Tuesday 19th March 2024

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Currently Reading:

Interview With Postulator . . . Most People Can Still Learn A Lot About Mother Teresa

August 31, 2016 Our Catholic Faith No Comments

By KATHLEEN NAAB

(Editor’s Note: In this interview, Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, Mother Teresa’s postulator, tells ZENIT writer Kathleen Naab that thousands of testimonies attest that Mother is still doing work on Earth from her post in Heaven.
(Pope Francis will canonize Mother Teresa on September 4.
(ZENIT News Agency published this interview on August 22. All rights reserved.)

+ + +

When a saint is as well known as Mother Teresa, it is perhaps easy to think, “Ah yes, we are familiar with her. We already know what she has to teach us.”
This assumption is quite incorrect, according to the postulator of her cause and editor of several works about Mother Teresa, Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC.
Fr. Kolodiejchuk has edited the newest release about Mother Teresa, Image Book’s A Call to Mercy: Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve, released just last week. This book, designed to coincide with the Jubilee of Mercy, distills Mother Teresa’s message and is, as Fr. Kolodiejchuk says, “a practical and very down to earth expression of how ‘mercy’ reaches ‘misery’.”
In the lead-up to the September 4 canonization of Mother Teresa, ZENIT asked Fr. Kolodiejchuk to tell us more about this saint and what we still need to learn from her. Following is the text of that interview.

+ + +

Q. Mother Teresa is so well known and much loved by the whole world. What do you think we need to learn about her by reading a more in-depth biography?
A. Indeed, Mother Teresa is generally known as an icon of love and compassion to the poorest, the weakest, those on the “peripheries” of human existence. She is loved and admired as a universal icon of mercy, a truly extraordinary person. Nonetheless, I don’t think she is that well known among the younger generation; many children, teens, and young adults have very little or even no knowledge of her life and message.
Even many of those who know of Mother Teresa do not have more than a general knowledge of her life, work, and message. This can be seen by the reactions to the books that I have edited over the last years.
Each book reveals something new about Mother Teresa and so have “surprised” in some way its readers: Come Be My Light, with the revelation of her interior darkness that she embraced in union with the poor she served; Where There is Love, There is God, revealing her deep and simple wisdom on important spiritual themes, like faith, love, trust; and now A Call to Mercy, showing her “love in action” through the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. This book clearly reveals her preferential love to the poorest and neediest.
I think that most people can still learn a lot about Mother Teresa. She has been a prophet in our times and her message is still essential for the world today. She made us aware of the presence of the poor, the dignity of each person, of the value of human life from conception to natural death, of the call of everyone to their real mission on Earth, that is, to love and to be loved, to love until it hurts, to be holy.
The source of Mother Teresa’s energy and zeal was not an idea, not a concept: It was a person — Jesus — whom she wanted to love as He had never been loved before. She testifies to the world that the teaching of Jesus is true; she lives it and puts it into action.
Her firm belief in the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, “You did it to me,” made others aware of the presence of Jesus in the poor, or as she said, in “the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor.” It was a reality that she brought home to many.
So there is still a lot to learn from her and about her: her faith, her interior life, her character, her relationships — first her relationship with God, and then her relationship with her family, her sisters, her closest collaborators, and especially with the poor. There are also a lot of interesting things about her that will fascinate readers, for example, her common sense, her remarkable energy, her sense of humor and certain of her “particular practices” such as changing furniture in the house.
An in-depth biography will be my next major writing project, which I hope will bring to Mother Teresa’s admirers, and readers in general, a compelling picture of who she really was.
Q. The title of this newest book, A Call to Mercy, obviously highlights the jubilee we are now living. What do you think St. Mother Teresa has to tell the Church about mercy?
A. Mother Teresa’s message on mercy is not an elaborate theological explanation and neither is this book. Rather it is a practical and very down to earth expression of how “mercy” reaches “misery.” It shows a way that we all can identify with: When we are at our lowest, it is then that we most need God’s mercy and it is then that we experience it most tangibly, either directly or through some intermediary, as Mother Teresa was.
A Call to Mercy demonstrates how Mother Teresa recognized her own need of God’s mercy, how she opened herself to it and also how she extended it to others. Thus by her example she really can serve as a “teacher” of how to practice mercy, of how to be merciful.
Mother Teresa teaches us that being merciful, caring for our poorer brothers and sisters, helping them effectively in their needs — temporal or spiritual — is not an option; rather, it is a command, an obligation for each one of us. To care for others means to put mercy in action.
This is not only a choice but a must, as (soon to be) St. Teresa of Calcutta teaches us: “The poor are the hope of mankind, the poor are the hope for you and me to go to Heaven, for at the Last Judgment, we are going to be judged on that. ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat, and I was naked and you clothed me’.”
Mother Teresa teaches us that as we surrender ourselves totally to God, He uses us to spread mercy, to touch hearts. And then Jesus takes over and accomplishes “miracles” as He did in Mother Teresa’s life, touching literally millions of lives, giving them meaning, helping people to realize that they are loved and capable of loving.
Mother Teresa teaches us that mercy also heals the giver of mercy, that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
The whole life of Mother Teresa teaches us that mercy — concrete, efficient, tender, meek, kind, joyful — for our brothers and sisters is a fount of life that has its origin in the mercy of God and the profound conviction of one’s own need for mercy.
Mercy in action, as seen in Mother Teresa’s life, shows us that once a person is merciful, Jesus enters into these actions and multiplies the graces given and received. Mother Teresa, as shown in this book, touched millions of lives and achieved much more than what one ordinary person can achieve using only human resources. Once focused on Jesus and His mercy, nothing is impossible for the one who loves Him.
Q. September will represent the final page of the great project of overseeing her cause for beatification and canonization. Could you give us some insights on how the cause unfolded? One would presume that since her sanctity was universally recognized long before her death, the process would have gone smoothly. Were there any hiccups along the way?
A. Mother Teresa’s holiness was already very much recognized and acclaimed during her lifetime. Many people made remarks such as, “If she is not a saint, then who can be?” Others would say, “Well, do it fast already,” when the question of her beatification was discussed. All of this only confirms Mother Teresa’s worldwide and practically universal reputation of holiness. This actually led Pope John Paul II to waive the five-year waiting period needed for any candidate’s cause to begin.
However, this exception did not waive the process itself. The requirements of the canonical process were fulfilled fully and thoroughly at every phase. This involved a lot of work, since Mother Teresa was a worldwide figure and testimonies and documents had first to be gathered from a vast number of sources.
Thus the diocesan phase in Calcutta began in July 1999 and ended in August of 2001. The roughly 35,000 pages gathered were brought to Rome in 81 volumes of approximately 400-450 pages each. The study of her life, virtues, and reputation of sanctity — the approximately 5,000 page Positio — was done meticulously, although in a relatively short time (by Easter of 2002), so much so that one of the theologians who studied it remarked that the work done in so short a time was almost a miracle in itself.
Mother Teresa’s living of the Christian life was confirmed to be heroic by a decree of Pope John Paul II in December of 2002. The miracle attributed to Mother Teresa’s intercession, which was studied in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints after the judgment on heroic virtue was made in the congregation, was also accepted officially by the Holy Father on the same day as was the confirmation of her heroic Christian life (an exception that was previously made for Pope John XXIII).
We can say that the process was both easy and challenging: Easy because people would happily and generously cooperate because it was for Mother Teresa, and challenging because the work of gathering the required information was carried out literally across the globe.
I have to say that especially during the months of working on the Positio my team and I had a palpable awareness of God’s action, of His grace working with us and for us because of the prayers of many, in particular of our contemplative sisters who all “adopted” by name the member of the team.

Working From Heaven

Q. A last question: There are testimonies in the book from people who say that Mother Teresa is continuing her works of mercy even now — that she continues to appear and serve the needy. Could you tell us more about this?
A. Yes, indeed, in the book A Call to Mercy, we find striking examples of Blessed Teresa working miracles of mercy from Heaven, faithful to the mission that she said would be hers: “If I ever become a Saint — I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’ I will continually be absent from Heaven — to light the light of those in darkness on Earth.”
So far we have on record more than 5,000 testimonies from the people who sent us reports of favors they received through Mother Teresa’s intercession. We have given only a glimpse of them in the book, since showing more of this aspect of Mother Teresa’s mission in the Church was not its scope. That could be a publication in itself. Here, by way of conclusion, are two more examples:
A conversion of heart through the intercession of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:
I felt an inspiration from God to pick up the prayer booklet: A Novena to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta: “Jesus is my All in All”. . . .I felt especially drawn to one of the passages of the novena which spoke of Jesus’ love. I felt the Holy Spirit being poured into my soul, with a particular joy for loving as Christ does. The prayer that I read transformed my heart, as I had been depressed and felt little emotion or love in my heart….I knew that it was a miracle because it happened immediately, and I felt a newness of life in God’s Spirit. I feel the Lord working in me to show Christian love to a mother and her child.
The child looked so sad, and I felt that Mother Teresa’s spirit also would reach out to that child because of her love of Christ. I felt then Jesus actually calling me to help others and that my vocation would be to love Jesus.
A small miracle through the intercession of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:
In 1993, I had become pregnant with my third daughter and my marriage was in a serious crisis; divorce and abortion was a definitive option. For me either could have been easy to do; I lived a divorce as a child and had two abortions before. God chose a better path for me, where both my husband and I were able to reconcile and saved my daughter’s life. Even though I had lived this miracle, I still did not return to God and His Church.
When Mother Teresa passed away, it was all over the news. I was not too familiar with Mother Teresa. About 2:00 a.m. in the morning of September 7, 1997, I was awakened by what I heard “Acts 2 and 3” repeatedly. I was too sleepy and said to myself, this must be from the Bible. I closed my eyes to fall asleep, when I could see Mother Teresa looking at me sternly, not speaking, but I could understand, “Get up.” I answered “Mother?” I became scared because of her stern look at me.
I got up, went to the closet where I had put away the Bible and read Acts 2 and 3. The presence of God was there while I was reading each word; each word went within me, as part of me. That morning at 10:00 a.m., I went to Mass for the first time in a long time and God has not let go of me since.
My family is part of the Church. Slowly the Lord has been healing every sin, still each day. I immediately began reading about Mother Teresa, and slowly began to figure it out. In Heaven you continue doing the work you were doing on Earth, and Mother is doing so. On Earth she took care of the poorest of the poor, in Heaven she still does — God felt that I was one for her — she picked me up — she carried me. I keep this as a treasure.

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

Irreverent funeral service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for trans activist sparks outcry

A raucous funeral liturgy for a high-profile trans activist and sex-worker advocate was held Thursday in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, sparking an outcry on social media that the iconic church was misused to advance an ideological agenda at odds with Catholic teaching. The Manhattan cathedral hosted the Feb. 15 funeral service for Cecilia Gentili, an activist who helped to decriminalize sex work in New York, lobbied for “gender identity” to be added as…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)