Tag Archives: Missionaries of Charity

Women's Communities

Sr. Nirmala, MC, RIP

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mc2On Tuesday, June 23, 2015, the Missionaries of Charity announced the death of Sr. Nirmala Joshi, 81, who succeeded Bl. Teresa of Calcutta as superior general. She served the community in that capacity from 1997 to 2009.

Sr. Nirmala suffered from ill health over the past few years and was brought home from the hospital a few days before her death. Sister Nirmala did not have the high-profile of Mother Teresa but she quietly carried on the works of charity in the manner of a contemplative. Prior to her election, she was head of the contemplative branch of the order.

mc3Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta said that she was a great soul and that “she never talked about herself; she was more about how to support peace, to be helpful to the poor … she had a deep union with Jesus and she was a gentle apostle of peace until the end.”

Sister was born into a Hindu family, though early-on educated in Christian schools. Inspired by Mother Teresa’s work, she was baptized and later became a sister. Her youngest sister became a Carmelite.

Here is a beautiful quote from Sister Nirmala about Mother Teresa  as quoted in L’Osservatore Romano (Aug 5, 1998):

“And then I think of her humility. I remember it always, it is always in my heart. I remember that Mother Teresa’s eyes looked beyond this world. Mother Teresa surrendered in an absolutely radical way to God’s will, and God used her as an instrument of His love.

This is the great mystery of God and it is also the mystery of our vocation. ‘I am thirsty.’ Jesus’ words on the Cross explain Mother Teresa’s life and our choice. We must quench the thirst Jesus continues to have for the poor. Jesus even called me from afar, from a family that was not Christian, to make me, with implacable gentleness, understand His thirst and to quench it”.

General interest

Lessons from a Saint

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Check out this article from Catholic News Agency entitled, “Encounter with Blessed Mother Teresa transforms woman’s life.”

Susan Conroy is a lay woman whose life was forever changed as a result of time spent with Mother Teresa in Calcutta in the 1980s.

More recently, Susan has worked with the Maine Children’s Cancer program, helping dying children. She has helped out  in soup kitchens, homeless shelters and with AIDS patients in the south Bronx. She taught religion to poor children.

Eventually, Susan wrote a book about her time with Mother Teresa and received her blessings on the project. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the book, Mother Teresa’s Lessons of Love and Secrets of Sanctity, go to the Missionaries of Charity’s work in Haiti and to EWTN, the Catholic television station that offers spiritual nourishment to Catholics, especially shut ins.

For the full story, click here.

General interest

Mother Teresa, CEO?

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Check out this thought-provoking article on Mother Teresa of Calcutta that appeared earlier this month in The Wall Street Journal.

The article examines a new book entitled, Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership. The book’s thesis is that Blessed Teresa’s work with the Missionaries of Charity ranks as one of the greatest business achievements in human history, and that business leaders today can learn much from this modern-day saint.

Of course we would prefer that our contemporaries focus on Blessed Teresa’s heroic sanctity, not her business acumen. But perhaps her greatness in secular terms will lead some open-minded young leaders to investigate what made this little nun tick.

And then who knows what would happen next?