A Mini Retreat with St. Teresa of Calcutta – Part Two & Part Three
Chapters Eight, Nine & Ten – “The Thirst of Jesus Crucified”,
“My God How Painful Is This Unknown Pain” and "I Have Come to Love the Darkness"
Chapter Eight: “A Terrible Darkness Within”
Mother Teresa wrote to Archbishop Perier on March 18, 1953, “You Grace,
… Please pray specially for me that I may not spoil His work and that Our Lord may show Himself – for there is such terrible darkness within me, as if everything were dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started ‘the work.’ Ask Our Lord to give me courage. Please give us Your blessing ….” [p.149]
“Though not without struggles, Mother Teresa’s work among the poor continued with remarkable results. She was aware that it was ‘God’s work’, she was but an instrument in bringing ‘souls to God – God to souls’ … prayer and sacrifice were essential: united to Jesus’ redemptive suffering, prayer and sacrifice leavened the work for the poor.” [p.153]
Mother Teresa wrote to Archbishop Perier that, “In October 1958 Mother Teresa unexpectedly received a major grace on the occasion of the requiem Mass for Pope Pius XII …. ‘the day you offered your Holy Mass for our Holy Father’s soul in Cathedral - I prayed to him for a proof that God is pleased with the Society. There & then disappointed that long darkness, that pain of loss - of loneliness – of that strange suffering of ten years. Today my soul is filled with love, with joy. Untold – with an unbroken union of love. Please thank God with me & for me.” [pp.176-177]
“This experience was like an oasis in the Desert.” [p.177]
Part Three - Chapter Nine – “My God How Painful Is This Unknown Pain”
“An Imprint of the Passion”
In April 1956 Mother Teresa shared her spiritual desert/darkness experience with Fr. Picachy on the retreat he gave to her community. She wrote, “No priest except Fr. Van Exem & you have known the darkness in me.” [p.179] [Archbishop Perier was her bishop, so she did not include him here.]
“Mother Teresa was aware that it was love that made her suffering so acute …. She was torn between the feeling of having lost God and the unquenchable desire to reach Him.” [p.180]
“Instead of stifling her missionary impulse, the darkness seemed to invigorate it. Mother Teresa understood the anguish of the human soul that felt the absence of God, and she yearned to light the light of Christ’s love in the ‘dark hole’ of every heart buried in destitution, loneliness, or rejection.” [p.185]
Chapter 10 – “I have Come to Love the Darkness”
“The Spiritual Side of the Work”
Mother Teresa wrote, “For the first time in 11 years - I have come to love the darkness – for I believe now that it is part of a very, very small part of Jesus’ darkness & pain on earth. You have taught me to accept it [as] a ‘spiritual side of your work’ ….”
“The reality of her relationship with Jesus was truly a paradox …. He was living in and through her without her being able to savor the sweetness of His presence …. It was only when she was with the poor that she perceived His presence vividly. There she felt Him to be alive and so real.” [pp. 212-213]
Reflection:
St. Francis de Sales advised, “Ask for nothing, refuse nothing, but leave ourselves in the arms of divine Providence, without busying ourselves with any desires, except to will what God wills of us.” de Sales’ advice is fundamental to anyone who wants to do God’s Will faithfully and fully. Simply put, “Ask for nothing, refuse nothing.”
St. Joseph pray for us.
St. Andre Bessette intercede for us.
St. Francis de Sales pray for us.
“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.” St. Brendan the Navigator
May God Be Praised.
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