Mother
Teresa's Words of Wisdom
The Trouble With The Modern Family
I think the world today is upside-down. It is suffering so much because
there is so little love in the home and in family life.
We have no time for our children.
We have no time for each other.
There is no time to enjoy each other.
Love lives in homes, and the lack of love causes so much suffering and
unhappiness in the world today.
Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater
development and greater riches, so that children have very little time
for their parents. And parents have very little time for their children
and for each other.
So the breakdown of peace in the world begins at home.
People who really and truly love each other are the happiest people
in the world. We see that with our very poor people. They love their
children and they love their families. They may have very little, in
fact, they may not have anything, but they are happy people.
Jesus did not say, "Love the whole world."
He said, "Love one another."
you can only love one person at a time. If you look at the numbers,
you get lost. While you are talking about hunger, somebody is dying
next to you.
If you want to do something beautiful for God, look at your own family
and at the poor around you.
It is a gift from God for you to be able to serve him in your families
and in his poor. Even if it is one person only, that one is still your
brother or your sister.
Nationality doesn't matter.
Color doesn't matter.
Being rich or poor doesn't matter.
that person is your brother or your sister. And how do we know this?
Because Jesus said, "Whatever you do for the least of my brethren,
you do to me" (Mt 25:40)
The Value of Natural Family Planning
It is true, people are very
anxious about the future and about over-population. But there is natural
family planning. That method can help couples plan their family without
destroying God's gift of life.
I think we should train our children for the future by teaching
them to respect the dignity of life, by teaching them that life is a gift
from God, something created by him, something to be lived for him. by
the purity and sanctity of their lives, they will then be able to face
the future using simple, natural means that God has created.
We are, on our part, teaching our poor people natural family planning.
We are teaching the young people so that in the future they will know
what to do and will protect life.
The poor have told me, "From the time we have been practicing this
way of life, our family has remained united, our family is healthy, and
we can have a baby whenever we like." All this has brought so much
peace and unity into the lives of our poor people.
It is something so wonderful to see peace in the family, because they
are not destroying anything, not killing anything.
By properly using the natural family planning method, couples are using
their bodies to glorify God in the sanctity of family life. I think that
if we could bring this method to every country, if our poor people would
learn it, there would be more peace, more love in the family between parents
and children.
People are afraid of having children.
Children have lost their place in the family.
Children are very lonely, very lonely!
When children come home from school, there is no one to greet them. Then
they go back to the streets.
We must find our children again and bring them back home.
Mothers are at the heart of the family. Children need their mothers. If
the mother is there, the children will be there too. For the family to
be whole, the children and the mother also need the father to be present
in the home.
I think if we can help to bring them all back together, we will do a beautiful
thing for God.