Mother Teresa, as a new book of her letters has just been published, to mark the 10th anniversary of her death. Phone call from BBC World Service, as I was about to cook supper: would I go and do an interview about M.Teresa, her "dark night of soul" etc? Quickly prepared supper, left in oven so J. could switch it on when he got in. Cycled to station, padlocked bike, rushed to get train to Waterloo. Tube strike, so Londoners walking everywhere. Fabulous golden evening, slanting sunlight over the Thames. So many cranes, though, around St Paul's and the City - more vast sky-scrapers going up, reducing city to faceless anywhere-place...To Bush House in the Strand. Interview was easy, interesting, and done by intelligent interviewer - all v. agreeable, World Service a contrast to much other media (incl. much of BBC!).
Home to J., supper, mugs of tea.
10 comments:
Joanna,
I wonder about these media people who call you to come speak at the last minute--can't they send a car for you?
Just wondering.
Love your blog, shows, etc.
Yes, you would think they'd send a car for you or something with the tube strike especially.
This doesn't have anything to do with what you were saying, but I have heard that there are around 1600 churches in England that are no longer churches because of no attendance and these buildings are being turned into resturants, dance halls and pubs? Does anyone know if this info is true?
What did you say?
Personally I find it very difficut to accept that someone could give her life to the service of the poor and be allowed to suffer this type of existential doubt.
Joanna, what do you know about the ascetic life? Apart from being a well-known nuisance, I can think of nobody less suitable than you to comment on Blessed Mother Teresa's spiritual difficulties.
Anonymous, don't be such a dork. If you're going to ding somebody, at least have the guts to use your own name. You just sound jealous.
Karen
It would be silly to think that Mother Teresa would not suffer some doubt and dark moments in her long life of sacrificial giving.
She wittnessed the extreme of human suffering on a daily basis surrounded by death and filth.She was a HUMAN BEING who relied on God's strength to guide her and give her what she needed to do HIS work.
You'd think that an active life would chase dark thoughts from the mind, and produce a state of cheerfulness and happiness.
It is very hard to accept that this is not so.
Malcolm mclean you must live in a fairy tale bubble.
mother teresa: oh I think I will get up today and walk the poverty streets of calcutta and help all the people who are suffering in stench while my own old bones ache.It is all so very pleasant for me to do this...
Duh? this is what made her so great.
The miraculous greatness of Mother Teresa is that she did her lifelong work in a state of spiritual desolation in which she experienced few consolations yet did not cease trusting God. That is heroic sanctity. Many of the rest of us would simply have given up while not helping the poor. Her spiritual life was a permanent Gethemane but, like the Lord, she persevered to the end. Praise God for her fidelity and example. God's radiance poured from her and it gleams even brighter now that we know of her interior darkness.
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