23 January 2011

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa
(1910-1997)
Gist :
One of the great servant of humanity, Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910 whose actual name was Agnes Gonxhe Bohaxhiu. She found the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. Agnes fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary.
She arrived in India in 1929 and began her work in Darjeeling. She was disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. On September 10, 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as “the call within the call’. She thought to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948.
She started attending to the needs of the destitute and starving. She started Missionaries of Charity to care of “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society. In 1952 she has opened the first Home for the Dying. Mother Teresa opened the NIrmal Shishu Bhavan, the Children’s Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth. She won Noble Peace Prize in 1979 and Bharat Ratna in 1980.

Comprehension Questions with Answers :
1. Whose name was Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu ?
Mother Teresa
2. What happened in 1950 ?
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata
3. When did Teresa consider her birthday to be ?
Teresa considered her birthday to be on August 27
4. What stories fascinated the young Agnes ?
The stories of the lives of missionaries and their service fascinated Agnes
5. What did she do at the age of eighteen ?
At the age of eighteen Agnes left home to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary.
6. When did Agnes arrive in India and where and did she begin her work ?
Agnes arrived in India in the year 1929. She began her work in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan Mountains.
7. When did Agnes become Teresa ?
Agnes became Teresa on May 24, 1931.
8. What incidents disturbed Teresa while she was teaching in Calcutta ?
The poverty surrounding her and a famine in 1943 which brought misery and death to Calcutta.
9. What kind of call did Teresa experience in September 1946 ?
Teresa experience a call in September 1946 was “the call within the call’.
10. When did she begin her work with the poor and how did it begin ?
She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948. She gave up her traditional Loreto dressing and began to wear a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border, adopted Indian citizenship, and ventured out into the slums.
11. What kind of a temptation did Teresa overcome initially ?
When Teresa began her work with the poor, the comfort of Loreto started to tempt her. She overcome the temptation out of her free choice and love for god.
12. When did Teresa start the Missionaries of Charity and what was its primary objective ?
Teresa started the Missionaries of Charity in the year 1950. Its primary objective was to take care of the “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society.”
13. What did Teresa mean by the expression ‘a beautiful death’ ?
Teresa meant ‘a beautiful death’ that the people who lived like animals to die like angels.
14. What is Shanti Nagar ?
Mother Teresa opened a home for those suffering from leprosy and called the hospice Shanti Nagar (City of Peace).
15. Who is the author of the book Something Beautiful for God ?
Malcolm Muggeridge is the author of the book “Something Beautiful for God”.
16. In which year did Teresa step down as Head of Missionaries of Charity ?
On March 13, 1997 Teresa stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity.
17. What proof made the authorities beatify Mother Teresa ?
The process beatification requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa
18. What was the range of work of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity at the time of her death in 1997 ?
Missionaries of Charity was operating 600 missions in 120 countries at the time Mother Teresa’s death in 1997.

Bits :
1. Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910
2. Her actual name was Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu.
3. She was an Albanina Roman Catholic nun
4. Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata was found in 1950
5. Mother Teresa was honoured with the Nobel Prize in 1979
6. Teresa considered her birthday on August 27
7. Her parents were Nikolle and Drana Bojaxhiu
8. She left home at the age of 18
9. Teresa arrived India in 1929, began her wok in Darjeeling
10. On September 10, 1946 Teresa experienced “the call within the call’
11. Teresa was permitted to start the Missionaries of Charity on October 7, 1950
12. In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying
13. Teresa converted an abandoned structure into the Kalighat Home for the Dying
14. Shanti Nagar (City of Peace) – a home for suffering leprosy
15. In 1955 she opened the Nirmal Shishu Bhavan
16. The first house outside India opened in Venezuela in 1965
17. The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963
18. The Missionaries of Charity Sisters followed in 1976
19. Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge.
20. In 1981 Mother Teresa began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests
21. In 1984 Missionaries of Charity Fathers founded with Fr. Joseph
22. On March 13, 1997, Mother Teresa stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity
23. Mother Teresa died in the year 1997