|
Book Review
Lessons of the 'Mother to the Poor'
Book details life, service of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Reviewed by Andrew Junker, ajunker@catholicsun.org
September 4, 2008
In many ways, the life Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta lived could be characterized as simple, but with great love and attention to detail.
She lived both among and as one of the poorest of the poor, but her schools and houses for the sick and dying were renown for their care and service.
This is what happens when actions are born of love. They don’t need to be complicated or flashy, but they’re profound in a quiet way.
“Mother to the Poor,” a new children’s book on Mother Teresa by Korean author Jung-wook Ko, has managed to imitate this beautiful, attentive simplicity of its subject.
It tells the story of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, her Albanian childhood, her transformation into Sr. Mary Teresa of the Loretto Sisters and finally as Mother Teresa, the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity.
This biographical narrative is set in the fictional frame story of a young Indian runaway named Annie, whom Mother Teresa has taken in near the end of her life.
The two narratives offer a nice parallel structure to the book, and describe how Blessed Mother Teresa provided to the young and poor in Calcutta the same sort of spiritual nourishment she received as a child.
This nourishment came from her devout parents. Her father was a well-to-do merchant and community leader who died suddenly after attending a political meeting in Belgrade.
The Bojaxhiu family fell upon hard times after his death. Blessed Mother Teresa’s mother made some money as a seamstress and her three children helped by running errands and making deliveries for her.
Perhaps most importantly, the family never lost its focus on God, and made room both for prayer and charitable works.
“Poor people often came to ask for used clothing for their children,” Ko writes. “Warmhearted Mrs. Bojaxhiu never let them leave empty-handed. Often she invited her poorer neighbors to share the family meal.”
These acts of kindness made a great impact on the future Mother Teresa, as did a club she joined at her local parish that supported Catholic missionaries around the world.
This group made such an impression that when Agnes heard God calling her to the religious life, she was certain that He wanted her working in the missions.
She joined the Loretto Sisters who were serving the poor in India, and lived and taught school in Calcutta for a few years. But she never lost the feeling that God was calling her to an even more radical life of Gospel poverty.
She wanted to live in the slums with the poorest and treat them with the dignity that so many others denied them. They lived and died on the streets, untreated and unloved.
The rest of her story is well known. Her new order — The Missionaries of Charity — flourished. Many young women joined her and they ministered to lepers and taught children. Mother Teresa became world famous and won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.
But as the frame story of Annie shows, Mother Teresa’s true love of the poor and desire to share with them life’s joys and tragedies were her true mark of greatness.
The book is beautifully illustrated throughout by Seung-bum Park. Again, the aesthetic of simple but tasteful pencil drawings complement the narrative and subject perfectly.
It’s a wonderful book for introducing this holy and venerable woman to children.
Ko ends his book with a distillation of Mother Teresa’s life and work. It’s what she called “the simple path”:
“The fruit of silence is PRAYER. The fruit of prayer is FAITH. The fruit of faith is LOVE. The fruit of love is SERVICE. The fruit of service is PEACE.”
It’s a simple, but profound statement and accompanies well both Mother Teresa’s life and “Mother to the Poor,” a wonderful introduction to that life.
Andrew Junker is a staff writer for The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.
|
