'Love them anyway...'

Missionaries of Charity in Rome. Copyright Mary DeTurris Poust, Rome 2010.

On this feast day for Blessed Mother Teresa, I got to thinking about Mother Teresa moments in my life. The photo above is one. I had just arrived in Rome and was a little lost, when I came upon these two Missionaries of Charity. They were walking down the street, saw this homeless man and immediately knelt down beside him, took pizza bianca from their bags, and gave it to him with such tenderness and care. Of all the basilicas and great works of art I captured on camera during that trip, this image remains one of my favorites from my time in Rome.

My other Mother Teresa moment actually involved Mother Teresa. I was a young, 20-something reporter working for Catholic New York when I met her in St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was after an anniversary Mass for the late Cardinal Terence Cooke. Someone introduced me to Mother Teresa, and she reached over and touched my arm. For the longest time I held onto that sweater, not because I liked it very much (I didn't) but because Mother Teresa had touched it. Finally, somewhere along life's way, it got passed on or tossed into a donation bag. I'd like to think some person at a shelter or salvation army store got a whole bunch of unexpected grace when they picked up that used sweater.

I was having a hard time trying to decide what Mother Teresa quote I would include here today. There are just so many pearls of wisdom. Then I opened a book of daily reflections on peace (not a Catholic book) and found these words from a sign that was posted on the wall of Mother Teresa's Shishu Bhavan children's home in Calcutta:

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered,
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives,
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies,
Succeed anyway.
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight,
Build anyway.
People really need help, but may attack you if you help them,
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth,
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

And in case you just want one short keeper of a Mother Teresa quote, here you go:

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”