Benedicamus Domino
(“Let us bless the Lord”) and the response of
Deo
Gratias
(“Thanks be to God”). Dressing at their bedsides with a sheet cov-
ering their heads, they went downstairs to wash their faces with water that
came from the courtyard tank and was carried in empty powdered milk
cans. They then collected ash from the kitchen stove to clean their teeth.
Each sister washed herself with a small bit of soap; this same bit of soap
was used to wash their clothes as well. Between 5:15
A
.
M
. and 6:45
A
.
M
.
the sisters went for morning prayers, meditation, and then mass. They
then went to the dining hall where each drank
a glass of water before
breakfast. In the beginning, there was no tea for breakfast; instead milk
made from American powdered milk was given. Breakfast consisted of five
chapattis
(homemade bread made from wheat or other grain flours and
baked without yeast) spread with clarified butter (
ghee
). The
chapattis
pro-
vided strength and energy to the body and it was required that all eat their
allotment, something that many had a harder time doing than going with-
out food. Father Henry once told a story of how, when the first newcom-
ers joined the order, they came with the expectation that food would be
insufficient and one of many deprivations they would suffer. At their first
meal, Mother Teresa put their plates before each one. Amazed, the
women looked at the plates full of food.
They were told to eat it, as it was
their due. Mother Teresa then reminded them that God “wants obedience
rather than victims.”
3
In addition to their food, all of the residents took a
vitamin pill with their meal. After their quick breakfast, the sisters were
out on the streets by 7:45
A
.
M
. to begin their work. The sisters made a
point of traveling together in pairs for their own safety as well as to help
one another.
In the parlor of the Motherhouse is a hand-drawn chart that lists the
various activities the sisters are to do. These included providing child wel-
fare and educational programs and operating nutritional daycares;
family
planning centers; dispensaries; leprosy clinics; rehabilitation centers;
shelters for the homeless, crippled and mentally disabled; homes for
unwed mothers; and hospices for the sick and the dying. A separate col-
umn notes the total number of these institutions and the number of peo-
ple who benefited from them. A world map with red pins denoted the
areas where the Missionaries of Charity established homes or foundations.
In time, Missionaries of Charity in Western Europe and the United States
offered family visits and a prison ministry. The Missionaries of Charity’s
emphasis in India and many Third World countries—besides helping to
educate the poor and tend the dying—came
to be on homes for alco-
holics, shelters for the homeless, soup kitchens, and hospices for AIDS pa-
tients.
5 6
M O T H E R T E R E S A
By noontime, many sisters returned to Motherhouse for prayers and a
midday meal, which consisted of five ladles of bulgur wheat and three bits
of meat if there was any available. After the meal, housework was at-
tended to and then came a rest of 30 minutes. Afterward, there was more
prayer and afternoon tea at
which the nuns ate two dry
chapattis
. There
followed another half-hour of spiritual reading and instruction from
Mother Teresa. The sisters then returned to the city.
By 6 in the evening, the sisters returned to the Motherhouse for prayers
and dinner, which usually consisted of rice,
dhal
(a spicy dish made with
lentils), tomatoes, onions and various seasonings, and other vegetables.
During the meal, there was also 10 minutes of spiritual readings. After
dinner, attention was given to darning and mending, using a razor blade,
needle, and darning thread kept in a cigarette tin. There was also time for
recreation; this was the one time that conversation
about subjects other
than work was permitted. The signal for this recreational conversation to
begin was
Laudetur Jesus Christus
(“Praise be Jesus Christ”), to which the
sisters answered “Amen.” Now was the time that all could share what
happened to them during the day. Then at 10 o’clock, the day was over;
and everyone retired for the night.
Because Sundays were often as busy as weekdays, Mother Teresa set
aside Thursdays as days of respite for the residents of Motherhouse. On
this day, the sisters might engage in prayer and meditation. Quite often in
the early days, Mother Teresa would take her group to the home of a Cal-
cutta doctor, where they would have a picnic and relax on the grounds.
The physical demands of the sisters’ work were strenuous. On any
given day, they might have to jump railway
tracks or ditches or slog
through pools of standing water. During the rainy seasons, there was the
danger of being caught in a flash flood. Mother Teresa instructed her nuns
always to say their rosaries that each sister carried with her. In time, mea-
suring distances covered was not added up in miles, but in how many
rosaries were said. When the conditions they encountered were desperate
or terrible, the Sisters sang High Mass in Latin.
Even with the emphasis on poverty, there were times when the sisters
went without necessities. When there was no fuel to cook their meals, the
sisters ate raw wheat that had been soaked overnight. When their curry
was too bitter and there was nothing
available to improve its taste, the sis-
ters ate it for the sake of the conversion to Catholicism of the Mau Mau
tribe in Africa. No matter the sacrifice, the sisters did it willingly and
often with smiles on their faces.
Not all welcomed Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity into
their lives. Some of the poor resisted the sisters’ efforts to help them, see-
“ R I G O R O U S P OV E RT Y I S O U R S A F E G U A R D ”
5 7
ing them as trying to convert the poor to Catholicism. Others simply did
not want charity. For those young women who offered their lives in ser-
vice to the poor, rejection also waited. Many girls’ families were ashamed
of their vocation to help the poor and outcasts of the city. In some cases,
family members, if coming upon a daughter
or sister who had become a
Missionary of Charity, crossed the streets or turned away to avoid looking
at them. Many parents urged their daughters to leave and were often dis-
appointed and surprised to hear their advice rejected.
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