Books
“Fly high, like the eagle symbol of Mother Teresa’s country of origin! I encourage you to involve your peers; to constantly feed on the Word of God, opening your hearts to Christ, to the Gospel, to the encounter with God, to dialogue among you, so as to give witness before the whole world”. Pope Francis addressed this invitation to young people in the preface to the book “Let us love the unloved” (Ed. Missionaria Italiana) of which the Italian daily “Corriere della Sera” offers a sneak peek today. The book includes two unpublished addresses delivered by Mother Teresa in Milan in 1973. As a backdrop for her reflection, Pope Francis recalled the words of Mother Teresa: “We are not an NGO. NGOs work on a project; we work for Someone”. These are “words that I myself often repeat”, Pope Francis said: “The Church is not an NGO, because she works for Christ and for the poor in whom Christ lives, the poor who stretch out their hands and ask for our help, our merciful gaze, our tenderness”. Pope Francis suggested five key concepts: prayer, charity, hard-working mercy, family, and young people. “Mother Teresa would begin her day with a Holy Mass and finish it with the adoration of Jesus, infinite Love, in the Blessed Sacrament. This is how work can be transformed into prayer”, Pope Francis noted, encouraging us to “reach out to the peripheries of the men and women that we meet every day, to show compassion to those who feel humiliated in body and soul, to be witnesses to God’s tenderness for every wound of humanity”, in brief, to care for “every person, the whole person”. Speaking about the family, the Pope recalled Mother Teresa’s words: “Mothers are the heart of the home, it is them who form the family”. “In no other situation in life – the Pope observed – is it possible to live in the same way and to the same extent as when one lives in a family”. Finally, an encouragement to young people: “do not lose hope, do not allow others to steal your future; the future is in your hands!”.
