On Sunday, in Rome, Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be formally canonized as Saint Teresa.

How do you describe a woman who became an influence and teacher the world will never forget?

Faith and Compassion

From the time she was a little girl, she had a heart for the poor.

It was that deeply rooted desire to help that led her to choosing a life of service to God.

Captivated by stories of missionaries, Agnes left her family home in Skopje in 1928 at the age of 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto. “Be so kind to hear my sincere desire,” she humbly wrote to the Loreto Mother Superior. “I want to join your Society, so that one day I may become a missionary sister, and work for Jesus who died for us all.”

She embraced her calling 100%. Those she helped were poorest of the poor, and she lived among them. Very few can say they would’ve done the same. Particularly in conditions that many wouldn’t be able to handle for a single day, let alone a lifetime.

Struggle

That is not to say that she didn’t struggle with her faith. That she didn’t wrestle with her choices or wonder if God had abandoned her. She did. In fact she felt that God was not present in her life for most of her years of service. Yet she pressed on and in a very real sense triumphed.

“We must know exactly when we say yes to God what is in that yes. Yes means ‘I surrender,’ totally, fully, without any counting the cost.” It meant accepting whatever God gave, and giving whatever God chose to take away. And for Teresa, it meant accepting the burden of Christ’s Passion.

Influence

Mother Teresa’s influence was felt by all whether in the slums of India, the orphanages in Haiti, the White House, or Buckingham Palace. No one who met her was ever the same afterwards.

Hard Truths

Her ability to speak hard truths with pointed grace was very evident during her speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994 with President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary in attendance.

That speech, which you can read in full here, served as both a rebuke and appeal to save society and all children, especially the unborn.

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.

No matter the acclaim, no matter the awards, her focus always stayed on the poor, the downtrodden, the children, and the unborn.

Her Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1979 is another example of her humility and willingness to speak the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

And I feel one thing I want to share with you all, the greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other?

A life of compassion and service unsurpassed. Yet many today look at Saint Teresa and sneer. Others would do anything to discredit her. I believe that is because examining her life was like holding up a mirror in front of them. Their lives/honor/faith/compassion can’t compare. They know it and so revert to ridicule to compensate. They, sadly, are ignoring one of her greatest lessons.

“Life is the most beautiful gift of God.”

Saint Teresa’s priority was never herself. It was always the poor that she lived her life in service to. Saint Teresa did seemingly small things with great love every day, and that was her greatest gift of all.