Sister Nirmala Joshi Speaks on Mother Teresa's Living Heritage

by Nirmala Carvalho / AsiaNews

In an interview with AsiaNews, the superior of the Missionaries of Charity takes stock of what her congregation has done in the ten years since the Blessed's death. She discusses the rejection of God in today's world and thirst for God in Mother Teresa's dark nights. 

(Reproduced by special arrangement)

September 6, 2007

Nirmala Carvalho with Sr Nirmala Joshi

Kolkata: In the ten years since the death of Mother Teresa, the congregation she founded continues to grow. Since September 5, 1997, when Mother "went back to the Home of God," more than 900 people joined the Missionaries of Charity. Altogether 166 new houses were opened in this period in 14 new countries. Sister Nirmala Joshi, superior of the Missionaries of Charity who succeeded the founder at her request, confirms how much Mother Teresa's charisma and witness are still alive today.

Sister Nirmala, 73, comes from a Hindu background, originally from the Nepali village of Putalibazar, west of Kathmandu. Brahmin by caste, her family immigrated to India in 1947. In Kolkata she became Catholic thanks to Mother Teresa's help and was amongst the first to wear the Missionaries of Charity white sari with bleu celeste borders. She belonged to the contemplative branch of the congregation when she was called to become superior general six months after Mother Teresa's death.

In her interview with AsiaNews Sister Nirmala talks about the lasting and still current value of Mother Teresa's message in a world that in rejecting love rejects every human being's dignity as well as "peace, light and joy."

She also refutes controversial claims made more recently about Mother Teresa's "dark nights," her alleged "atheism," reasserting the future saint's "heroic" faith.

With Mother's statue at MC headquarters

Sr Nirmala, is Mother Teresa still relevant to people today?

Mother's life and work of love has an impact on people whatever the age. Her prayer and message about God's love for every human being and her challenge to everyone to love one another as God loves them continue having an impact on people and nations. Mother shows everyone the simple path to Love.

Ten years since Mother Teresa's death, how is life in the congregation she founded?

In these ten years, our Society, the Missionaries of Charity, has continued to grow. We are now operating in 14 new countries and have founded 166 new houses around the world. Today we are present in 134 countries and have 757 houses.

We have now 4,823 Sisters compared to 3,842 at the time of Mother's going home to God in 1997. New vocations keep coming.

Our life of prayer, simplicity and humble works of love in the wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor, irrespective of nationality, caste and creed continues, as does our total dependence on Divine Providence for all our needs and the needs of the poorest of the poor under our care. God's providence has never failed. Through us the rich and the poor all over the world continue sharing their gifts of love with the poor. Many young people from all over the world keep on coming and sharing personally in our humble works of love, as volunteers.

Mother's tomb draws people from all over the world from all walks of life, rich and poor, young and old, educated or not, sick and healthy, of all cultures, religions and no religion. They come to pay homage to Mother, receive her blessing, pray for their needs and show their gratitude for all that Mother has done for them.

Sisters of the congregation observing the day (Pic DNA)

In today's world people seem to be losing the sense of the sacred and of God . . .

If we lose the sense of the sacred and the sense of God, we also lose the sense of our very humanity and become something we are not created to become.

Sacredness is attached to our very nature as human beings, as we are created by God our Father, in His own image to become holy as He is holy and destined for eternal life of love, peace, light and joy.

God is the source of our life, love, light, peace and happiness. Without God we are nothing, we know nothing and we have nothing: No love, no Light, no peace, no joy.

In India today fundamentalism is growing and freedom of religion is being curtailed through various anti-conversion laws. How can one continue working and evangelizing under such circumstances?

Freedom of religion is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. Article 25 of the Constitution of India clearly states that "Subject to public order, morality and health and the other provisions of this part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate [their] religion."

We bring the goodness of God's love for every person through our prayer and humble works. Our small acts of love show our suffering brothers and sisters God's tender love for them and they repent of their wrong-doings and forgive those who have done wrong to them and return to the Heart of God and receive His peace.

This way of evangelization is accepted everywhere, by all peoples, at all times.

How are you and your sisters getting ready for the canonization of Mother Teresa?

Through our prayers and trying to live our life and do our work as Missionaries of Charity faithfully, wholeheartedly and with joy.

In Mother Teresa: Come Be my Light, Mother Teresa is shown as facing a deep crisis of faith in God in the last 40 years of her life. The book reveals that the Blessed Mother had to struggle fiercely with her faith whilst appearing cheerful outwardly. She compared her problems to hell and admitted that she had begun to doubt the existence of heaven and God.

The new book shows Mother as a woman of heroic faith, full of hope and love who, in spite of her feelings of the apparent absence of God and rejection by Him, continued believing in a loving God; thirsting for Him all the more; trusting Him with unshakable confidence and surrendering herself to His will totally with joy, no matter what it cost her.

Mother still beacon of hope, 10 years on

IANS

Report dated Sep 5, 2007

Kolkata: As the infirm, destitute and orphaned of this metropolis joined in a candle-light tribute to the 'Saint of the Gutters' on her tenth death anniversary on Wednesday, it was clear that Mother Teresa remains the beacon of hope for many. 

The Missionaries of Charity (MoC), the order of self-effacing nuns in blue-bordered white saris founded by her, organized a solemn function to remember her and her work among the dying, the diseased, the orphans and the poor.

Floral tributes were paid at Mother's tomb at MoC headquarters on Acharya Girish Chandra Bose Road and special prayers were held.

"Inmates of Mother Teresa'a homes held a candle-light procession very early in the morning. Archbishop of Calcutta Henry D'souza conducted a special mass at 6 am," Sister Christie, spokesperson of MoC said.   

"There will also be a multi-faith prayer meeting at Mother House. Another prayer meeting has been organized by Catholic nuns, besides prayer meetings at St Teresa's Church and St Mary's Church in the evening," she added.

Special prayer meetings have also been organized by Nirmal Hriday, the home for the destitute and the dying, and at Sishu Bhavan, a home for orphaned children.

Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was an Albanian nun who came to Kolkata in 1929. She served the poorest of the poor, set up schools for street children and medical clinics for slum-dwellers.

In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity. When she died on September 5, 1997, the MoC had nearly 4,000 nuns and ran around 600 orphanages, homeless shelters and clinics around the world.