Canonization
The “mission” of Mother Teresa of Calcutta “to the urban and existential peripheries remains for us today an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor”. Pope Francis said this during the Mass for the Canonization of the founder of the Missionaries of Charity yesterday morning. “Today – he said – I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model of holiness!”. The Pontiff then went on to say: “I think, perhaps, we may have some difficulty in calling her Saint Teresa: her holiness is so close to us, so tender and so fruitful that we will continue to spontaneously call her ‘Mother Teresa’”. “May this tireless worker of mercy help us to increasingly understand that our only criterion for action is gratuitous love, free from every ideology and all obligations, offered freely to everyone without distinction of language, culture, race or religion”, the Holy Father remarked. Then he concluded by recalling what “Mother Teresa loved to say: ‘Perhaps I don’t speak their language, but I can smile’. Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer. In this way, we will open up opportunities of joy and hope for our many brothers and sisters who are discouraged and who stand in need of understanding and tenderness”.
