No Greater Love

by Mother Teresa

Suffering will never be completely absent from our lives. So don’t be afraid of suffering. Your suffering is a great means of love, if you make use of it, especially if you offer it for peace in the world. Suffering in and of itself is useless, but suffering that is shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift and a sign of love.

Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that He can kiss you. Remember that the passion of Christ ends always in the joy of the resurrection of Christ, so when you feel in your own heart the suffering of Christ, remember the resurrection has to come. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen.

redemptive suffering

At the moment of death, we will not be judged by the amount of work we have done but by the weight of love we have put into our work. This

love should flow from self-sacrifice, and it must be felt to the point of hurting.

Death is the most decisive moment in human life. It is like our coronation: to die in peace with God. Death can be something beautiful. It is like going home. He who dies in God goes home even though we naturally miss the person who has gone. But it is something beautiful. That person has gone home to God.

mother Teresa on death

A vocation is a gift of Christ. He has said, “I have chosen you.”

All the religious congregations — nuns, priests, even the Holy Father — all have the same vocation: to belong to Jesus. “I have chosen you to be mine.” That’s our vocation.

We must know exactly when we say yes to God what is in that yes. Yes means “I surrender,” totally, fully, without any counting the cost, without any examination: “Is it all right? Is it convenient?”Our yes to God is without any reservations.

Total surrender to God must come in small details as it comes in big details. It’s nothing but a single word: Yes!

the power of yes: vocation

Read Saint John’s Gospel and see how many times Jesus used the word “Father.”

If God, who owes us nothing, is willing to give us nothing less than Himself, can we respond by giving Him only a part of ourselves?

Persuaded of our nothingness and with the blessing of obedience we attempt all things, doubting nothing, for with God all things are possible. We often say to Christ, “Make us partakers of Your suffering.” But, when someone is insensitive to us, how easily we forget that this is the moment to share with Christ! It would be enough for us to remember that it is Jesus who gives us, through such a person or circumstance, the opportunity to do something beautiful for Him.

nothingness and obedience

great responsibility on us to fight against our own ego and love of comfort that would lead us to choose a comfortable and insignificant mediocrity.

for the church needs fighters today. Our war cry has to be “Fight not flight.” The church of God needs saints today.

the church needs fighters today and Saints

There is so much unhappiness, so much misery everywhere. Our human nature stays with us from beginning to end. We must work hard every day to conquer ourselves.

The poor are great people; they can accept very difficult things.

Love has a hem to her garment That reaches the very dust. It sweeps the stains From the streets and lanes, And because it can, it must. — MOTHER TERESA