Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light
by Mother Teresa
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Read in December, 2007
In this book, I encountered the private writings of somebody that I've always admired, and touted as my personal hero. Through this book, I discovered the specific reasons why Mother Teresa has always been a person who resonates with my personal ethos. Her deep devotion and love of Jesus is a recognition of her depravity as a human being, her complete devotion to the concept of servent, and her embodiment of the command to love one another. The result is somebody that you can't help but admir...more
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Read in April, 2008
This book was fascinating. I know there is a lot of recent criticism of Mother Teresa but reading her own personal correspondence gave an insight into this woman who has become more than a person, but has been turned into a myth, a legend, and a symbol.
The only criticism I have of the book is that it does become repetitious toward the end.
However, I could not help but be awed by the depth of this woman's faith even if the midst of, yes, deep doubts. Some people say that these doubts sh...more
The only criticism I have of the book is that it does become repetitious toward the end.
However, I could not help but be awed by the depth of this woman's faith even if the midst of, yes, deep doubts. Some people say that these doubts sh...more
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recommends it for:
Richard Simmons
I'm demolished by this book. Honestly I still don't know what to make of it but for the time being I am absolutely consumed, brained and agog by it.
I was raised Catholic but the church and I parted ways many moons ago. Much like an enstranged relative, I still keep up with news of what's shaking with the new Pope, what taco Jesus appeared in and what photo's crying blood and all that.
Mother Teresa has always intrigued me. Always. How can someone be so selfless? Divine Calling? Mental i...more
I was raised Catholic but the church and I parted ways many moons ago. Much like an enstranged relative, I still keep up with news of what's shaking with the new Pope, what taco Jesus appeared in and what photo's crying blood and all that.
Mother Teresa has always intrigued me. Always. How can someone be so selfless? Divine Calling? Mental i...more
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Read in April, 2008
I have to be honest, I didn't finish this book. And, I'm ambivalent about it, the book that is.
It's mostly Mother Teresa's letters to her spiritual director/confessor and bishop and others, with some interpretive and connecting material in between from the author. I found the author's emphases to be strange. For example, the time of waiting while the Missionaries of Charity was being considered and approved by the church hierarchy was stretched out over a handful of chapters. I made it e...more
It's mostly Mother Teresa's letters to her spiritual director/confessor and bishop and others, with some interpretive and connecting material in between from the author. I found the author's emphases to be strange. For example, the time of waiting while the Missionaries of Charity was being considered and approved by the church hierarchy was stretched out over a handful of chapters. I made it e...more
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I am a fan of Mother Teresa, though I am not Catholic. I hope I can glean some wisdom from this one.
2-8-08 Well I finished this last night. It was ok. I have always had somewhat of an interest in catholicism. I always thought it would be nice to be able to absolve my sins through going to confession and saying certain prayers.
Having said that, I am still a fan of Mother Teresa and I can relate to her "dark night of the soul" since I have seemed to be experiencing something...more
2-8-08 Well I finished this last night. It was ok. I have always had somewhat of an interest in catholicism. I always thought it would be nice to be able to absolve my sins through going to confession and saying certain prayers.
Having said that, I am still a fan of Mother Teresa and I can relate to her "dark night of the soul" since I have seemed to be experiencing something...more
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Read in January, 2008
i really enjoyed this book in a lot of respects, although i felt badly about reading all of this personal correspondence that Mother Teresa really wanted destroyed, so that was a little difficult. also, the priest who put this whole book together is the one who is trying to get mother teresa cannonized and so i thought that he tried to explain some things away in order to make her look better.
reading the stuff she wrote is intense and there was definitely a lot of spiritual struggle going on...more
reading the stuff she wrote is intense and there was definitely a lot of spiritual struggle going on...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone experiencing a spiritual drought, those desiring inspiration from noted spiritual leaders
An interesting book...I did find many deep and thought-provoking spiritual insights tucked into otherwise repetitive paragraphs and passages. Definitely worth the read, but a bit lacking in clarity - Mother Teresa's "darkness" is not explained very completely. Also, I found the editing/organization was problematic - sentences were constructed strangely, commas and other punctuation that would have been helpful were omitted, etc. I understand from the introduction that her writings we...more
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Read in February, 2008
This was a moving and enlightening glimpse into Mother Teresa's spiritual life--particularly her long, private struggle with spiritual dryness and doubt. It is very striking that her sense of God's absence coincided with her most productive years doing the work He called her to do. I'm still struggling to understand what she came to believe about the benefits and economy of suffering, but I think her experience has a lot to teach me about the ways I interpret my own life. It was so interesting t...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
the spiritually sophisticated
I found this book somewhat disturbing. There is no doubt in my mind that Mother Theresa is a saint; her behavior leaves no doubt about that. And it is not her spirituality that perplexes me, but rather her understanding of that spirituality. She seems to contradict herself from one sentence to the next. Admittedly, she is working from the context of a spirituality formed in a time and place very different from our current one; but she seems to show no growth in understanding from her experience....more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Kathy by:
local book club selection
Here's what it's not: a biography or a description of the work Mother Teresa did in Calcutta and around the world. There are only a handful of anecdotes about that, included because they illustrate something related to the real subject of the book: her internal spiritual life (which was quite different than most people who knew her or saw her in action would have guessed).
This is an exploration of faith, including some of its most difficult aspects related to suffering and sacrifice. ...more
This is an exploration of faith, including some of its most difficult aspects related to suffering and sacrifice. ...more
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Read in November, 2007
I am so disappointed in this book! The prologue explains all about how Mother Teresa never wanted her papers published, and even asked people to burn letters she sent to them. Now that she's dead she'll surely understand that her life belonged not to her but to the church, which can do with her writings as it sees fit. I guess that's probably true, but still, ick.
Furthermore, I expected to read about the crises of faith that working among the poor without seeing improvement over time might ...more
Furthermore, I expected to read about the crises of faith that working among the poor without seeing improvement over time might ...more
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This book was quite different than what I was expecting when I started it. The book is a seemingly endless series of personal letters that Mother Theresa wrote to her superiors, seeking help and prayer for the inner turmoil she was experiencing. These letters are interspersed with comments by someone who worked with her for the last 20 years of her life. "Come Be My Light" explains a side of Mother Theresa that she kept hidden from all but a very few. That she was able to accomplosh th...more
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Read in May, 2008
This was a very interesting book using the letters that Mother Teresa wrote to her superiors during the years she wanted to get her Missionaries of Charity organization started and then as she ran the organization. In the beginning, she felt very close to God. He spoke to her and she knew that she was doing His will. But then she lost touch with him and felt as though she was in "darkness." This "darkness" never stopped her from living out God's will through her kindness and ...more
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Read in January, 2008
Mother Teresa had so much love for God and for others, that to sit down and read about her work...is difficult. It is difficult to measure my own feeble efforts to love against her self-sacrifice and dedication.
Yet this book has helped me. The most valuable thing I took away was the idea that we each must look to the unloved, unwanted and uncared for in our own homes, community and life--and that we must realize that whatever we do to them, we do to Jesus. We cannot separate our care for the...more
Yet this book has helped me. The most valuable thing I took away was the idea that we each must look to the unloved, unwanted and uncared for in our own homes, community and life--and that we must realize that whatever we do to them, we do to Jesus. We cannot separate our care for the...more
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A truly human Mother Theresa--I loved her letter to President Bush and Saddam Hussein-- passionately imploring them to choose peace.....Addressing the Synod--"Today God Loves the world so much that He gives you, He gives me, to love the world, to be His love, His compassion.Tuberculosis and cancer are not the great diseases. I think a much greater disease is to be unwanted, unloved. The pain that these people suffer is very difficult to understand, to penetrate. I think this is what our peo...more
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Read in October, 2007
This was not an easy read. Her intense "dark night of the soul" began to wear on me toward the middle of the book, but I kept reading as I clung to the hope that she would eventually break out into light - which she never did, by the way. I found her submission to the Catholic hierarchy fascinating and extrememly rare in our too often "I'll do it my way" evangelical world. The book made me even more amazed at her tremendous faith in the midst of deep darkness. In spite of her...more
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Read in January, 2008
I am happy to have read this book. It showed me a lot of insight to this magnificent human being.
The author, though, was repetative in his explanations of Mother Teresa's letters. We don't need to him to explain to us what we've just read, unless there he is providing some context out of the scope of the letters.
It was an interesting read also because she was so holy, and yet she felt so alone and shunned from God for the better part of a half a century. Her faith is amazing and her de...more
The author, though, was repetative in his explanations of Mother Teresa's letters. We don't need to him to explain to us what we've just read, unless there he is providing some context out of the scope of the letters.
It was an interesting read also because she was so holy, and yet she felt so alone and shunned from God for the better part of a half a century. Her faith is amazing and her de...more
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Read in October, 2007
You get to read Mother Teresa's letters to her superiors -- amazing. You learn much simply by being in her presence. She seems so humble, and the darkness, the absolute lack of a sense of the presence of God in her life is challenging stuff, but well worth struggling through (in terms of thinking about your own knowledge of God). The only slight complaint I have about this book is that at times (in the prose portions) the book seems to be a an argument for her sainthood -- so her human strugg...more
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Read in March, 2008
Wow! What an amazing lady! This book was so inspirational! This woman spent her entire life serving others and striving to be an instrument of God's love, which is inspirational in the first place, but even more so when we discover that she received none of the typical spiritual gratification from it. She spent her life giving altruistic service, bringing God to the world's rejected, ignored, and forgotten, when she herself felt rejected, ignored, or forgotten by God. Mother Teresa truly ...more
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I've always been impressed by the sacrifice and life of service given by Mother Teresa. I was surprised by the revealations found in her personal letters. Her innermost thoughts and burdens are shared from a most sincere heart.
It was interesting to learn what led Mother Theresa to begin her sisterhood. She shares some of the struggles and dangers they faced as they served the people.
I was disappointed to learn of her sorrow and lack of peace. The end of her life was very sad. I hop...more
It was interesting to learn what led Mother Theresa to begin her sisterhood. She shares some of the struggles and dangers they faced as they served the people.
I was disappointed to learn of her sorrow and lack of peace. The end of her life was very sad. I hop...more
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