"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."
-Saint Teresa of Kolkata
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a nun. This was, quite frankly, a little odd, because my family was Presbyterian. But I had it in my mind that being a nun was the surest path to true devotion - to loving the Lord and giving Him all I had. By the time I was 12, I had discovered I wasn't Catholic. But I still felt a strong pull at the core of my soul - I knew I was called to serve Him somehow.
My heart turned to missions, and I spent much of the next 10 years on overseas trips sharing the gospel and serving the poorest of the poor.
Mother Teresa, that tiny, fiercely-loving nun in the slums of India, was an inspiration to me during those many trips loving orphans, widows, and the destitute. Some years later, I was in Kosovo with the military. We escorted pilgrims to a lovely church in a rural village for the Feast of the Assumption. The priest invited me to go inside to cool off, and had me sit down near the front. I was surprised to see a large oil painting of Mother Teresa on the wall. "Why is she here?" I asked. "Didn't you know?" he replied. "This was Mother's church when she was home on summer holidays as a child. It is in this church that the Blessed Mother called her to be a sister. You are sitting where she sat when she received that call!" I was absolutely stunned. I was still not a Catholic, and had no affinity with Mary, but I began to feel the tug again. I needed to give the Lord all I had and all I was. I read every book about Mother Teresa I could find, all while fighting valiantly against the desire to become Catholic.
Her simplicity and efficiency were two of my virtue-goals. Her openness to life poured out into my life as well, as my husband and I welcomed the many children the Lord would gift to us. But ultimately, it was her small things with great love that won me over to the Church.
Mother Teresa said, "Faith in action is love, and love in action is service." I could not travel to foreign countries and serve the poorest of the poor anymore...but I could serve the smallest of the small right in my own home.
I used her own words when I finally relented to the call to convert: "Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now."
And our Holy Mother did not fail me. I truly believe Mother Teresa was praying for me as I turned my heart, little by little, to our Blessed Mother. What a blessing that I can now ask Mother Teresa to pray for me every day as I seek to serve not only my family, but the families I touch through Natural Family Planning education.
Every time we are open to life -
every time we are willing to be trusted with the enormous blessing and responsibility of another human soul -we are listening to the Lord through
Mother Teresa:
Do small things, but do them with great love.
Saint Teresa of Kolkata, Pray for Us!
