(August 27, 1910–September 5, 1997), whose given name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity to minister to the destitute and dying in Calcutta, India, and around the globe. Born in Albania, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979 for her work among the poor and outcast. She confessed:
Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.3580
God hasn’t called me to be successful. He’s called me to be faithful.3581
We can do no great things, only small things with great love.3582
If you want to pray better, you must pray more.3583
I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.3584
On February 3, 1994, Mother Teresa spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., before an audience of 3,000, including President and Mrs. Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore. The frail 83–year-old Mother Teresa spoke simply, yet with a powerful directness to America, saying:
Jesus died on the Cross because that is what it took for Him to do good to us—to save us from our selfishness in sin. He gave up everything to do the Father’s will—to show us that we too must be willing to give up everything to do God’s will. …
But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself, and if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?
How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans or her free time, to respect the life of her child.
The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility 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 violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. …
We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: “Please don’t destroy the child; we will take the child.” So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: “Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child.” And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child. …
Jesus said, “Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me.” By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.
Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortion. …
If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak—the unborn child—must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!3585