About the Book:
Mother Teresa’s relationship with God and her commitment to those she served—the poorest of the poor—is here powerfully explored in her own words. Taken largely from her private lessons to her sisters, published here for the first time, Where There is Love, There is God unveils her extraordinary faith in and surrender to God’s will. This book is in some way a sequel to Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, in which her own very private spiritual struggles were explained. Sent to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, she assumed their struggles and pain in the depths of her heart. This led to particularly intense anguish which she lived through with heroic courage and fidelity over several decades. As important as this aspect of her life is, that remarkable testimony of her life and her words intensifies the need and desire to know more of her thought. There is much she can teach us as we face our daily struggles or sufferings, which can at times be unusually severe. Where There is Love, There is God, though not an exhaustive anthology of Mother Teresa’s teaching, nonetheless shows what she believed and taught about important issues that confront all people. Due to her constant interaction with people of diverse backgrounds, no life situation was foreign to her and in this book her role is primarily one of teacher and guide.
Love is perhaps the word that best summarizes Mother Teresa’s life and message. The title reflects what she proclaimed during her entire life: God is alive, present, and “still loves the world through you and through me”. Mother Teresa sought to be an extension of God’s heart and hands in the world of today. She was called to be a missionary of charity, a carrier of God’s love to each person she met, especially those most in need. Yet she did not think that this was a vocation uniquely hers; each person is in some way called to be a carrier of God’s love. Through the practical and timely advice she offers, Mother Teresa sets us on the path to closer union with God and greater love for our brothers and sisters.
My Comments:
This book, which I received via the Blogging for Books program, has been on my dresser waiting to be read since before Christmas. In case you haven't noticed, I've been in kind of a reading/blogging funk. Tonight I picked it up and thought I'd start reading a biography of Mother Teresa. I soon found that it wasn't a biography but rather a collection of Mother Teresa's sayings and teachings.
Generally when I write a DNF review, I'm saying a book isn't good enough to finish. Today I'm writing a DNF review because it is going to take me a LONG time to finish this book, not because it is extraordinarily long but because it is extraordinarily full of things on which to reflect. I recommend this book as a prayer aid, as one to be read in small batches as a source for meditation, and that's what I am going to do.
I'm going to leave you with the saying on Mother Teresa's "business card".
The fruit of silence is prayer
The fruit of prayer is faith
The fruit of faith is love
The fruit of love is service
The fruit of service is peace
May the peace of the Lord by always with you.
I enjoyed reading this post--especially the saying from Mother Teresa's business card. I may have to look for this book.
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