Good Friday with Mother Teresa

Good Friday with Mother Teresa April 19, 2019

We know what happened to Mary, the mother full of tenderness and love who was never ashamed of proclaiming Jesus her son. Eventually everyone abandoned him. Mary stayed beside him. Mary was not ashamed by the fact that Jesus was scourged, that his face was spat upon, that he was treated as a leper, as one unwanted, despised, hated by all. Because he was Jesus, her son. And there surfaced the deep tenderness of her heart as a mother.

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Mary did not feel ashamed. She proclaimed Jesus her son. At Calvary we see her standing upright – the mother of God, standing next to the Cross. What a deep faith she must have had because of her love for her son! To see him dishonoured, unloved, an object of hatred. Yet, she stayed upright.

Address at the 41st International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (7 August 1976)

Mother Teresa

At this most difficult time He proclaimed, ‘I thirst.’ And people thought He was thirsty in an ordinary way and they gave Him vinegar straight away; but it was not for that thirst; it was for our love, our affection, that intimate attachment to Him, and that sharing of His passion.  He used, ‘I thirst,’ instead of ‘Give Me your love’. . . ‘I thirst.’ Let us hear Him saying it to me and saying it to you.

Dr. Edward Sri. “I Thirst”: Mother Teresas Devotion to the Thirst of Jesus.” Lay Witness (Nov/Dec 2013).

Mother Teresa

Suffering will never be completely absent from our lives. So don’t be afraid of suffering. Your suffering is a great means of love, if you make use of it, especially if you offer it for peace in the world. Suffering in and of itself is useless, but suffering that is shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift and a sign of love. Christ’s suffering proved to be a gift, the greatest gift of love, because through his suffering our sins were atoned for.

Suffering, pains, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that He can kiss you.

Remember that the passion of Christ ends always in the joy of the resurrection of Christ, so when you feel in your own heart the suffering of Christ, remember the resurrection has to come. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen.

No Greater Love

Crucifixion


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