Flash: Mother Teresa Was Human

Letters reveal the Catholic nun had doubts about God

Her name has become a synonym for holiness and faith, but it turns out that even Mother Teresa experienced dark nights of the soul. Between September 1946 and October 1947, she experienced visions of Jesus instructing her to found the Sisters of Charity, but she sank into spiritual depression when they stopped. “My smile is a great cloak that hides a multitude of pains,” she wrote in 1958. “[People] think that my faith, my hope and my love are overflowing, and that my intimacy with God and union with His will fill my heart. If only they knew.” Later she went into more detail: “The damned of hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment with the loss of God. In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God, and that God does not exist.” The writings appear in the newly published work, Il Segreto di Madre Teresa (Mother Teresa’s Secret).

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

Stories referenced above include:

Newly released letters tell of Jesus calling Mother Teresa ‘my little wife’The Scotsman (Dec. 8, 2002)

Christianity Today‘s sister publication Christian History in 2000 wrote on why Mother Teresa “belongs to the whole world—not to Roman Catholics only, not to Christians only.”

In 1997 a Christianity Today editorial by Randy Frame looked at “Why the World Listened.”

Also in this issue

The Higher Self Gets Down to Business: An old movement appears anew—in the corporate world.

Cover Story

The Higher Self Gets Down To Business

Heavenly Bodies

Yugoslavia: Divided by distrust

Quotation Marks

The Unluckiest Church

Heresy at Wheaton?

Prostitutes Sue Christians

Evangelism Antagonism

New Life for Prolife

"Reflections: Sex, Love, and Marriage"

Nigeria: Sub-Saharan Powder Keg

News

"John F. Walvoord, 92, longtime Dallas president, dies"

Fighting Within and Fears Without

Darrell Block: ’Public-Square’ Societies Keep Us Honest

We're Rich

Faith vs. Statistics

Openness Season

Words Well Chosen

A Refugee's Challenges

Making a Difference

A Stellar Whodunnit

Tallying Compassion

News

Elms Make Like a Tree

Wire Story

Clergy ratings at lowest point ever

Wire Story

Pakistan: Three killed in Christmas attack on church

PLUS: Utopia or Kingdom Come?

PLUS: Prosperity Consciousness

The Profit of God

PLUS: Bad Company Corrupts

"Once you Forgive, there will be Healing"

Headship with a Heart

News

Go Figure

"PLUS: The Neighborhood's Last, Best Hope"

How to Rebuild a Country

Wrath Control

What Conversion Is and Is Not

The Peoples are Here

Saving Black Babies

Local Church fights for evangelical ID card

Beach blanket rebirth

Prolife as Mafia?

View issue

Our Latest

News

Ghana May Elect Its First Muslim President. Its Christian Majority Is Torn.

Church leaders weigh competency and faith background as the West African nation heads to the polls.

Shamanism in Indonesia

Can Christians practice ‘white knowledge’ to heal the sick and exorcize demons?

Shamanism in Japan

Christians in the country view pastors’ benedictions as powerful spiritual mantras.

Shamanism in Taiwan

In a land teeming with ghosts, is there room for the Holy Spirit to work?

Shamanism in Vietnam

Folk religion has shaped believers’ perceptions of God as a genie in a lamp.

Shamanism in the Philippines

Filipinos’ desire to connect with the supernatural shouldn’t be eradicated, but transformed and redirected toward Christ.

Shamanism in South Korea

Why Christians in the country hold onto trees while praying outdoors.

Shamanism in Thailand

When guardian spirits disrupt river baptisms, how can believers respond?

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube