Born Agnes Gonxha Boyaxhiu (boi yah jee oo) in Yugoslavia, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. Agnes joined a religious order of sisters from Ireland and worked as a high school teacher in India. As Sister Teresa, she loved teaching, but felt that God was calling her to do more. Through faithful prayer she learned God’s plan for her. She was called to care for those in India whose families had abandoned them. Many were left to die in the streets of Calcutta.

Mother Teresa founded an order of nuns dedicated to caring for people of all ages who had no one to care for them. Mother Teresa and her sisters toiled day after day in the streets of Calcutta. They brought the dying into shelters and cared for their needs until their death. They started orphanages for the hundreds of children abandoned or too sick to be cared for at home. Soon the Missionaries of Charity founded convents, schools, orphanages, and care facilities throughout the world, caring for the poorest of the poor.

Mother Teresa died in 1997. Her life of compassion and service to the poorest of the poor, the people of the street, the neglected, and the dying has touched people of all races and all faiths.

Family Activity

	Discuss with children how Mother Teresa saw problems in the world that needed solving. We, too, are called to imitate her goodness in the world around us.

	•		Have family members think of negative situations that can take place at school, at work, with friends, or even within the family.
	•		Role-play to show how a negative situation can be turned around when we respond to others as Mother Teresa would have responded.

See the Liturgical Calendar on this site for additional information.
See also Catechist—Lent or Teacher—Lent for Liturgy.