Mother Teresa's Crisis Of Faith

[Sojourner]

[url="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html"]A story about the book of Mother Teresa's letters[/url]

I really want to read the new book, [i]Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light[/i].

Excerpt from the story:
[quote]Come Be My Light is that rare thing, a posthumous autobiography that could cause a wholesale reconsideration of a major public figure — one way or another. It raises questions about God and faith, the engine behind great achievement, and the persistence of love, divine and human. That it does so not in any organized, intentional form but as a hodgepodge of desperate notes not intended for daylight should leave readers only more convinced that it is authentic.[/quote]

Edited August 23, 2007 by Terra Firma

[Era Might]

I was reading about this earlier. I have a book with a saying from hers for each day of the year, this one sounds interesting. It's like St. Francis, everyone sees the man who loved animals, but they don't see the man dying in pain with the stigmata.

[thessalonian]

We think of saints as people completely intune with God and having visions and whatever. Some were and did but some did have very "dry" experiences with God. This sounds like one of them and in some sense it is an encouragement for the common person that even though we don't have this wiz bang relationship with God, his grace is still working to help us complete our personal mission on this earth. I would be encouraged by such struggles of Mother T. I can relate most of the time.

I can't remember which one of the saints it was but she had stuggles with dispair and thoughts of suicide late in her life.

Edited August 23, 2007 by thessalonian

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Era Might' post='1369020' date='Aug 23 2007, 02:04 PM']I was reading about this earlier. I have a book with a saying from hers for each day of the year, this one sounds interesting. It's like St. Francis, everyone sees the man who loved animals, but they don't see the man dying in pain with the stigmata.[/quote]
Amen, brother. I was just reading the article as soon as I saw it linked up at Drudge Report.

[i]Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me — The silence and the emptiness is so great — that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear.[/i]
— Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

Father Corapi had talked about the long moments of spiritual dryness that Mother Theresa went through and would comment on. I recall one story that Father Corapi related about a person (I don't recall whom) was in an adoration chapel at the same time as Mother Theresa and her sisters. He tried to focus on Our Lord was was unable to; he was struggling to be at peace and "feel" that he was in the presence of Jesus. He ended up distracted with eyes wandering by the end of the Holy Hour.

Mother Theresa stood up and made her way to the exit and as she passed by the gentleman she whispered in his ear, "And where is God now?"

[XIX]

[quote name='Lounge Daddy' post='1369055' date='Aug 23 2007, 03:45 PM']Amen, brother. I was just reading the article as soon as I saw it linked up at Drudge Report.

[i]Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me — The silence and the emptiness is so great — that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear.[/i]
— Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

Father Corapi had talked about the long moments of spiritual dryness that Mother Theresa went through and would comment on. I recall one story that Father Corapi related about a person (I don't recall whom) was in an adoration chapel at the same time as Mother Theresa and her sisters. He tried to focus on Our Lord was was unable to; he was struggling to be at peace and "feel" that he was in the presence of Jesus. He ended up distracted with eyes wandering by the end of the Holy Hour.

Mother Theresa stood up and made her way to the exit and as she passed by the gentleman she whispered in his ear, "And where is God now?"[/quote]
Wait what is the point of the punchline to that last story? I missed it.

[franciscanheart]

I can't wait to read this book.

[catholicinsd]

Maybe it could help me, now that I'm a reject.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='XIX' post='1369404' date='Aug 23 2007, 09:17 PM']Wait what is the point of the punchline to that last story? I missed it. [/quote]
He wasn't looking at the monstrance, where he should be looking to see God...

[XIX]

Ah. I see.

[Ash Wednesday]

You know, I had something weird happen in the late 90s -- it was when Mother Teresa was very ill. I wrote a prayer petition in our local adoration chapel asking other parishioners to pray for Mother Teresa.

Some time later after she died, I was at a regular sunday mass and I got this really weird strong feeling that she was saying "thank you" to me -- I mean I've never really experienced anything like it. To this day I wonder if I was just imagining things, but then again why wouldn't she be thankful for prayers and petitions on her behalf?

Go figure.

[Anastasia13]

Is this what was on the news about her tonight? I hope my library gets this book.

[beatty07]

Time mag is a little disingenuous writing like this is an astonishing news break... there was a good article in First Things over four YEARS ago.

[url="http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=486&var_recherche=mother+teresa+dark+nigt"]http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id...resa+dark+night[/url]

The Time article has some real groaners in it, but also some good points I guess. I hate how they make it sound like she was leading a double life, half of which was just a doggedly persistent facade.

I've found this to really help people out when they struggle with doubts... people who don't feel any connection with Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross or even Therese of Lisieux can feel a connection with Mother Teresa, and take comfort.

[Mary-Kathryn]

Quite some time ago I was told [in a lecture] that Mother teresa suffered from a "dark night of the soul" for a very long while. Similar to that of Therese of Lisieux. I assumed it was common knowledge, not an explosive secret. I really hope this book doesn't sensationalize this, but I'm not holding my breath.

[LouisvilleFan]

I fear that some Protestants might take this stuff to indicate that inside, Catholicism is a dark experience lacking in love. Since most of them don't have much of a concept of redemptive suffering, the positive experiences of joy tend to be considered the pinnacle of living in Christ. That's generalizing a bit, as you can't say much about Protestantism without finding an exception, but I hope they'll look beneath the surface and question what it was that kept Mother Teresa motivated through the apparent darkness.

Edited August 24, 2007 by LouisvilleFan

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' post='1369932' date='Aug 24 2007, 10:31 AM']I fear that some Protestants might take this stuff to indicate that inside, Catholicism is a dark experience lacking in love. Since most of them don't have much of a concept of redemptive suffering, the positive experiences of joy tend to be considered the pinnacle of living in Christ. That's generalizing a bit, as you can't say much about Protestantism without finding an exception, but I hope they'll look beneath the surface and question what it was that kept Mother Teresa motivated through the apparent darkness.[/quote]
Like the Budges of the world? Dispite a general lack of concept of redemptive suffering, I imagine most if not all of the great Christians have had or eventually have dark experiences.