Mother Teresa: a biography

JOINING THE ORDER
When Mother Teresa first established the Missionaries of Charity, she
worked hard to help prepare the young women who entered the order. Fa-
ther Van Exem and Father Henry also helped instruct the newcomers in
preparation for their lives as nuns. Gradually, these tasks became more the
duties of senior nuns. Mother Teresa always emphasized that the work of
a Missionary of Charity was no different from that of social workers. This
is not completely true; social workers, while working with the disadvan-
taged, often try to help correct the social ills that cause poverty in the first
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M O T H E R T E R E S A

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place. For Mother Teresa and her nuns, living among the poor and living
like the poor was a means to find God and bear witness to his presence and
his will.
Women who apply to join the order must meet four requirements.
They must be physically and mentally healthy. They must have the abil-
ity and the desire to learn. Common sense is a necessity as is a cheerful
disposition; they would need all they could muster in working with the
poor. Initially, women enter the order for only a few weeks or months; in
this way, they can see if they are truly meant to become a Missionary of
Charity. As in other religious vocations, some find the life too dismal or
too hard. Others decide to leave and marry. Women who choose to re-
main do so with the understanding that they will sever ties with their fam-
ilies. Rarely are they allowed to return home, though periodic visits are
allowed every 10 years or so; in the case of a family illness, permission is
given for the sister to go home. Often, if the nun is to be sent to a mission
abroad, she is allowed to visit family members before leaving.
When joining the order, a young woman spends the first six months as
an aspirant and the following six months as a postulant. This period also
offers an opportunity for those who wish to leave to do so. The next two
years are spent as a novitiate; again if one chooses to leave the order, she
may do so without receiving special permission. At the end of the two-
year period, the novitiates take their first vows. The next five years are
known as the juniorate; from then on, each year the candidates renew
their vows in order to strengthen their spiritual commitment to God and
the order. For those wishing to leave, special permission is now required
from the head of the order. The sixth year is known as the tertianship; be-
fore taking their final vows, the nuns are sent home to visit with their
families and to reflect upon whether they are ready to assume the duties
and life of a Missionary of Charity. When asked once about what she ex-
pected of her nuns, Mother Teresa replied:
Let God radiate and live His life in her and through her in the
slums. Let the sick and suffering find in her a real angel of com-
fort and consolation. Let her be the friend of the little children
in the street. . . . I would much rather they make mistakes in
kindness than work miracles in unkindness.
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