Mother teresa come be my light | Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light

If she were Buddhist , she would be a true Bodhisattva | Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light | Mother Teresa, Brian Kolodiejchuk

books:


	• Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light Mother Teresa, Brian Kolodiejchuk Doubleday, 2007 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 114 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A View Inside

This book was picked up on a whim, it was on sale and I, frankly, had never read a book on Mother Teresa. The movie "Madre Teresa" is dynamic and full of hope, but it looked more at the movement than the "pencil in the hand of God" as she called herself. After about one chapter I was hooked. This is a book of sharp contrasts--Mother Teresa knows God is there, she sees His hand, she knows His love, but He seems so silent to her. It was hard to read at times as we walked with her through the "Dark Soul of the Night" (taken from her own letters and the reading by St John of the Cross). You almost wanted to reach into the book and tell her "God is there!" but then you are awakened to the very fact that many of us live the same walk with God. God's silence is so loud, yet we know He is there, even in the darkest corners of our life.

The amazing parts were her "spunk." While she took every answer as a "Yes" or "No" from God, she was not one to let others decide the answer without her sending volumes of letters explaining her rationale for every project, every idea...she almost pestered her superiors, but pester is not the right word. She exhibited passion--a trait not as evident today.

The one thing that I walked away with comes very late in the book and it will really change your life. It deals with a passage she hears read during a sermon or presentation from Psalm 68.21 (or Psalm 69.20 in the Protestant version). Read it in the NRSV...it is a powerful essay in one verse on the state of (or lack of) caring in our world. Her answer to all the sisters (and to the reader) is "Be The One." Be the one for the hurting, be the one who stands in the gap (Ezekiel), be the one for the poor man (Eccl.) and more.

As Mother Teresa reaches the end of her life the book quietly winds down to one simple story at the end. It takes place in a simple village and a simple home (I won't spoil it) but it sums up the entire book and it gives the reader a challenge for a changed life to be lived among the poorest of the poor. Every page is rich in detail. It is amazing so many people ignored her admonition to burn her letters and they kept all the correspondence...which now gives us a legacy. As a non-Catholic myself, I had heard so much rumor of her faith being more Hindu than Christian, more secular than sacred. This book sets the story straight as it takes the very words from the very letters she wrote and she received. An amazing book to have our kids read, too.

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Mother teresa come be my light

A Walk Through LifeCome be my light is a great book on how she battled through her darkness and helped many people in all corners of the world. This book has been translated from her original writings and gives you a good insight into Mother Teresa.

If she were Buddhist , she would be a true Bodhisattva

First it is important to realize what this book is. It is a compilation of Mother Theresa's correspondence and advice she was given by her closest personal confidants.It was compiled as part of the process of declaring her a saint. We don't know much about what was happening in her world at the time the letters were written. For that we would need to read an autobiography of which there are a number of good ones.There are chronological gaps.

This book is carefully compiled and referenced. It gives a very different perspective of Mother Theresa. The previously available works are authorized biographies and teachings.It is an excellent compilation of the process of spiritual growth.

She truly was a Bodhisattva one who remained in the world to further others spiritual progress and relieve suffering. Through these letters one can can appreciate the depth of her humility, the immensity of her persistence in the face of her person crisis of faith and external obstacles. It is long and not light reading, but reaches to a depth no other work has.

I would recommend this for the serious spiritual student or scholar. It may be too deep and repetitive for the casual reader.

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Dark Night of the Soul

Saint John of the Cross initiated the term 'Dark Night of the Soul.' It essentially refers to an arrid period in our spiritual journey - one whereby we feel somewhat abandoned by God. God is always there however; we just feel as though He has left us to our own devices.

Many of the great saints and mystics experienced this dark night and Blessed Mother Teresa was no exception. She has been unfairly criticized by many, especially some media sources. They paint a picture of someone who actually did not believe but simply went through the motions - a kind of faith facade. Nothing could be further from the truth. Read this book and see for yourself what she really experienced and how she managed to overcome her anxieties. The Lord Whom she loved and served saw her through it all until the end.

One has to ask themselves logically why a woman of her age and length of service to humanity years would even go into the areas she did. What drives someone to leave a relatively comfortable life and embark into areas totally foreign to them being subject to all manner of inconvenience and potential dangers? Why would anyone ever 'volunteer' for such work as Mother Teresa chose picking up and carrying maggot-infested people from the gutters and taking them to a shelter, albeit a warehouse she was able to obtain, and clean the maggots from them, give them food and drink, comfort and assurance so they could die with dignity?

Critics abound everywhere and do so from the comfort of their air-conditioned dwellings sipping a latte' and knowing that their next meal is in their grasp. They shower with imported soaps, get facials and manicures...yet, they are able to criticize an elderly Nun who is out in the world remaining free of its attractions so as to see in all men and women the Christ she so loved and served. Dark night's incidentally are actually a sign that God has favored someone. It is a test of sorts and in my judgment and that of millions of others, Blessed Mother Teresa passed that test with flying colors.

Read this book and see for yourself the strength and character that was Mother Teresa.

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Inspiring

I was inspired, not scandalized, that Mother Teresa underwent a protracted dark night of the soul. The book may not have the impact it now has on those who knew her media image in another decade or so; one reason the book surprised me so much was that it presented a hidden and totally different portrait from her public persona.

This historic work reveals the inner spiritual life of one of the most beloved and important religious figures in history.

During her lifelong service to the poorest of the poor, Mother Teresa became an icon of compassion to people of all religions; her extraordinary contributions to the care of the sick, the dying, and thousands of others nobody else was prepared to look after has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world. Little is known, however, about her own spiritual heights or her struggles. This collection of her writing and reflections, almost all of which have never been made public before, sheds light on Mother Teresa's interior life in a way that reveals the depth and intensity of her holiness for the first time.

Compiled and presented by Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., who knew Mother Teresa for twenty years and is the postulator for her cause for sainthood and director of the Mother Teresa Center, MOTHER TERESA brings together letters she wrote to her spiritual advisors over decades. A moving chronicle of her spiritual journey?including moments, indeed years, of utter desolation?these letters reveal the secrets she shared only with her closest confidants. She emerges as a classic mystic whose inner life burned with the fire of charity and whose heart was tested and purified by an intense trial of faith, a true dark night of the soul.

Published to coincide with the tenth anniversary of her death, MOTHER TERESA is an intimate portrait of a woman whose life and work continue to be admired by millions of people.

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