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Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light - The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta
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Average Rating:  out of 119 Reviews
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Price: $22.95
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Sale: $12.80
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Manufacturer: Doubleday
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780385520379
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Mother Teresa
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Publisher: Doubleday
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Dewey Decimal Number: 271.97
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Publication Date: 2007-09-04
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Reading Level: 416
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Description: This historic work reveals the inner spiritual life of one of the most beloved and important religious figures in history.
During her lifelong service to the poorest of the poor, Mother Teresa became an icon of compassion to people of all religions; her extraordinary contributions to the care of the sick, the dying, and thousands of others nobody else was prepared to look after has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world. Little is known, however, about her own spiritual heights or her struggles. This collection of her writing and reflections, almost all of which have never been made public before, sheds light on Mother Teresa's interior life in a way that reveals the depth and intensity of her holiness for the first time.
Compiled and presented by Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., who knew Mother Teresa for twenty years and is the postulator for her cause for sainthood and director of the Mother Teresa Center, MOTHER TERESA brings together letters she wrote to her spiritual advisors over decades. A moving chronicle of her spiritual journey—including moments, indeed years, of utter desolation—these letters reveal the secrets she shared only with her closest confidants. She emerges as a classic mystic whose inner life burned with the fire of charity and whose heart was tested and purified by an intense trial of faith, a true dark night of the soul.
Published to coincide with the tenth anniversary of her death, MOTHER TERESA is an intimate portrait of a woman whose life and work continue to be admired by millions of people.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Worthless for Any Purpose |
Date: 2008-11-17 |
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Details: This book is terrible at all levels and not useful for any purpose. It's a horribly dull read, without any true narrative, and is so heavily edited as to be useless even for historical purposes. This book is little more than a selective collection, tied together by heavy editorial remark, of professional correspondence between Mother Teresa and her supervisors. I was led to believe by the hype preceding this book that it would 1) reveal Mother There's personal struggles with the existence of God, and 2) be a raw glimpse of Mother Teresa's personal writings... this book is dissatisfying on both counts, and fails miserably all around. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS MISERABLE LITTLE BOOK. |
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Review Summary: A Sad Story of a Wasted Life |
Date: 2008-11-06 |
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Details: I have been absolutely flummoxed by reading this book.
Until I read it, I thought that Mother Teresa was a noble person who had devoted her life to helping the poor as a result of concern for their lives. What comes out instead is that she was an old-fashioned missionary who was out to get "souls for Jesus" and that the so-called charity was simply a way to worm her way into the lives of the really poor. She waxes eloquently about how the poor children are stained by "sin", which can only mean the medieval idea that they are damned by original sin until they accept Christ. In effect, she didn't see the poor as individual human beings with their own autonomy and spiritual worth, but rather as "soul scalps" to be collected for Jesus. I couldn't help be think that she was setting out to be some sort of weird Catholic vampire who haunted the slums of Calcutta to feed on the poor.
Another thing that was creepy was the extreme masochism of the woman. One of the phrases that sticks in my head is that her nuns should be "victims of love" for Christ. The voice of "Christ" that she related in her letters struck me as being an abusive man. The way he leaned on her and tried to "guilt" her into giving up everything for her vocation was eerily like the sort of thing abusers do to their victims. I couldn't help but think that a poor woman was being obsessed with her maternal instincts and projecting them onto Jesus. I was not impressed with her spiritual advisers, either. The only thing that they seemed concerned about was whether or not her visions and voices supported Catholic orthodoxy---not whether or not they were in fact wholesome for her psyche.
I've spent most of my life studying religious experience and am myself live the life of a religious hermit, so I take these sorts of life experiences very seriously. I am saddened by the way so many religious authorities are saying that this book shows some sort of exemplary life. (The idea that her despair was simply a long "dark night of the soul" is simply absurd. The dark night is meant to be a period of desolation followed by consolation---not some sort of life work. Most mystical traditions would instead suggest that her barren interior life was the fruit of the bizarre theology she had built her life around.)
It is a good book to read, but as a cautionary tale, not as a role model to follow.
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Review Summary: Mother Teresa |
Date: 2008-08-30 |
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Details: This book gives a great insight into the thoughts and struggles Mother Teresa had in hearing the call from God and trying to carry it out. Her generosity is incredible. |
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Review Summary: "The Saint of Darkness" |
Date: 2008-08-08 |
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Details: Canadian born Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, PH.D, one of the founding priests of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers and now director of the Mother Teresa Foundation, has provided us with an outstanding book. The book is a chronological compilation of Mother Teresa's private letters, revealing her inspiration (the vow, the call, the locutions and the visions) for the Missionaries of Charity and her remarkable inner spiritual life. The writings have had minimal editing and almost all were written initially in English. These are the personal communications to her spiritual advisors and close friends, and were never intended for publication. Fr. Koloiejchuk adds excellent commentary throughout providing valuable insights and context. The appendix includes the rule of the Society and a diary from a retreat she made in 1959. Both are worth reading.
Jesus asked Mother Teresa to "Come be My Light" and she responded by dedicating her life to be that light of God's love in the lives of those experiencing darkness. But the fruitfulness of her apostolate came at a steep price of many years of sacrifice. Not only did she live as a "woman of sorrows, familiar with suffering, bearing the suffering and burdens of the Society and the poorest of the poor." But she also lived in "spiritual darkness - the absence of God." This "darkness" would become the greatest trial of her life. She felt, if she ever became a saint, she would be called the "Saint of Darkness." Despite this, she held fast to the promise God made to her - "Do not fear - I shall be with you always...Trust me lovingly - Trust me blindly." She considered herself "a pencil in God's hand" and was convinced God was using her "nothingness" to show His greatness.
The secret of abundant light and love that Mother Teresa displayed is the essence of this book. The reader will learn that the secret lies in the depth and intimacy of her relationship to God throughout her heroic life - living the mission of being a "light to those in darkness." "Come Be My Light" is filled with passages that inspire, and passages to meditate on. It should be read slowly and integrated into one's own call and possibilities.
"Mother Teresa was a fearless missionary all her life. She had heard the voice of God calling her to serve the poor. Armed with the weapon of faith, she was not afraid to face and challenge the world to protect the interests of the most vulnerable members of human society." She was able to lift up those who had fallen, to encourage the faint, to rekindle hope in the disheartened. And most importantly, she showed us how holiness can be reached by simple means - always doing a little more than we feel ready to do for the unloved and unwanted in our society, our community, and in our homes.
Mother Teresa taught us that we each have a chance to radiate God's love to each person we meet throughout each day, thus transforming, little by little, the darkness of the world into His light.
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Review Summary: Come Be My Light |
Date: 2008-07-30 |
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Details: Even having taken a few months to read this book, I am in a state of awe. Mother Teresa's journey in faith has brought me to question just what is faith? Do we have faith when we have an intimacy with God? Do we have faith when we can intellectually agree with a belief in God? In reading this book, it seems that Mother Teresa had a deep belief and intimacy with God. All sense of that was stripped away, and she was left with having to trust God. At one point, I was reminded of the poem and picture of "Footprints in the Sand." God does not seem to be present; do we have the faith to trust that He is there anyway?
Many have commented on the fact that Mother Teresa had asked for her letters to be destroyed. That was a part of her humility, her 'I am nothing-He is everything.' I think that she would have assented if she had known that those too are a tool bringing people to Jesus. |
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