Some, like Christopher Hichens who once described her as "a lying, thieving Albanian dwarf", say she was no friend of the poor but a friend of poverty.

To others - both Catholic and otherwise, she "... was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded".

In his homily at her canonisation on Sunday, Pope Francis offered St Teresa as a "model of holiness".

Francis said she was "committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that 'the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable'.

"She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity; she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created.

"For Mother Teresa, mercy was the "salt" which gave flavour to her work, it was the "light" which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering.

"Her mission to the urban and existential peripheries remains for us today an eloquent witness to God's closeness to the poorest of the poor.

"Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model of holiness!

"May this tireless worker of mercy help us to increasingly understand that our only criterion for action is gratuitous love, free from every ideology and all obligations, offered freely to everyone without distinction of language, culture, race or religion.

"Mother Teresa loved to say, "Perhaps I don't speak their language, but I can smile".

"Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer.

"In this way, we will open up opportunities of joy and hope for our many brothers and sisters who are discouraged and who stand in need of understanding and tenderness."

Source:

• News.VA
• Image: www.orangenews9.com

Those invited to the feast were (in the spirit of Mother Teresa) the poor and needy, especially from the houses of the Sisters of Mother Teresa. They come from all over Italy including Milan, Bologna, Florence, Naples and all the houses in Rome.

The lunch guests traveled at night in coaches to attend the lunch which was served by around 250 Sisters of Mother Teresa, 50 Brothers of the congregation for men and other volunteers. Read more

Nearly 30 years ago, I worked at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington's emergency food warehouse. Missionaries of Charity sisters caring for HIV/AIDS patients at their Gift of Peace House in Washington, D.C. used to regularly stop by for food assistance.

Since I helped with food distribution, I got to know the sisters. One day while picking up food, one of the sisters said to me, "Mother is coming." I said, "Do you mean Mother Teresa?" She said, "Yes." I excitedly replied, "May I come?" And she said, "yes."

A few days later, standing in front of the Gift of Peace House with about 20 other guests, I saw Mother Teresa get out of a car and walk towards the house. Immediately the sisters affectionately ran to greet her.

Then, as we stood in a circle, Mother Teresa began to walk to each guest silently placing a Miraculous Medal of the Blessed Mother in each of our hands.

I remember she seemed to keep her head humbly bowed as she approached each of us. But when she reached me, I said to her "Namaste" - which is the normal greeting in Hindi.

Lifting up her head, and looking at me somewhat surprised, she greeted me back saying "Namaste."

Then I said to her in Hindi, "Kaise hain?" Inquiring, how are you? And she replied, "Theek" which means OK.

Having exhausted my Hindi vocabulary, my brief encounter with Mother Teresa of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) had ended. But the personal experience of conversing with a living saint continues to spiritually enrich my life to this day.

In a few days, on Sept 4, Pope Francis will canonize Mother Teresa - officially designating her as one of the saints of the Catholic Church.

Imperfect like all of us, yet holier than the vast majority of us, Mother Teresa truly exemplified what it means to pick up one's cross and follow Jesus.

And what a heavy cross she carried. Leaving the comfort of her convent, she ventured out into the slums of Calcutta with practically nothing, to care for the poorest of the poor - the unloved, the starving, the homeless, the stigmatized victims of leprosy, the abandoned and forgotten, the dying and the unborn.

In her 1979 Nobel Peace Prize lecture, Mother Teresa said "I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing … if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between."

She went on to speak about a man she and her sisters picked up from the gutter. With worms eating away at him, they brought him back to their home and cared for him. He said, "I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for."

There is an excellent new DVD titled "The Letters: The Untold Story of Mother Teresa" (see: http://bit.ly/2bv2mpM). This movie will inspire you and me to step out of our comfort zones for the sake of those who suffer, and for the health of our own souls.

Consider the power of this reflection from St. Mother Teresa: "I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things."

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings about Catholic social teaching. His keynote address, "Advancing the Kingdom of God in the 21st Century," has been well received by diocesan and parish gatherings from Santa Clara, Calif. to Baltimore, Md. Tony can be reached at tmag@zoominternet.net.

And Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn will lead commemorations as part of the 11am mass on Sunday at St Patrick's Cathedral.

More than a thousand people are expected to attend the Auckland Sunday morning commemoration.

People of many faiths are expected to attend including representatives from the Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic faiths.

The five Auckland-based nuns of Mother Teresa's Order, The Missionaries of Charity will also be there.

An inter-faith committee (see below) is also planning an event in November at St Paul's College in Ponsonby to celebrate her sainthood.

"Her work of loving service and care for the poorest of the poor in India knew no religious or cultural boundaries, and people of the world's great faiths honour her as one of their own," said Lyndsay Freer, spokeswoman for the Auckland Catholic Diocese.

"This has been evident in Auckland, when six years ago a unique inter-faith committee was formed by people of several faiths to arrange an annual event to commemorate Mother Teresa's legacy of service to the poor in India."

Mother Teresa visited New Zealand in 1973, where she was met in Wellington by the then Prime Minister Norman Kirk and Leader of the Opposition Jack Marshall.

In Auckland, she attended and spoke at a rally at Alexandra Park."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• aucklandcatholic.org.nz
• Image: ethniccommunities.govt.nz

Hundreds of Catholics have been declared saints in recent decades, but few with the acclaim accorded Mother Teresa, set to be canonized by Pope Francis on Sunday, largely in recognition of her service to the poor in India.

"When I was coming of age, she was the living saint," says the Most Rev. Robert Barron, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

"If you were saying, 'Who is someone today that would really embody the Christian life?' you would turn to Mother Teresa of Calcutta." Read more