CO-WORKERS OF MOTHER TERESA
A Co-Worker of Mother Teresa is one who sees the presence of God in every human being and chooses to fully share in the real service of the poor using hands to serve and hearts to love.
Mother Teresa desires her Co-Workers to maintain deep family love in their own homes, and beyond that , to seek to serve those in need in their own neighbourhood, their town, their country, the world.
Mother Teresa asks that we find those who need us and get to know them personally. It is only when we know the people that we can understand and love them. She asks the co-Workers to do the little things, the things no one else has time for.
GUIDELINES
DAILY PRAYER
Make us worthy, Lord,
to serve our fellowmen throughout the world
who live in poverty and hunger. Give them, through our hands,
this day their daily bread
and by our understanding love, give peace and joy.
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Lord make me a channel of thy peace that, where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where there is error, I may bring truth; that where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that where there is despair I may bring hope; that where there are shadows, I may bring light; that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood; to love than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds, it is by forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Amen.
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Dear Lord, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul that I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Thee O Lord! Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as Thou shinest; so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light O Lord will be all from Thee; none of it will be mine; it will be Thou, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise Thee in the way Thou dost love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach Thee without preaching, not by words, but my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to Thee. Amen
Mother Teresa desires her Co-Workers to maintain deep family love in their own homes, and beyond that , to seek to serve those in need in their own neighbourhood, their town, their country, the world.
Mother Teresa asks that we find those who need us and get to know them personally. It is only when we know the people that we can understand and love them. She asks the co-Workers to do the little things, the things no one else has time for.
“I was hungry and you gave Me food,
I was thirsty and you gave Me drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed Me,
I was naked and you clothed Me,
I was sick and you visited Me,
I was in prison and you came to Me…
Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren You did it to Me.”
(Mt. 25: 35-36; 40)
The least of my brethren (the poorest of the poor ) are:
- The hungry and lonely – not only for food, but also for the Word of God.
- The thirsty and ignorant – not only for water, but also for knowledge, peace, truth, justice and love
- The naked and unloved – not only for clothes but also for human dignity
- The unwanted, the unborn child, the racially discriminated-against, the homeless and abandoned – not only for a shelter made of bricks, but for a heart that understands, that covers, that loves
- The sick, the dying destitutes and the captives – not only in body but also in mind and spirit.
- All those who have lost all hope and faith in me, the alcoholics and drug addicts
- All those who have lost God (for them God was and not God is) and those who have lost all hope in the power of the Spirit.
- Bring prayer into your family. Love begins at home. You must start there by serving you own family and those in your neighbourhood
- All Co-Workers work with your own local Missionaries of charity: Sisters, Fathers or Brothers nearest to you. Where there are none, carry out your works of love in contact with the nearest M.C. Regional Superior
- Co-Workers should try to come together locally in prayer, work, and sharing with the Missionaries of Charity whenever possible.
- There will be no office-bearers on any level. There will be no bank accounts held for any purpose by a co-worker. All gifts are to be given directly to the Missionaries of Charity
- There will be no newsletters or “Family” letters. The Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity will communicate with the Co-Workers at least twice a year.
to serve our fellowmen throughout the world
who live in poverty and hunger. Give them, through our hands,
this day their daily bread
and by our understanding love, give peace and joy.
-----------------------
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood; to love than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds, it is by forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Amen.
-----------------------
Dear Lord, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul that I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Thee O Lord! Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as Thou shinest; so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light O Lord will be all from Thee; none of it will be mine; it will be Thou, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise Thee in the way Thou dost love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach Thee without preaching, not by words, but my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to Thee. Amen