An Analysis of The Spirituality of Mother Teresa

The spirituality of Mother Teresa began for her at a very young time in her life. Born of a successful well known contractor. She learned at a very young age, the value of service. Mother Teresas family were

devoted Catholics, they used their wealth to take care of the les fortunate of their community. This generosity had a great impact on her life. By age 12, she made up her mind, she realized that her goal in life, was to serve the poor. She decided to become a nun. She traveled to Dublin, Ireland and joined the Sisters of Loretto. After short stay in Ireland, she joined a Loretto convent in a northeast end of India. She stayed in Darjeeling, where she spent 17 years teaching and being principal of St. Marys high school in Calcutta.

In 1964, her life took a drastic change. While riding a train to the mountain town of Darjeeling to recover from tuberculosis, on the 10th of September she received a calling from God to serve him among the poorest of the poor. After this calling, she received permission from her order to leave and move to Calcutta. While in Calcutta she had planned to setup her first school. She received untamed generosity from the community, and soon after she had a massive following. With the large start of her group, she received papal approval to create a religious order. She calls them the Missionaries of Charity. The foundation is celebrated on Oct. 7 1950, the same day as the feast of the Holy Rosary. To identify herself with the poor she choose a plain white sari with a blue border and a simple cross pinned to her left shoulder.

In 1979, Mother Teresa won the Noble Peace prize, Mother Teresa later said of her winning: to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone. Mother Teresa said that her winning the Peace prize, was for all those people.