Curated Quote #27

“If all the money that is being spent on finding ways to kill people was used instead to feed them and house them, clothe them and educate them - how beautiful that would be. We are too often afraid of the sacrifices we might have to make. But where there is true love there is joy and peace” Mother Teresa of Calcutta (nun then saint 1910-1997)

Mother Teresa spent her life as a nun and, after her death was canonized as a saint. So I will call her that in this column. Saint Teresa was always the example of pure love and compassion during my life until she died in 1997. Her name was synonymous with loving service to the poor and disenfranchised of the world. She stood for the highest principles of loving kindness and lived them every day to every person she encountered. She was an absolute.

One of the reasons that I picked this quote of hers, among many, is that it seems so timely for 2023. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is an example of the horrors of war. The conflicts in Africa put power and death ahead of feeding, clothing and housing people. The efforts of the Republicans to risk a US default to get leverage to cut funding support for those Americans who need it to survive, at the same time refusing to cut the defense budget, certainly sounds cruel and heartless in the light of this quote.

Since the pandemic, there have been more stories in MSM[ Main Stream Media] about the huge numbers of Americans driving to food banks than I have ever seen in my life. Your reactions to these stories is probably the same as mine: how could this happen in America?

Saint Teresa was a saint. You and I are not. Maybe a reader of this newsletter is or will become one, but most of us go through our entire lives and not meet a saint, ever. Have you ever wondered how an in-person meeting with a Gandhi or a Saint like Teresa might affect you? Profoundly I am sure.

If all humans are to be treated with loving kindness, Saint Teresa’s life’s work, how different would our lives be? Many of us remember a few decades ago when the “random acts of kindness” meme coursed through humanity. Holding a door open for an elderly man walking slowly with a cane, buying the next person in line an ice cream cone, paying the toll for the car behind us. Remember? Remember how good you felt doing these random acts of kindness? Think how Saint Teresa must have felt every day doing hundreds of intentional acts of kindness.

We can all be more kind, We can look at the vast numbers of homeless and see people just like us who had a couple of bad breaks close together. We can be more charitable in our giving. When we go through downsizing - as I am now- you can give stuff to the Salvation Army, or give directly to a homeless person. Homeless people most often speak about how they have become '“invisible” to those who walk right by. Saint Teresa would have hugged each of them to make them feel not just visible but loved and acknowledged.

The next time you see a homeless person, or perhaps just someone who needs some help to cross the street, ask yourself: “What would Saint Teresa do?”

Please hold this quote, and an image of Saint Teresa in your heart and mind this Memorial Day weekend.

Short Biography of Saint Teresa

William Buckley Interviews Mother Teresa

Some quotes from Mother Teresa