Mother Teresa, the celebrated nun whose work with the poor of Kolkata made her an instantly recognisable global figure, won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Teresa, who worked for the destitute in Kolkata and became a global icon of Christian charity, was declared a saint by Pope Francis in 2016.
Mother Teresa spent all her adult life in India, first teaching, then tending to the dying poor. It was in the latter role, at the head of her now worldwide order that Teresa became one of the most famous women on the planet. Born to Kosovan Albanian parents in Skopje – then part of the Ottoman empire, now the capital of Macedonia – she was revered around the world as a beacon for the Christian values of self-sacrifice and charity. She passed away in 1997, in Kolkata, the Indian city where she spent nearly four decades tending to the poor.
On her birth anniversary, here are some inspiring quotes about kindness, charity and compassion:
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
Intense love does not measure, it just gives.
Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.
The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.
We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.
I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God
I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather he will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.
