Wisdom from Mother Teresa

I picked up this book of teachings by Mother Teresa at B&N, and for a book on discount it kicks a punch with almost every line. Some nuggets:

"I'm just a little pencil in His hand. Tomorrow, if He finds somebody more helpless, more hopeless, I think He will do still greater things with her and through her."

"Both humility and prayer grow from an ear, mind, and tongue that have lived in silence with God, for in the silence of the heart God speaks."

"If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are."

"Since we cannot see Christ, we cannot express our love to Him. But we do see our neighbor, and we can do for him what we would do for Christ if He were visible."
--Couldn't have said it better. Regarding others as better than ourselves means respecting, honoring, uplifting others. If Jesus came here on earth, we believers would treat Him with utmost respect and reverence and love for what He did for us. But since He's not here, all we can do is express this love to others..and Jesus even says, what we do to the least of men, we do to Him. These words illuminate the possibility of loving Jesus directly, by serving our brothers and caring for the needy around us. It's like Jesus is right there. And we He's waiting for us to come and show care for Him..

"There must be the cross, there must be suffering, a clear sign that Jesus has drawn you so close to His heart that He can share His suffering with you."

"We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with Him right now, to be happy with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him now means loving like He loves, helping like He helps, giving as He gives, serving as He serves, rescuing as He rescues, being with Him twenty-four hours a day"
--So true. The secret to joy is not acquiring more, but giving more.

"The work of moral rearmament is carried out with discretion and love. The more discrete, the more penetrating it will be. You give it to others, and it is they who absorb it."

"Faith strips the mask from the world and reveals God in everything. It makes nothing impossible and renders meaningless such words as anxiety, danger, and fear, so that the believer goes through life calmly and peacefully, with profound joy--like a child, hand in hand with his mother." --a quote from Charles de Foucauld

From the Daily Prayer of the Co-workers of Mother Teresa:
"Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted, to understand, than to be understood, to love, than to be loved, for it is by forgetting self that one finds, it is by forgiving that one is forgiven, it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life."
--Offering up one's self instead of keeping it, the key to true joy & fulfillment..Reminds me of Isaiah 58:

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.