of salvia sir can you tell me something mother about that contemplative life because you've just listed a number of qualities which are almost otherworldly they're so spiritual for any normal girl to have could you give me an example of the of your day for instance a normal day in Calcutta for you we get up at 20 minutes to 5:00 then we begin out there with prayer meditation we have mass and Holy Communion because our life is very much woven with Jesus in the Eucharist and Christ we try to deepen our faith and our love in Jesus in the Eucharist to be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor that's the same Jesus and then after mass and holy community some sisters go for leper work because we are taking care of nearly 46,000 lepers and some were to do one further die some to the children some to the little schools we have for street and beggar children and some go to the feeding Center some visit homes of the poor and do the most humble work for them in the houses and then buy but on our way going to and coming back we pray the rosary in the street so that we keep on prayer life because only the work is the fruit of our union with God and so we come home and after lunch we have again examination of conscience Stations of the Cross and say the Divine Office and then we have spiritual reading and again one group the professed go out again find the novices and the postulants stay in for that often places theology Scripture and so on then by half-past six we all everybody's back again and then from our past 6:00 till half past seven we have adoration of the Blessed second we expose the Blessed Sacrament this are of prayer has been a wonderful means of deepening our love and our faith and same time bringing us very close to each other and to the food that we are serving and then though we have our dinner and have recreation and then by half-past nine rolled but I should think so my goodness mother that's an extraordinary day how many little a blood it is really how many ordinary girls from ordinary homes constant standard how many would leave you in a year have all the dolls that we sent you need those that have not had that don't have these qualities Oh some if they get sick before they are professed we send otherwise we have very few living they don't live for know the other reasons because it is hard not at all now you mentioned leper work what do you do for lepers because it seems such an impossible task we have many sisters have been trained to take care of the lepers and with the money that the Holy Father helped when he gave me the the car we raffle the car and with that money we have built a rehabilitation center for lepers and it's called a town of peace and there we trained the lepers and tried to bring them back to a normal citizens life and we have over 15,000 of them that we take care of in Calcutta alone but altogether about 46,000 we trade them and the same time we try to teach them to do things so that when they can live a normal life that is the greatest suffering for them because they are shunned by everybody they are wanted by nobody and so we try to bring new life in them besides treating them and we have had the most wonderful results every year nearly 200 of them are completely cured if they come in time and here we have these mobile clinics all over the place in every every city that we work we have about 51 cities now in India but the sisters are working and so we use this mobile clinics and go to them and for a leper that you can't cure there must be many what you to then we give them tender love and care that can't we keep up very close contact with them we are trying to have this rehabilitation centers all over the place we don't we want to make them feel that they are really wanted that they are not afraid of them and so to also to try to segregate them without them realizing that they are being segregated not to ask you this question seems almost ridiculous but if I were to ask someone else how on earth do you touch the lepers to your corneal are you ever personally frightened ever I mean we take all the precautions possible to protect ourself to protect the sisters and then once they are properly trained how to take care of them there is a very little possibility of getting infected but we are all we must be ready if it is God's will that some day some sisters will get it though if we must be ready to accept others part of the gift of God now throughout the years mother you've been receiving all the awards that could possibly be given to a single person doing work for religious in the name of religion you've been awarded the near award the Templeton award Pope John's Peace Award what do you feel about that I hate I only accept the constantly they have to use one person but I accept it in the name of them because the work is not my work it's the work of us all and you and me because it is because it is his work and so whatever people give it is actually his because I I am nobody in the picture I'm only a recipient as I'm an instrument and so when these things come actually like narrow award we are using all that money to give artificial legs and eyes and things like that then bass makers for the heart then heart operations for our poor people they would not be able to afford so we are using that money for that and the Templeton of vault has been used to build homes for the dying all over the world a television one was the British one that's right which grants Philip rewarded arrest and that's one that's brought so much happiness in so many places in so many countries and so this is carried through now right through history all the great saints I cry survival II would come with little mind had great doubts about their faith they had great moments of absolute darkness when they wondered if there was a God at all have you ever had that darkness we all have to go through it I yes but that is that challenge that is the time when we have to take greater grip and accepted to off as a sign of purification of great and greater love that's a death that's the cross at that time when you say we have to take great grip err what exactly do you do when you have a moment in earnest cling to Christ because he is the only answer and how do you cling to Christ if you have had along to darkness and your doubt is very existence and blind thing and you've always had that faith is what do you say to people who come to you who say they have no faith they admire what you're doing because naturally their hearts go out to the poor and the sick and the dying but they just couldn't do what you're doing because there is no Christ for them I don't believe that there is any human being who doesn't believe in God unless they are mental even though they say they did down in their heart that must be that faith that there is God only it may be under it is covered on there as you say in darkness and they can't see and they have not got that complete attachment to God they don't know him sufficiently maybe but that they have faith deep down in their hearts what's your reaction mother when you're passing by a suburb a fairly wealthy suburb and you see the wealthy houses let's take you back to Calcutta again where you have the Victoria Memorial Victoria Memorial which is a massive building and just lying there what do you think of it is indle because it is empty while our people are left in the street and in overcrowded with the rooms but I still hope that one day we'll fill it up with our people I feel that I think so but I don't don't you you probably really take it over but something very beautiful has happened now in Calcutta the I see I it's a English firm that has been working in India for many years and they have in there as a gift to the people of Calcutta they have given us a very big property just as a real from the love of God so they say completely as a gift and we have made it into a wonderful home with the help of many people and now we are bringing the sick and the dying to this new place where there is a nice garden and nice place for them and plenty of space how we will be able to take many more people you feed mother they children millions of starving children in Rome and in Calcutta and in Manila because the European all the other countries you've gone into there are people and I'm sure you've heard of them who say that there are too many children in Calcutta why so many children why not stop these children being born in the first instance what do you say to those people that is not their concern regarding the children of because child is the gift of God and I feel that the poorest country is the country that has to kill the unborn child to be able to have extra things and extra pleasures and so on and they are afraid to have to feed one more child in Calcutta we are trying to fight abortion by adoption and also our sisters are doing natural family planning which has helped many people to live their life very beautifully as the poor people told me Ora our family has remained healthy our family has remained United and we can have a baby whenever we want while in India actually they may leave the child in the dust beam they may live in a third door but they would never clean the child and so this is what we it's very painful to accept what is happening in the Western countries where the child is destroyed with the fear of having too many and have to feed and to educate and so on and I think for me they are the poorest people in the world who can do an act like that when you take child from the dustbin as you often have where you take it to you take it into home and then the child is growing up what you do without you if the child is healthy we try to get the family to adopt the child and lately we have had many many Hindu families who are taking our children into their own homes and really adopting them legally and then if the child is not adopted then we get the sponsored parent to sponsor him for education and so at present we have over 5,000 children who are being paid in different schools to be educated and so their future is very very we hope that the future is much more brighter much more beautiful again I have to say to you you know you say quite calmly to me we get a sponsor I bet if I took a child from a dustbin and tried to get you said 5,000 children if I took one in the morning and try to get a sponsor I would have the most dreadful difficulty how do you so easily for five thousand children get sponsors how do you cope at it I don't know but that is the most beautiful part we had this coworkers also that make the contact with the families and the families all over the world that for example here in Ireland they're 136 children that have been sponsored for education

Channel: David Greg Taylor

Views: 695,783

Rating: 4.8390307 out of 5

Keywords: Mother Teresa (Saint), Ireland, Dark night of the soul, poorest of the poor, calcutta, missionaries of charity, India, Jesus Christ

Id: Th2QzJwy8tI

Length: 29min 42sec (1782 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 31 2013