September 5: A Missionary of Charity

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is September 5th, and our story is A Missionary of Charity. On September 5th, 1997, the world said goodbye to one of its living saints, Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The tiny Albanian sister, who spent nearly 50 years laboring among the poorest of the poor in India's slums, traveled to America many times in her long life. She came to establish missionaries of charity communities in major metropolitan centers, including New York, San Francisco, and Dallas.

She also came to open AIDS hospices and homeless shelters, receive honorary degrees, and meet with politicians. During those visits, she unfailingly addressed what she saw as America's greatest spiritual struggles, loneliness, materialism, and abortion. But perhaps, on no other occasion, did she confront those struggles as bluntly as she did at the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast. During her address, Mother Teresa reminded President Bill Clinton and other U.S. political leaders present at the event that it hurt Jesus to love us. It is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt.

I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people, and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me, and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.

Mother Teresa concluded her remarks by focusing on the topic of abortion, saying, 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.

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. In November 1996, a year before her death, the United States granted Mother Teresa honorary citizenship. Twenty years later, on September 4, 2016, she was canonized as St. Teresa of Calcutta before a crowd of 120,000 in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

Mother Teresa's life reminds us that even the smallest acts, repeated consistently, transform communities and inspire global change. Holiness often walks hand in hand with tireless effort, unflinching moral clarity, and sacrificial love. Consider one way you can serve someone in need today, prioritizing love and truth over convenience or comfort.

Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, September 6th, for another story of faith and courage in America.