Mother Teresa's "Crisis of Faith"

[snowgarden]

time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html

Time has posted a lengthy article based on the new book "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, a collection of her letters over a 60 year time frame. I’ve mentioned my own dark night of the soul previously and only find her struggle real and inspiring. I wonder how the secular media will present this further and how those unfamiliar with this type of struggle will process her words of agony.

In 1961 she writes to her confessor “*I have come to love the darkness — for I believe now that it is part of a very, very small part of Jesus’ darkness & pain on earth. You have taught me to accept it [as] a ‘spiritual side of your work’ as you wrote — Today really I felt a deep joy — that Jesus can’t go anymore through the agony — but that He wants to go through it in me.” *

I know that Jesus was only reciting a Psalm when he said “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” and the ending of that Psalm was uplifting; but I hear Mother Teresa crying out the same words and the ending of her story is an inspiration because she is an example of working through the self-doubt and pain.

 

[blessedstar]

Thank you very much for posting this.

In the Living Prayer of my life

 

[Rolltide]

NBC Nightly News just covered this in their “In Depth” segment tonight. It was refreshingly sympathetic and accurate as to the Catholic viewpoint.

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

NBC Nightly News just covered this in their “In Depth” segment tonight. It was refreshingly sympathetic and accurate as to the Catholic viewpoint.

I also saw that and thought it was well done. Part of her darkness had to be some form of depression from all the things around her.

 

[puzzleannie]

this thread is also on the news forum since it links a news article.

 

[blessedtoo]

CNN started their dopey report with the tag line “New startling and controversial revelations on the “so-called” sister of mercy”. How disgusting. John Allen, the Catholic Reporter journalist, actually surprised me with an articulate and very CATHOLIC response in which he referred to St. John of the Cross as well as other saints who have experienced spiritual dryness.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

This information only confirms how holy Mother Teresa really was.

If anything, it strengthens my faith, more than lessen it.

Thanks for posting the story!

Jim

 

[pray4peace]

Thanks for posting the link. I had no idea she went through such trials of darkness, and yet still did God’s will. She is a strong witness to the faith, and persevered to the end.

Blessings

 

[InLight247]

How heroic Mother Teresa is that she neither gave up her faith nor slowed down her good work while staying in the darkness for so long.

I have not finished reading the Time article. I don’t think I can sustain witnessing her pain in detail at this moment.

But my respect of her increased just by knowing a glimpse of her struggle.
What a great Saint she is!!

 

[RobNY]

This information only confirms how holy Mother Teresa really was.

If anything, it strengthens my faith, more than lessen it.

Thanks for posting the story!

Jim

Indeed, Jim. Except… my own attitude towards such suffering also showcases how far yet I have to go in my journey-- I’m ok with suffering for Christ as long as it’s quick and easy. Jesus Christ will truly have to transform me before I don’t find such suffering repulsive to my will.

What St. Therese says about the differing levels of grace…

I often asked myself why God had preferences, why all souls did not receive an equal measure of grace. I was filled with wonder when I saw extraordinary favours showered on great sinners like St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Mary Magdalen, and many others, whom He forced, so to speak, to receive His grace. In reading the lives of the Saints I was surprised to see that there were certain privileged souls, whom Our Lord favoured from the cradle to the grave, allowing no obstacle in their path which might keep them from mounting towards Him, permitting no sin to soil the spotless brightness of their baptismal robe. And again it puzzled me why so many poor savages should die without having even heard the name of God.

Our Lord has deigned to explain this mystery to me. He showed me the book of nature, and I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the
whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or
the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the
lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would lose its springtide
beauty, and the fields would no longer be enamelled with lovely
hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our Lord’s living
garden. He has been pleased to create great Saints who may be
compared to the lily and the rose, but He has also created lesser
ones, who must be content to be daisies or simple violets
flowering at His Feet, and whose mission it is to gladden His
Divine Eyes when He deigns to look down on them. And the more
gladly they do His Will the greater is their perfection.

This in particular strikes me. What grace! If I must be content to be a lesser saint, then so be it! But again, what grace to be a great saint!

-Rob

 

[DBT]

Wow!

One of the things that caught my attention in this article was the reference to a “reparative” dark night that goes beyond the purgative (sense & spirit) dark night defined by St. John of the Cross. Does anyone know anything about this? I’d like to learn more.

I wonder if this “reparative” dark night that Mother Teresa evidently went through might be anything like the trial of faith St. Therese of Lisieux endured in her final days when she was tormented by fears that there is no heaven and that death would only bring her eternal “nothingness.”

Dave.

 

[blessedstar]

Wow!

One of the things that caught my attention in this article was the reference to a “reparative” dark night that goes beyond the purgative (sense & spirit) dark night defined by St. John of the Cross. Does anyone know anything about this? I’d like to learn more.

I wonder if a “reparative” dark night might be anything like the trial of faith St. Therese of Lisieux endured in her final days when she was tormented by fears that there is no heaven and that death would only bring her eternal “nothingness.”

Dave.

Hi Dave

The way I see it Dave is that the soul endures such darkness as to join Jesus in total desolation so that souls may be saved and reparation for sin may be made in Christ Jesus. This is to be lived out in faith in the daily living of life as a prayer united to Jesus desolate upon the Cross and on the Altars of all of the world. This is a contemplative union in sharing in the desolation of Christ Jesus.

footnote: ‘and on the Altars of the world’ :The Eucharist is the crucified and risen Lord, however such a union is united to the Crucified Lord.

In the Living Prayer of my life

 

[InLight247]

Wow!

One of the things that caught my attention in this article was the reference to a “reparative” dark night that goes beyond the purgative (sense & spirit) dark night defined by St. John of the Cross. Does anyone know anything about this? Dave.

I know nothing about reparative dark night. Thinking about Mother Teresa’s prolonged length of dark night; some thoughts just crossed my mind. So I am putting my thoughts out loud.

For a great Saint like Mother Teresa, maybe after the purgation of her own soul, God sees it appropriate to leave her in the darkness, knowing that no matter how painful it is, she will remain faithful and loving. God use the graces invoked from this loving endurance to redeem other souls. Since God knows Mother Teresa’s immense capacity of suffering, He allows this unusual darkness to envelop her for extra long time. Successfully sustaining through the darkest of darkness, the reparative purpose was achieved and God is glorified.

 

[diligamus]

It does indeed cast her in a new light that all those years she had nothing to go on but faith. Thank you, Blessed Mother Teresa, for your example, your witness, and your inspiration.

 

[ba_bustanti]

She has strengthened me and my belief. The darkness is grave at times for me but I pray and I pray for God to keep me strong, keep my faith strong and not to let go of me. Sooner or later I believe there will be light. I think many of us go through this at one time or another. Some of us deeper some of us less. She kept the faith and persevered.

 

[InLight247]

In ancient China, transportation and communication were very limited. People walked or rode on the horse. Messages were sent by trained dove or goose.

When the man of the house was sent for combat during a war, there was hardly any way he could contact his family. His wife might never hear from him again. Nonetheless, she would always wait for him, always love him. No matter it was ten or twenty or thirty years, no matter if the war had been long ended, she would still love and wait. Even if she learned he was dead in the war, knowing he would never come back, she would never remarry. He used to be with her. She used to know him and be loved by him. Even she no longer have him in her life, she remained to be faithful and loving.

Appropriate or not, somehow the above also came to my mind when thinking about Mother Teresa’s long dark night.

 

[the_phoenix]

When the man of the house was sent for combat during a war, there was hardly any way he could contact his family. His wife might never hear from him again. Nonetheless, she would always wait for him, always love him. No matter it was ten or twenty or thirty years, no matter if the war had been long ended, she would still love and wait. Even if she learned he was dead in the war, knowing he would never come back, she would never remarry. He used to be with her. She used to know him and be loved by him. Even she no longer have him in her life, she remained to be faithful and loving.

Very beautiful and most appropriate.

~~ the phoenix

 

[johnstown_johnn]

Every one of us comes to a crossroad of challenge to our faith.

 

[DBT]

Hi blessedstar, Inlight and all!

Well of course my curiosity got the better of me. I found this interesting link by Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange from his classic work the “Three Ages of the Interior Life” that addresses the reparative night of the soul. St. Paul of the Cross is the example used to illustrate. This is certainly a side to Mother Teresa I wasn’t aware of!

catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=7689

Dave

 

[jules11]

I find it all so scary! Shows me how far I have to go to be just…well, good, l
et alone, holy
and let alone a Saint!
What an incredible woman! What an amazing saint she is! I think this is Divine Providence at work here. I have such a problem with perserverance and giving in to my emotions, be it anger, depression or impatience… I think I will pray for Mother Teresa’s intercession.
I find it hard to do my duties when I’m not feeling the best. Imagine doing all she did with NO consolations at all!
I am in total awe at what some souls do for God and what God does for them.