Sunday, September 4, 2016

Quote of the Day (Mother Teresa, on the ‘Greatest Disease in the West Today’)



“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty—it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” —Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa (1995)

Perhaps as much as any individual since Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa becomes a saint today practically by acclamation. Quotes such as the one above—which testify to her life’s work, even as they continue to inspire others—explain how and why she became “St. Teresa of Calcutta.” (The picture says quite a lot, too.)

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