Though listed as the last work of mercy, praying for the living and the dead is not meant to be undertaken as a last resort—something to do when we have (unsuccessfully!) tried everything else. Quite the contrary, it is actually the first resort—something we should do before everything else. Prayer was probably the one essential reason that Mother Teresa could practice all the other works of mercy with such impressive fidelity and results.
Prayer as an intimate union of our heart and mind with God, a relationship with Him, held primacy of place in Mother Teresa’s life. “What blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul,” she used to say, emphasizing the vital importance of prayer in one’s life. “We need that intimate connection with God in our everyday lives. And how do we get that? By prayer.”1 For Mother Teresa, prayer was communication with God: “God talks to me and I talk to Him; as simple as that—this is prayer!”2 “People were fascinated just watching Mother pray. They would sit there watching her, be really drawn into this mystery.”3 She did not do anything extraordinary. “She did not spend long hours in the chapel, but she was faithful to the times of prayer,” and that being so, it was obvious to those around her that “Mother lived in continual union with Jesus. A union not filled with consolations and ecstasies, but one of faith.”4
The Church proposes prayer for the living and the dead as a work of mercy. It is therefore essential that we pray for others, and Mother Teresa’s example reminds us that our prayer for others should be rooted in the intimacy of our own relationship with God. Sensing her closeness to God, many people asked Mother Teresa for prayers. She would promise to pray for them and fulfilled that commitment with great fidelity every day. Whenever there were spontaneous prayers of the faithful at Mass, she would pray loudly and clearly: “For all those who have asked our prayers and for those whom we have promised to pray.” In this way, she was lifting up in prayer all those in need, placing them in God’s loving care, and entrusting them to His providential love.
At times, in spite of our best efforts, we seem to be unable to help someone, and we can do nothing more than to pray for them. Praying then can become the ultimate expression of love for the person. Holding up someone in prayer before the Lord, asking His blessing and help for the living and the happiness of entering into eternal life for the dead, is a work of mercy that Mother Teresa so admirably practiced.
HER WORDS
Every Missionary of Charity will pray with absolute trust in God’s loving care for us. Our prayer will be the prayer of little children, one of tender devotion, deep reverence, humility, serenity, and simplicity.5
Turn to Him
Bring again, I say, bring prayer in[to] your life, pray. You may not be able to make long prayers, but pray. Turn to Him: “My God, I love You.” And He loves us so tenderly that it’s written in the Scripture, even if a mother could forget her child, which is happening today—abortion. The mother forgets her child. “Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of My hand. You are precious to Me, I love you” [Is 49:15-16–43:4]. These are words in the Scripture for you and for me. So let us ask, let us ask Our Lord to keep our family together, keep the joy of loving one another, keep your heart one heart full of love in the Heart of Jesus through Mary, and who will help you best to keep your family together? Mary and Joseph. They have experienced the joy of loving one another and the peace and the tenderness of God’s love.6
Pray and Make Sacrifice
The message of the Immaculate Heart at Fatima seems to be enfolded in this mission to Mother (“Pray, pray very much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices [and pray] for them,” Our Lady said on August 19, 1917, in Fatima). “It was at her pleading that the Society was born” are Mother’s words. Mother was determined, compelled to fulfill her call, the new step, the new way of life.7
And How Does It Begin? By Praying Together
To be able to love the unloved, to be able to give [love] in your heart to the unwanted, unloved, uncared for, [we need to begin to love] at home. And how does it begin? By praying together. For the fruit of prayer is deepening of faith. Then I believe that really whatever I do, I do it to God Himself, the deepening of faith. And the fruit of faith is love, God loves me, I love my brother, my sister. Doesn’t matter [what] religion, doesn’t matter [what] color, doesn’t matter [what] place, my brother, my sister created by God Himself—same hand—and then the fruit of that love must be action, must be service, I do something. And, therefore, let us pray to bring prayer into our family. Pray together, really have the courage to do something beautiful for God, and whatever you do to each other, you do it to God.8
Bring Prayer into Your Family
A wonderful thought to think that God loves me and I can love you and you can love me, as He loves us. What a wonderful gift of God. Even the poor people are the gift of God to us. What a privilege for us, real contemplatives in the heart of the world. So let us learn to pray. Teach your children in your schools how to pray. Families, teach your children to pray, for where there is prayer, there is love; where there is love, there is peace. And today more than ever, we need to pray for peace. And let us remember that works of love are works of peace, of joy, of sharing.9
And where do we begin? At home. And how do we begin to love? By prayer. By bringing prayer into your life, for prayer always gives us a clean heart, always. And a clean heart can see God. And if you see God in each other, naturally you will love [one] another. That’s why it is important to bring prayer into the family, for the family that prays together, stays together. And if we stay together, naturally we will love one another as God loves each one of us. So it is very important to help each other to pray.10
Never before has there been so much need for prayer like today. I think that all the problems of the world have their origin in the family that does not have time for children, for prayer, and to be together.11
Take Time to Pray
I have heard that here, in families, there is much suffering because children beat their parents and the parents beat the children. And again I say, pray. Bring prayer into your life, into your family. Be a mother to your children. Take time for it. When the child comes back from school, are you there? Are you there to embrace your child? Are you there to love your child? Are you there to help? Or—you are so busy that you have no time even to look at your child, even to smile at your child; and the child gets hurt…that is the fact.12
Dear God, Thank You
Here is a prayer of the children for their parents and with their parents:
Dear God,
Thank You for our family, for father and mother who love us tenderly, for being able to go to school, to learn and to grow, so that we can serve people who will be needing us. Keep the joy of love in our hearts. Make us love father and mother, brothers and sisters, teachers and all our companions. For in loving them we love You, and if we love You, our hearts will remain always pure, and You will be able to dwell in our hearts. Please always keep us pure and holy, just as You have created us. Keep us always beautiful, up to the end of our lives. And bring us one day to Your home, to live with You in heaven forever.
God bless you.13
On Your Wedding Day
Make that resolution, that on your wedding day you can give each other something beautiful. The most beautiful thing is to give a virgin heart, a virgin body, a virgin soul. That’s the greatest gift that the young man can give the young woman, and that the young woman can give the man.
This is something we must all pray for our young people: that the joy of loving gives them joy in the sacrifice. It is a sacrifice that they must learn to share together. And if a mistake has been made, it has been made; have the courage to accept that child and not to destroy it. Because that’s sin: it’s a murder. That sin is a greater sin: to destroy the image of God, to destroy the most beautiful creation of God that is life. And so today when we are together, let us pray. Let us pray for each other that we may love God as He loved us. Because God has offered to each one of us, He offers us that lifelong, faithful, personal friendship in tenderness and love. We all experience that in our lives, how God loves us. And it is our turn to give that lifelong, that faithful, that personal friendship to Him in each other with prayer first in our own family. Bring back the child, bring back family prayer.14
What God Has Put Together
Dear People of Ireland, I am praying with you at this important time when your country decides on the question of divorce. My prayer is that you be faithful to the teaching of Jesus—“a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and they become one body. What God has put together, let no one divide” [Mk 10:9]. Our hearts are made to love and be loved—a love that is not only unconditional, but also lasting.15
At Least Half an Hour Every Day Alone with God
And only God has chosen you to be the leaders and to show the way. But that way has to be shown with great respect, with great love. And I would say, I think that if you politicians would spend at least—at least—half an hour every day in prayer alone with God, I think that will show you the way; it will give you the means to [deal] with the people.
If we spend time alone with God, then that will purify our hearts; then we will have the light, and we will have the means to deal with our people with love and with respect. And we are sure the fruit of prayer is always deep love, deep compassion; and it always brings us close to each other. And we know exactly how to lead our people.16
Kindly Build a Mosque
I remember some time ago, some years back when the president of Yemen asked for our sisters to come to Yemen, and I was told that for so many, many years there has been no public chapel, public Mass, [it has not been] publicly known that a person is a priest for many years, many, many years. So I told the president I am most willing to give [him] the sisters but without the priests, without Jesus, we don’t go. Then they must have had a consultation between them. Then they decided yes. And something struck me so much. When the priests came, there was the altar, there was the tabernacle, there was Jesus. And only [a priest] could bring Jesus there.
After that, the government built the convent for us. And so we went there to take care of the street people, the dying, and the destitute, and then they built a convent for us also. And then the governor who had sponsored the building, Sister asked him, “Can you make sure that one room is beautifully done because Jesus is going to be there?” Beautiful—our chapel. And the governor asked Sister, “Sister, show me how to build the Roman Catholic church right here.” He meant “little chapel” and instead of saying chapel, he said “Roman Catholic church,” right here.
And they built that chapel so beautifully; it is there, and the sisters are there, and then they asked us to open—they gave us a whole mountain to rehabilitate the lepers. There are many, many lepers. So we went to see the place, and I saw an open grave with the smell of the rottenness of the bodies. I cannot express what I saw. And I was thinking, “Jesus, how? How can we leave You like that?” And then I accepted that place, and if you went now, you would see quite a different place. And then I asked—being all Muslims, not a single Catholic there—and I asked one of the rich men, I said, “These are all Muslim people. They need to pray. Kindly build a mosque for them where they can pray.” And the man was surprised that I, a Catholic sister, would ask such a thing; but he built the most beautiful mosque for the people, and you see those lepers crawling, crawling, going there and praying. And then when that mosque was completely opened, he turned to me and he said, “I give you my word, the next thing I will build here is a Catholic church for the sisters.” These are beautiful examples of the hunger of people, of our poorest of the poor, the ignorant, the unwanted, the unloved, the rejected, the forgotten—they hunger for God.17
Pray That God Preserves the World
At my visit to Nagasaki, first of all we will pray; I’m going there to pray with the people; and also to visit the people there, to see the people, just as I have come here. And also to see how much suffering there is, up to now, because of the use of that bomb. And it can happen again. So we must pray that God will preserve the world, will preserve each one of us, from that terrible destruction.18
Today God Is Still Using Our Suffering
There must have been some reason for God to have chosen this place specially, the Land of Martyrs; that has been a double martyrdom. And I think today God is still using the suffering of the people; and through their suffering, through their prayer, peace will be obtained. And it is for us all together to pray that God will preserve not only Japan but the whole world from the terrible, fearful suffering that most of the people in Japan have already seen. So let us pray. Only prayer can obtain the grace of preventing this terrible difficulty from coming into the world.19
Great Need of Prayers and Sacrifices
I think we have also lost [our] grip on sacrifice. “Today that man is dying. He does not want to say sorry to God; I will pray for him and make some sacrifice for him”—that is not there anymore.20
Our country and our people are in great need of prayers and sacrifices. Be generous with both. Do your penances with greater fervor—and pray, pray much. The heads of our country know their duty, and we have to pray for them that they may fulfill their duty with justice and dignity. Let us pray for all those who are facing death that they may die in peace. Let us pray for all those who are left behind to mourn their dead. Let us pray for all sisters and priests who may have to face hardships—for our sisters that they may be all brave and generous and face all sacrifices with a smile. Teach the poor people to do this and we will help our country most.21
Pray for Souls
The month of November begins with two beautiful days: the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Holy Mother Church remembers all of her children, to whom she has given the life of Jesus through baptism—and they are now either home with Jesus in heaven or waiting to go there through purgatory. We all know that during this whole month we give them extra love and care, by praying to them and for them.
On All Souls’ Day we pray for those who are still suffering in purgatory and far from God. I can choose. I can go straight up or I can go down. All of us are here to love God—not only for the work. Every day should be an act of love to God.22
HER EXAMPLE: THE TESTIMONIES
She Prayed Constantly
She prayed constantly. You had the feeling that she was praying all the [time]—well, she was praying. She wasn’t saying words, but she was praying all the time. She was always—everything that she did was measured [by] how well she was doing God’s work, and she was willing to consider that [if] what she was doing was not perfectly what God wanted, He would show her by not giving her support.23
The Prayer of a Child, Full of Trust
Mother’s prayer life was extremely simple, like that of a child, full of trust. She did not complicate it at all. She seemed to know her faith deeply and lived it with the simplicity and fidelity of children or the poor. I know that this sort of prayer life can only be acquired through asceticism, as Jesus said, “Deny yourself.” Mother followed Jesus on this way through many years.
Mother was extremely conscious of the indwelling presence of God in her soul. This came out especially in the way she spontaneously taught us to pray. Her most repeated aspiration, prefixed to nearly any other, was “Jesus in my heart.” “Jesus in my heart, I believe in Your tender love.”24
She Taught Us to Pray
In the school [Entally], Mother was very strict, and at the same time she gave motherly love to us. She taught us to love Jesus, and how we could make small sacrifices and help souls to come to the Church. She taught us to have great devotion to Our Lady and the rosary, to Saint Joseph and to our guardian angel. When at night we would go to bed, she made us kneel and say three Hail Marys for a happy death and to pray to Saint Patrick to save us from the snakes, to Saint Michael to save us from the enemy, and to our guardian angel to watch over us and protect us from danger. And also for the holy souls.25
I Will—I Want, with God’s Blessing—Be Holy
In many other ways, Mother shared with others her gift of faith. Whenever visitors came to see her, she took them to the chapel. She taught them many small ejaculations. It didn’t matter to her who they were—whether they were bishops, priests, seminarians, cardinals, young people, children, poor people, presidents of countries, believers, or nonbelievers. She gave them her business card and taught them to say the following prayer, “I will—I want, with God’s blessing—be holy” and “You did it to Me.”
Join Prayer and Work
Sometimes she used to ask the sisters also to pray for some special intentions. Mother used to write on the blackboard near the chapel, “Please pray for so-and-so person,” and so forth. Whenever anyone came, she left what she was doing and went to meet them. For her meeting each person was meeting Jesus Himself.26
Mother in her instruction said: “If you only pray, you are not a Missionary of Charity, and if you only work, you are not a Missionary of Charity. A Missionary of Charity is one who joins prayer and work together.” For her, missionary zeal came from her deep union with God. God was the source; the eucharistic Jesus was the source. It was her strong, burning love for God that led her to go all over the world, to love and serve the poorest of the poor, to labor assiduously for their salvation and sanctification, to tell them and show them God’s tender love and care.27
Kneeling in Adoration
Even in the Active Branch, Mother gave much importance to the daily Holy Hour. So many volunteers would come to pray with Mother, and many have shared about the strength they received by seeing Mother kneeling in adoration, totally lost in Jesus. They would come for Holy Mass in the morning. They loved to pray with Mother. Even when Mother was very sick, Mother continued her apostolate with them. Mother was in the wheelchair—so the [visitors and volunteers] would come to the veranda near the chapel. Mother would listen to them and give them words of comfort.28
One of the last gifts Mother gave us was all-day Eucharistic Adoration [for the Contemplative Branch]. The main intention is to pray for the holiness of priests and the holiness of family life. We also pray for other, various intentions. I still remember the joy Mother expressed when in 1995 she came to St. John’s for the inauguration of all-day Eucharistic Adoration.29
86,000 Priests Prayed For!
Another aspect of her zeal was praying for priests. Therefore in 1986 she began that great work of the spiritual adoption of priests by sisters of different religious congregations. Her appeal to sisters was so effective that up to [this] date we have arranged for 86,000 bishops and priests to be adopted by religious sisters, especially the MCs. Her respect for priests as other Christs was so great that you’d often see her kneel before even young priests for their blessing.30
Let’s Make a Flying Novena
On November 9, 1975, Mother went with all the novices to the outdoor Mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, celebrated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI. At the time for Mass all the sky was overcast and it was raining steadily. As we sat, Mother said, “Let’s make a flying novena to our Lady, thanking her for the beautiful day.” We were reprimanded gently, because, Mother said, as we neared the end of the nine Memorares all the people closed their umbrellas, but the sisters did not because our faith must have been lacking.31
Mother had picked up a severely malnourished child about ten years old and brought her to Trivandrum. Then she went back to Calcutta. In the meantime, the child walked out of the house, and we did not know where she had gone. We informed Mother in Calcutta. Mother told us to keep on praying and searching for the child, and she too would pray and we would get the child back. We got the child; back from Nari Niketan—the police had found her and taken her there. Mother’s prayers were very powerful.32
Take the Trouble to Pray
I wrote to Mother about my prayer life, and Mother told me this. “Sister…is often late for prayer. Ask Our Lady to help you. Prayer is the very life of our union with Jesus. Examine yourself as to why you deliberately come late for prayer.” Mother in her instructions used to say, “Pray and work. You have not come only for work; otherwise pack [up] and go home.” Before my final vows, I went to see Mother and I asked Mother, “Do I have a vocation?” Mother looked straight into my eyes and told me, “My child, you have a vocation. Love to pray and take trouble to pray. Ask and seek and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own. Prayer is your strength and protection. Say, ‘Mother Mary, help me and guide me.’ ” I experienced Mother’s help and protection many times.33
Wear the Miraculous Medal
Many sick people were also helped by praying the prayer and wearing the medal. I believe it was through Mother’s prayers to Our Lady that we obtained favors when we were faithful to wearing the medal and praying as Mother taught us. When we were sick and went to Mother, Mother would give us a Miraculous Medal, bless us with it, and pray. She would ask us to keep it where we had pain. And we got better.34
Mary, Mother of Jesus, Be a Mother to Me Now
Though Mother herself had a profound and deep love for Our Lady, Mother used a very simple means to help us and the people to grow in our devotion. Everyone knows how Mother used to give Miraculous Medals to people and teach them to pray: “Mary, Mother of Jesus, be a Mother to me now!” Many people who had no children conceived children through this simple prayer of faith in Our Lady’s intercession. Mother would give them Miraculous Medals and ask them to wear them and pray: “Mary, Mother of Jesus, give us a baby!” and they got a child! I have come across many who have told me about it. One Hindu couple in London, who was childless for fifteen years after their marriage, had a baby girl whom they named Teresa. My own niece got a child by wearing the medal Mother gave her and praying the prayer.35
At Mass, just before it started, I leaned forward and told Mother, “Today is my sister’s birthday; she has been married six years and I have been told that they do not want children—please pray for her.” Mother said, “Let us both pray for her in this Mass.” And eleven months later my sister gave birth to the first of her two children….36
I asked Mother to pray for an acquaintance of mine, Maria, [who had] just [been] diagnosed with AIDS four days before. Mother responded by saying, “Oh. How terrible. So many people with AIDS.” Then she seemed to look past me as if in deep thought. Then Mother asked, “How did she get it?” Knowing the situation of this woman, I replied, “I think she got it from her boyfriend.” Mother said, “Oh,” and looked away from us again. She then repeated, “So many men, women, and children with AIDS.” Mother asked how old Maria was, and I responded, “Thirty-two.” Mother asked me again how Maria got the AIDS. I said, “She hasn’t been living a good life.” I then held Miraculous Medals in my hand in front of Mother, she blessed them and took one out and said, “This one is for Maria. Tell her to pray, ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus, be a Mother to me now,’ but especially ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus, take away my AIDS.’ ”37
Something Was Holding Them Back
During the civil war in Jordan, when a group of army men tried to come into our tiny flat, all of us prayed together. All of a sudden they left us and went to the other flats. Much later we met some of these soldiers and asked, “Why did you leave us and go to the other flats?” They said they could not enter our flat because they felt something was holding them back. I felt it was Mother’s message to us over the phone, “Do not be afraid. Jesus is always with you. Our Mother Mary will take care of you.”38
Pray in Order Not to Become Bitter
Mother told me to say [fifty] Memorares for [fifty] days (that was how old my former husband was at the time) in order to pray for him, for me not to become bitter, and for humility….She felt my prayers would be very important for him because I was the one he had hurt. She felt so strongly that I had to forgive him, and that I had to fight to keep bitterness out, and that everyone had problems, and that we had to be understanding of the weaknesses of others. Every time I saw her she would bring up the subject of me not becoming bitter about my former husband and the divorce and what he had done to me. I think she worried about that because she saw that I was pained in the years after the divorce.39
Cured by Mother’s Prayers
When Mother came, I was having a high temperature. She came and blessed me. She prayed over me. Next day again she came near my bed and touched my cheeks and said, “Your fever is not leaving you.” And she again prayed for nearly five minutes, and then and there I felt better and I became all right soon.40
First [my husband] had fever. For twenty days, throughout the day and night, the fever lasted. After taking medicines, one night at two o’clock suddenly the fever left him, but he became mentally ill. Because of his mental state, he left home at night, locking all of us inside the house. In this state he kept roaming around till nine o’clock in the morning. One of his staff who was staying opposite to our house brought him home and opened the door. When he entered the house, he beat me and the three children. It was then that I realized his mental condition. After this incident, I started hiding the children in other people’s houses. The children were small, and there was no proper provision for food. I was not cooking at home. Others helped much. At home he used to beat us, and then he would run out to beat outsiders with a stick. His office staff would run away on seeing him. At night, four people would hold and feed him and then lock him in a room. This lasted for thirteen days. It was my son’s First Communion. After the Holy Mass, I told one MC sister about his condition and she took us all to Mother and explained everything. Mother placed her hand on his head and prayed and then [he] was cured. Coming out of Mother House, he bought plenty of flowers to keep near Our Lady and Jesus and took us to the studio to take photographs. After which he bought mutton, and rejoicing we reached home. There he himself cooked a meal and we all ate together. Immediately after the meals, he went out to tell the neighbors and the office staff that he [had been] cured by Mother today. Others also believed that really Mother too had God’s power to heal.41
She Prayed over Him
“Vic” was diagnosed as having terminal cancer of the colon and had one year to live. After his radical operation, I met Mother Teresa at the airport in Manila. Fortunately, I was the first to greet Mother Teresa, got her passport, and assigned an immigration person to handle her papers while we got her luggage. The first question she asked me was: “How are you, my child?” “I am well, but not my husband, for he has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer.” While waiting for her luggage, she asked me to bring Vic the following day at 9:30 to the Regional House in Tayuman [Street], so she could pray over him and pin on my husband the same Miraculous Medal she had pinned on the pope when he was shot at the Vatican. I was so excited. The next day, I brought my husband to the Regional House, and exactly at 9:30 a.m. Mother Teresa came out of the chapel, and with her was the picture of a child in the palm of God’s hand and a quotation from Isaiah, which she handed to my husband, praying over him for some twenty minutes and ended this with the Miraculous Medal pinned on his shirt. Tears flowed from my husband’s eyes and mine too. Thereafter, Mother Teresa conversed with me about my family and even said that her own brother had died of cancer of the lungs and had it only for two years before he was called by our Lord, and that my husband should offer all his pain and sufferings to the Lord and pray for peace in our country.42 After three days, I brought my husband to his surgeon for his checkup, and the doctor could not believe the physical transformation of my husband.
In one week’s time, Vic had become healthy. My husband’s life was extended to nearly five years. Vic had all the time to prepare himself to be with the Lord, and he offered all his pains to Our Lord for His glory, became a daily communicant, and prepared the family for the eventual end, and he passed away with a smile on his lips and in peace and with apostolic blessings to meet the Creator.43
Thy Will Be Done
One of my officers’ wives was suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs, and physicians gave her two or three weeks to live. She had two or three children. I asked Mother to pray for her, and Mother said she could only pray and beg the Almighty to spare her for a few more years. She very firmly believed that any prayer to the Merciful Father with firm faith would get God’s blessings. Mother asked to call the officer, and together three of us knelt down in my office room and prayed for ten minutes. Concluding her prayer, Mother said, “Thy Will be done.” After ten or twelve days, the officer told me with a strange look that his wife was improving considerably and the attending physician was pondering how this could have happened. This lady lived another twenty-five years thereafter.44
On hearing this, another officer approached me. His wife was very sick. I told Mother everything. I accompanied her to a village, the residence of this officer. Mother prayed for her and ended her prayer by saying, “Thy Will be done.” Believe me, this lady was also restored to her own self.45
A constable working under me was very sick, suffering from epileptic disease, so much so that the authorities were thinking of getting him released from police service. I was very ill at ease as he had two or three children. One day when Mother came to my office for some registration work, I told Mother about this poor man. Mother told me to take her to his residence. The next day, I accompanied Mother in my office car to the constable’s residence. Mother took with her two blankets, two saris, and a few [items of] apparel for his two children matching their age. She prayed for fifteen minutes, beseeching the God Almighty to look after the ailing person. She never prayed to completely cure the ailments of the affected person, but only repeated in her prayer to look after the sick person and also his family members. She finished her prayer by saying, “Thy Will be done.” Believe me, after two or three weeks the constable met me in my office and told me that his epilepsy had not troubled him since the visit of the Holy Mother.46
I had diabetes, and one day Mother looking at me asked whether I was physically fit or not. I told her that I have high blood sugar. She gave me the locket of Mother Mary and prayed for my recovery. I am now having normal blood sugar only by some restriction of diet. My wife frequently says that since Mother has touched her, she has been able to control her temper and irritable attitude. Such was Mother’s touch and blessing.47
They Also Need to Pray
Mother’s solicitude that people be accorded their spiritual rights extended to those of all faiths. Mother herself told us about her experience when our sisters first went to Albania. In that country, no religious practice of any kind had been allowed for many years. With the change of regime, our sisters entered the country and immediately began looking for the poorest of the poor in order to care for them. Some aged and infirm women were found in what had previously been a mosque. When the sisters brought them to our house and got them settled, Mother’s next concern was the mosque. She made the sisters clean it and then called the Muslim leaders to hand it over to them. In relating the story, one could see Mother’s joy as she told us that by that same evening one could again hear the call to prayer from that mosque. “They also need to pray,” she said.48
REFLECTION
“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men.” (1 Tm 2:1)
“Love to pray. Often during the day, feel the need to pray. For that is where your strength will come from. Jesus is always with us to love, to share, to be the joy of our lives. You are in my prayers. God bless you.”
What can I do to deepen my relationship with the Lord in prayer? Do I dedicate at least a short time each day to personal prayer and reading of the Scriptures?
Do I use my busy schedule as an excuse to avoid prayer? Are there other things in my day that are less important but that I give precedence to over prayer?
Can I dedicate at least a few minutes of my time to pray for someone dear to me that has a special need at this time, perhaps a family member in difficulty, a sick friend, a discouraged colleague? What concrete prayers or small sacrifices can I offer for this person?
For which deceased person, known to me, have I never thought of praying? What prayers can I offer for them? Do I pray for my deceased family members and the souls in purgatory?
PRAYER
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known
that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help,
or sought your intercession
was left unaided.
Inspired with this confidence,
I fly unto you,
O Virgin of virgins, my mother;
to you do I come;
before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in your clemency hear and answer me.
Amen.