Encountering Mother Teresa. Linda Schaefer

Teresa found that commitment to faith was particularly important to the sick people she served as they neared their final days. “Mother Teresa in ministering to the dying in Calcutta and anywhere in the world helped the sick and the dying discover their deep longing for God, but at the same time she saw in their sickness what she was experiencing herself.” She helped them on their journey through the “dark desert,” showing them that the God who seemed absent was really present. “But you don’t connect to God through feeling but through being willing.”

      “Her joy was a deeper satisfaction in knowing her will was in tune with the divine will; that her heart was placed close to Jesus’ heart.” The friendship between Mother Teresa and Father James began in 1982, and he gave retreats for her sisters over the next fifteen years. PHOTO COURTESY OF FATHER JAMES MCGJRRY