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Christianity Today, September (Web-only), 2007 |

SPEAKING OUT

'I Thirst'

What was going on with Mother Teresa?

Mary Poplin | posted 9/17/2007 10:01AM

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
So pants my soul for you, O God. (Psalm 42:1, ESV)

Mother Teresa recorded her longing to feel the presence of the Lord everywhere, not just in the letters published ...

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Tony Jordan

Posted: September 27, 2007 5:12 PM

Unfortunately, we can read all kinds of philosophical and mystical explanations for MT barren dryness for 50 years. I greatly admire her work, could this have been achieved without knowing Jesus Christ, as personal Saviour and Lord? That's not for me to judge. God's Word, the Scriptures are the only objective, historical document that makes it emphatically clear, that JESUS CHRIST, is the only mediator between man (on earth) and the Father in Heaven, with the Holy Spirit being the only access, (Eph. 2:18). Mother Teresa consecrated her life to the heart of Mary, utterly unbiblical. She was known to have held dying Hindu's and Muslim's in her arms, and said to them, '...believe in your god...' Obviously unable to lead them to Christ for Salvation, why not? Catholicism has 'apotheosized' Mary, how? "Thou art the Mother of God, and ALL-POWERFUL to save sinners, and with God thou needest no other recommendation for thou art the Mother of true like." 'The Glories of Mary, p. 155). Think!

Jack	Posted: September 19, 2007 1:02 AM


Excellent commentary and observations. Thank you.

Concerned

Posted: September 18, 2007 11:54 AM

Ted and Joan - Generally I would not respond a post like yours. But since I believe you believe that you are being helpful I decided to respond. No, I have not been hurt by the church, other Christians, et al. I wrote what I wrote because I believe the MT was a self-centered person more concerned with her own agenda then with the well being of those to whom she "ministered". If you do your home work, you will see that she told those with whom she worked not to use condoms, sending them to their death. She refused to aid those who did not agree with her or follow her mandates! This is not love. This is not what Christ called us to. If you want to bury your head in the sand, please be my guest. I will not criticize your for wanting to glorify MT. To blame AIDs on Hindus is to miss understand the problem. I find it curious that anyone could defend such indefensible behavior. Yes, fidelity in marriage is key, but MT's focus was only on women, not their habitually unfaithful husbands.

Ted Voth Jr

Posted: September 17, 2007 11:00 PM

Concerned, i feel such love for you, and such pity for you, your anger and your bitterness. Have you been hurt by the religious practices of Christianity or of some religion? I don't think you know God, and you cannot really understand what that dear saint went through. How terrible to have experienced the Presence of God, and then to have had Him turn His Face away. I don't know what I'd do if He did that to me. Concerned, you need Jesus. In fact all you have to do to be a saint is to 'wannabe'- and to tell Him so. Come. It won't be easy, but it will be your Salvation, the fulfilling of the purpose of your existence.

Minstep

Posted: September 17, 2007 8:08 PM


I'm interested how deep anti-Catholic bigotry would have to run in order for one to judge the life of Mother Teresa in such a smug way and lash her with self-satisfied doctrine. And how can you take the "Dark Night of the Soul" completely out of the context in which it was written?

Richard

Posted: September 17, 2007 7:18 PM


JMJ How wonderful to find an understanding of redemptive suffering and the Dark Night of the Soul outside of a Catholic context!! God bless. Richard

Joan	Posted: September 17, 2007 3:35 PM

REgarding the message from Concerned, I can understand why Mother Teresa--and by extension--the Catholic Church's teaching on birth control may appear unfeeling and impractical in the context of a third world nation struggling with the AIDS virus, but there is another way to consider the Vatican's teaching. First, it seems a matter of convoluted logic to blame a Catholic nun's teaching on birth control for the AIDS crisis in a country that is primarily Hindu. Christians only consitute a very small percentage of the Indian population. It is strange, to say the least, for someone to blame an epidemic on a nun who spent her life caring for the destitute, inspiring many others from her church to see the face of their savior in the face of the poorest of the poor. Second, her teaching on birth control is combined with her equally stronge defense of the dignity of women and the importance of faitihfulness in mariage--key elements of any campaign to oppose AIDS.

Raymond Takashi Swenson

Posted: September 17, 2007 3:25 PM

"Concerned" is really getting carried away in his or her condemnation of Mother Teresa, especially in asserting that she was the determining factor in whether "hundreds of thousands" of women decided not to use birth control, in a nation where government policy has been promoting birth control with the expenditure of billions of dollars. When one sincerely believes what you teach, you cannot be a fraud, no matter how many people in New York or San Francisco or Paris disagree with you. The notion that Mother Teresa was "self-centered" is incredible. Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are self-centered, and they are at the opposite end of the behavioral scale from Mother Teresa. "Concerned" is clearly a "progressive" non-thinker who just throws random pejorative words at people whose noble behavior shows the bankruptcy of her own politically-correct voluntary totalitarianism.

Kim	Posted: September 17, 2007 2:10 PM

What a wonderful article. It reminds us as individuals that there are no promises of any "beds of roses" in following Christ. It reminds us that service and following His leading is more important than our "feelings." It reminds us that we're all equal in God's sight. He loves each of us unconditionally and the same. It's not "us" that warrants His love, it is He that freely gives it regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in. Thank God for that grace.

Concerned

Posted: September 17, 2007 1:11 PM

All I can say is: unbelievable!! How can you respect someone who condemned thousands if not perhaps hundreds of thousands of women to death by telling them it was a sin to use birth control in a country where men routinely have sex outside of married without using a condom with the result they pass on HIV to their wives, who contract aid and die a horrible death. This woman was a best a fraud, and at worse a self centered wannabe saint.

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