The Leader Mother Teresa English Literature Essay

Mother Teresa was born on 26th august 1910 in Skopje which was the part of Albania at that time. Her real name was Agens Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Now Skojpe is the capital of Macedonia but at that time it was the part of Turkey’s Ottaman empire. At that time the Turks were ruling over Albania. During this time, Bojaxhiu married Dranafile. She gave birth to three children a daughter,Aga, a son Lazar, and finally on 26th august Gonxha was born. From the beginning her mother, drana was a traditional wife who works in the day and whenever she gets time she used to visit ashrams,poor people helping them in their work. Her father fell seriously ill at the age of 45 and even the emergency surgery can’t save him. Due to this the whole condition of the Bojaxhui’s house was drastically changed. Drana’s condition was also becoming poor day by day , so she engaged herself in instructing the poor children and teaching them various profound lessons.

As the chidren become older, mother Teresa became involved in the church with her elder sister ,Aga. At the age of just 12 she showed her intention of becoming a nun. But due to her health problems she continued her schooling. She was already involved in the church activities. As a young girl, she decided to help the poor in Africa. By the late 20s she grew into a disciplined,well organized student. Finally at the age of 18 she told her mother that she wants to become a nun and her mother gave her blessings.

On their arrival in paris, mother Teresa was sent to see mother Eugine (the incharge of Loreto house in paris). The girls were made to stay in a simple red building Rathfarnham. Mother Teresa spent nearly 6 weeks learning english . at the end of 6 weeks mother Teresa with one other woman set for sail. The sea voyage was very long finding its way from Indian ocean to finally Bay of Bengal. They all sang Christmas on the ship and on january 6,1929 the ship made a port at Calcutta. On 16th January she went to darjelling a hill resort in north of Calcutta. The life at Loreto convent was very disciplined and simple. Everyday from 9-11 mother Teresa with her companions taught at St. teresa’s school. She had earned a good reputation among the children in the school. On march 1931, mother Teresa took her first vow-a lifetime promised to charity, poverty and obedience to God (mother Teresa,1931). By the time unfortunately she was hit by tuberculosis. However she didn’t stop to serve the nation. She then took the train from Darjeling to Calcutta and began teaching at St. Mary school.

SERVICES IN BENGAL

At that time their were conflicts between the streets of Calcutta and darjeling. The central and the state govt. were trying thir best to combat the problems but all in vain. Calcutta was badly hit by poverty, violence,social and political unrest. In this turbulent city sister Teresa had dreamed of serving the people. With her unbelievable courage she along with her missionaries group tried to uplift the people of Calcutta. “they… and you and me..have been created to love and to be loved , they are our brothers and sisters, that they are somebody, they are Jesus “(said mother Teresa).

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All the hungry, poor, abandoned, lonely people have now found their inspiration to God through mother Teresa and her missionaries. Whenever she goes to Calcutta people throw themselves in the feets of mother Teresa showing their respect ,love, gratitude to her. She has been called as a “living saint” by those who have seen working her. Her short life was clearly an inspiration to the people that with all faith and patience we can do wonders in uplifting the conditions of the poors to a spiritual height. In the name of God everything is possible because “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”(Hebrews 11:1, RSV). Mother Teresa started living outside the convent to serve the poor in streets. She began working in Moti Jheel , a slum area. She wore a white sari bordered with blue. This dress was later became the habit of the missionaries.

Initially mother Teresa started teaching the street children, visiting hospitals to see the sick. Mother teresa’s service became well known in the community as a result of which many missionaries came to join her. She was most depressed by the dehumanizing condition of the people dying in the streets without food and water. She established Nirmal Hriday in 1954 in kalighat for the dying people. She also established Shishu Bhawan for the orphan children. At that time the main concern is the caring of lepers. These people are not respected in the society thinking that leprosy is contagious. Seeing this, mother Teresa decided to establish a separate colony known as Shanti Nagar near Calcutta for the lepers. She started many programs for the lepers for job skills like carpentry, weaving and other handicrafts.

Mother teresa’s centers have been on top of the popularity. People from various religious backgrounds, even the foreigners contributed their services cash, food supplies to the centers. Even though mother Teresa was very simple and modest but her achievements are marvelous. In June 1982 she addressed more than 4000 people at st. Mary’s Cathedral stating that hunger for human love is much more important than the hunger for food. In addition to mother teresa’s teaching on love , sacrifice and work , she was against one more issue namely “Abortion”.

BECAME MISSIONARIES

In her nobel prize acceptance speech she addressed that the nations which have the legalized abortions are the poorest nations. She believes that abortion is the cause of all evils. She didn’t only criticized abortion but provided an alternative solution “Adoption”. She strongly told all the people “if you don’t want that little child, give it to me .”. After the successful establishment of Shishu Bhawan , mother Teresa personally appealed to all clinics not to go for abortions rather give the babies in Shishu Bhawan. Inspite of doing all goods many people think that westerns have unnecessarily promoted mother Teresa as their religious hero while to others not who have done the same work silently.

After the Calcutta now mother Teresa turned her gaze to Ranchi , slum ridden city. She there established a charitable house for the poors. In 1960s she started receiving invitations fro all around the sglobe to start her services there also. She then traveled to London to open a training center for the missionaries. In London she spent many hours among the people who were involved in drugs, alcohol and other ups and downs. By 1979 mother teresa’s group had more than 200 different operations in over 25 countries in the world.

In 1988 mother Teresa sent one of her missionaries to Russia and opened a home for AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). During this time health was becoming the main concern for sister Teresa. She had a heart attack in 1983 and again a fatal one in 1989. But she was lucky enough to survive because of her great works. In april 1996 she fell down and broke her collar bone. Then she suffered from malaria and failure of her left heart ventricle. On march 13,1997 she stepped down from the head of missionaries and another lady Nirmala was declared as the head of the missionaries group.

HELPING THE POORS AND THEIR DISEASES

Even though she had so many health problems she didn’t show it to the people. In appearance still she was energetic. Though her face was quite wrinkled but her dark eyes commanded attention of the people. She was attached so much with the poor that she was busy in finding properly fitting shoes for the poor. Throughout the early years she worked very hard to uplift the poors. She wake up earliest in the morning and goes to bed late at night and never ceases to work in between. Everytime she appeared tireless and active and ready to move to her next task. One of the sisters repelled to clean the toilets but mother Teresa did it herself. All the group sisters have now learned the joy for working for poors. To celebrate their happiness they all celebrated Christmas together.

Not even just uplifting the poors but also helping them till the end of her life she was with the poors. For the residents of shishu bhawan who are of marrying age, she helped arranged marriages. Even though the status of the woman who were in shishu bhawan was considered as low but mother Teresa ensured that every woman has sufficient gifts to give to bridegroom’s family as a dowry. The dowries includes a sari, a wedding ring and trenkets. Local people helped a lot to mother Teresa by providing some gold ornaments, furniture, household utensils to the brides. The most important operation started by mother Teresa was opening homes for children who were adopted. Initially majority of the children were kept in Christian families but later many hindu families have opened homes for the abandoned and orphan children. At the early stage boys were preferred more than girls but after mother Teresa’s operation for adoption sex was no the important criteria. Many families were happy in having a child not mattering whether it is a girl or a boy.

Though most of the families wished to adopt a healthy child, physically disables children find their home with European families and mentally ills were there at shishu bhawan. In addition to adoption mother Teresa was also involved in family planning called as HOLY FAMILY PLANNING. Not only with the establishment of shishu bhawan she also helped the poor chidren in many other ways. In 1956, she operated her first mobile clinic for those who couldn’t get to go to free clinics. She was helped by catholic relief services which provided $5000 to transform an old van into a medical dispensary that visited the slums offering free medical services.

ORGANIZING HOMES FOR THE CHIDREN

In the shishu bhawan a kitchen was organized and the sisters cooked as much rice as they can and fees the children along with bananas. For the lepers mother Teresa found a same site in the centre of the city in which a hospital for lepers was built and was provided free treatment. In September 1957, the first mobile leprosy clinic was launched. The ambulance moved slums to slums carrying a maximum of 6 people offering free medical services, medicine and food supplies. By January 1958, over 600 lepers were treated from the mobile clinic.

Mother Teresa had achieved many glories in the field of peace. After getting the nobel peace prize, mother Teresa was awarded with the most pronounced award of India called the “jewel of india”, BHARAT RATNA just 3 months after.. During the presentation ceremony India’s president said” She embodies in herself compassion and love of humanity as few in history have done. . . . Her entire life has been a symbol of service and compassion. These are the characterstics of human existence which are generally affirmed in words but denied in actions.”(Neelam reddy, India’s president).

CONTROVERSIES

By the 1990s mother Teresa started expanding her work all around the globe as well as her friendship with 2 well admired persons Pope Paul john and Princess Diana who gave much more publicity to mother Teresa. But during the mid 90s the controversy had taken place. In 1993 may, she shocked the membership of international association of coworkers. The chairman had initially assured theta all the money will be sent to the poor but this was not done rather the whole money is wasted in printing papers. Due to this all the people started blaming mother Teresa. Public was becoming swift and angry.

They were considering mother Teresa a biased woman instead of her greatest services to the nation. During the 1990s mother Teresa was not only depressed by the controversies but also due to her seriously increasing health problems. In 1996 she had a fatal heart attack and she informed her sisters to find a replacement for her as she will not be able to serve more. In march sisters announced 63yrs old woman Nirmala to be their superior general. At the age of 17 she turned from Hinduism to Christianity and became a nun. Mother Teresa was very pleased with that decision.

A LOSS TO WORLD

On august 26, 1997 mother Teresa was on the bed observing her 87th birthday in the motherhouse in Calcutta. A week later the death of princess Diana was a great shock to mother Teresa. She decided to go with her sisters to the funeral of princess Diana. On Friday September 5 ,1997 on the day of funereal of princess Diana in London, the nation suffered a great loss. She complained to her physician that she had a pain in the spine and she can’t breathe. Several minutes later she had an heart attack and she died. Mother Teresa died in her mother house in Calcutta in which she was there for 47 years.

As news of Mother Teresa’s death spread throughout the world, religious leaders rushed to pay tribute. The lady served the nation greatly. There is so much suffering and hatred all over on the death of mother Teresa. All paid a tribute to her.

Pope paul said “Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do”.( Pope paul ,1997).

A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves.

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. (mother Teresa,1997).