By Devin Watkins
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was “a beacon of hope, small in stature but great in love, a witness to the dignity and privilege of humble service in the defense of all human life and of all those who have been abandoned, discarded and despised even in the hiddenness of the womb.”
Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, offered that praise of St Teresa on Tuesday.
The Cardinal Prefect released a comment to accompany the decree inscribing St Teresa of Calcutta into the General Roman Calendar.
The decree was accompanied by the liturgical texts (in Latin) to guide the faithful in praying the Liturgy of the Hours and the celebration of Mass.
Her feast day will be celebrated as an optional liturgical memorial annually on Sep 5, the date of her death in 1997.
Mother Teresa was born in Skopje on Aug 26, 1910 as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She professed solemn vows as a Sister of Loreto in Calcutta, India, in 1937. In 1950, she left the Sisters of Loreto to found the Missionaries of Charity, which now numbers over 6,000 sisters active in 130 countries who serve those most in need.
Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and Pope St John Paul II beatified her on Oct 19, 2003.
Pope Francis canonized her on Sep 4, 2016 during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
‘Witness of hope’
In his comment released on Tuesday, Cardinal Roche said Pope Francis requested her insertion in the Roman Calendar in response to the requests of bishops, religious, and the lay faithful.
He noted that her holiness and spirituality reveals to the faithful an “outstanding witness to hope for those who had been discarded in life.”
At the Mass of Canonization for St Teresa on Sep 4, 2016, Pope Francis called her a conduit of divine mercy that illumines the darkness that surrounds us.
“Her mission to the urban and existential peripheries,” noted the Holy Father in his homily, “remains for us today an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor.”
Reflecting on the liturgical texts released on Tuesday, Cardinal Roche said the Collect prayer focuses on the presence of the Cross of Christ in the needs of the poor.
The First Reading for the optional memorial Mass comes from Isaiah and relates to the “fast that is pleasing to God”.
The Gospel, he added, underlines the revelation of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God to little ones.
The Liturgy of the Hours contains part of a letter Mother Teresa wrote to Fr Joseph Neuner in 1960 about her struggle with what St John of the Cross termed the “Dark Night of the Soul.”
“Opening her soul,” concluded Cardinal Roche, “she manifests the darkness of God’s absence through which she lived for many years yet joyfully offered to God, so that, bearing faithfully this trial, many souls may be enlightened.” – Vatican News
