Mother Teresa - Nobel Lecture Mother Teresa The Nobel Peace Prize 1979 Mother Teresa Nobel Lecture, 11 December, 1979 Listen to a short excerpt from Mother Teresa's Nobel Lecture * 3 min. To hear the recording you need Adobe Flash Player Copyright © Norsk Rikskringkasting AS 2011 Nobel Lecture 1 As we have gathered here together to thank God for the Nobel Peace Prize I think it will be beautiful that we pray the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi which always surprises me very much - we pray this prayer every day after Holy Communion, because it is very fitting for each one of us, and I always wonder that 4-500 years ago as St. Francis of Assisi composed this prayer that they had the same difficulties that we have today, as we compose this prayer that fits very nicely for us also. I think some of you already have got it - so we will pray together. 2 Let us thank God for the opportunity that we all have together today, for this gift of peace that reminds us that we have been created to live that peace, and Jesus became man to bring that good news to the poor.

He being God became man in all things like us except sin, and he proclaimed very clearly that he had come to give the good news. The news was peace to all of good will and this is something that we all want - the peace of heart - and God loved the world so much that he gave his son - it was a giving - it is as much as if to say it hurt God to give, because he loved the world so much that he gave his son, and he gave him to Virgin Mary, and what did she do with him? As soon as he came in her life - immediately she went in haste to give that good news, and as she came into the house of her cousin, the child - the unborn child - the child in the womb of Elizabeth, leapt with joy. He was that little unborn child, was the first messenger of peace. He recognised the Prince of Peace, he recognised that Christ has come to bring the good news for you and for me.

And as if that was not enough - it was not enough to become a man - he died on the cross to show that greater love, and he died for you and for me and for that leper and for that man dying of hunger and that naked person lying in the street not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, and New York, and London, and Oslo - and insisted that we love one another as he loves each one of us. And we read that in the Gospel very clearly - love as I have loved you - as I love you - as the Father has loved me, I love you - and the harder the Father loved him, he gave him to us, and how much we love one another, we, too, must give each other until it hurts. It is not enough for us to say: I love God, but I do not love my neighbour. St. John says you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbour. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbour whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live. And so this is very important for us to realise that love, to be true, has to hurt.

It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him. And to make sure we remember his great love he made himself the bread of life to satisfy our hunger for his love. Our hunger for God, because we have been created for that love. We have been created in his image. We have been created to love and be loved, and then he has become man to make it possible for us to love as he loved us. He makes himself the hungry one - the naked one - the homeless one - the sick one - the one in prison - the lonely one - the unwanted one - and he says: You did it to me. Hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find, it may be in our own home. I never forget an opportunity I had in visiting a home where they had all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them in an institution and forgotten maybe. And I went there, and I saw in that home they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking towards the door. And I did not see a single one with their smile on their face. And I turned to the Sister and I asked: How is that?

How is it that the people they have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not smiling? I am so used to see the smile on our people, even the dying one smile, and she said: This is nearly every day, they are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten, and see - this is where love comes. That poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect to love. Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried, and these are difficult days for everybody. Are we there, are we there to receive them, is the mother there to receive the child? I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and girls given into drugs, and I tried to find out why - why is it like that, and the answer was: Because there is no one in the family to receive them. Father and mother are so busy they have no time. Young parents are in some institution and the child takes back to the street and gets involved in something. We are talking of peace.

These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly: Even if a mother could forget her child - I will not forget you - I have carved you in the palm of my hand. We are carved in the palm of His hand, so close to Him that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God. And that is what strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even if a mother could forget something impossible - but even if she could forget - I will not forget you. And today the greatest means - the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. And we who are standing here - our parents wanted us. We would not be here if our parents would do that to us. Our children, we want them, we love them, but what of the millions. Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today.

Because if a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between. And this I appeal in India, I appeal everywhere: Let us bring the child back, and this year being the child's year: What have we done for the child? At the beginning of the year I told, I spoke everywhere and I said: Let us make this year that we make every single child born, and unborn, wanted. And today is the end of the year, have we really made the children wanted? I will give you something terrifying. We are fighting abortion by adoption, we have saved thousands of lives, we have sent words to all the clinics, to the hospitals, police stations - please don't destroy the child, we will take the child. So every hour of the day and night it is always somebody, we have quite a number of unwedded mothers - tell them come, we will take care of you, we will take the child from you, and we will get a home for the child. And we have a tremendous demand from families who have no children, that is the blessing of God for us.

And also, we are doing another thing which is very beautiful - we are teaching our beggars, our leprosy patients, our slum dwellers, our people of the street, natural family planning. And in Calcutta alone in six years - it is all in Calcutta - we have had 61,273 babies less from the families who would have had, but because they practise this natural way of abstaining, of self-control, out of love for each other. We teach them the temperature meter which is very beautiful, very simple, and our poor people understand. And you know what they have told me? Our family is healthy, our family is united, and we can have a baby whenever we want. So clear - those people in the street, those beggars - and I think that if our people can do like that how much more you and all the others who can know the ways and means without destroying the life that God has created in us. The poor people are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. The other day one of them came to thank and said: You people who have vowed chastity you are the best people to teach us family planning.

Because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other. And I think they said a beautiful sentence. And these are people who maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home where to live, but they are great people. The poor are very wonderful people. One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition - and I told the Sisters: You take care of the other three, I take of this one that looked worse. So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: Thank you - and she died. I could not help but examine my conscience before her, and I asked what would I say if I was in her place. And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself, I would have said I am hungry, that I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain, or something, but she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face.

As that man whom we picked up from the drain, half eaten with worms, and we brought him to the home. I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for. And it was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that, who could die like that without blaming anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this is the greatness of our people. And that is why we believe what Jesus had said: I was hungry - I was naked - I was homeless - I was unwanted, unloved, uncared for - and you did it to me. I believe that we are not real social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of the people, but we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the Body of Christ 24 hours. We have 24 hours in this presence, and so you and I. You too try to bring that presence of God in your family, for the family that prays together stays together.

And I think that we in our family don't need bombs and guns, to destroy to bring peace - just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence of each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world. There is so much suffering, so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do. It is to God Almighty - how much we do it does not matter, because He is infinite, but how much love we put in that action. How much we do to Him in the person that we are serving. Some time ago in Calcutta we had great difficulty in getting sugar, and I don't know how the word got around to the children, and a little boy of four years old, Hindu boy, went home and told his parents: I will not eat sugar for three days, I will give my sugar to Mother Teresa for her children. After three days his father and mother brought him to our home.

I had never met them before, and this little one could scarcely pronounce my name, but he knew exactly what he had come to do. He knew that he wanted to share his love. And this is why I have received such a lot of love from you all. From the time that I have come here I have simply been surrounded with love, and with real, real understanding love. It could feel as if everyone in India, everyone in Africa is somebody very special to you. And I felt quite at home I was telling Sister today. I feel in the Convent with the Sisters as if I am in Calcutta with my own Sisters. So completely at home here, right here. And so here I am talking with you - I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people. And find out about your next-door neighbour - do you know who they are? I had the most extraordinary experience with a Hindu family who had eight children. A gentleman came to our house and said: Mother Teresa, there is a family with eight children, they had not eaten for so long - do something. So I took some rice and I went there immediately.

And I saw the children - their eyes shinning with hunger - I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And she took the rice, she divided the rice, and she went out. When she came back I asked her - where did you go, what did you do? And she gave me a very simple answer: They are hungry also. What struck me most was that she knew - and who are they, a Muslim family - and she knew. I didn't bring more rice that evening because I wanted them to enjoy the joy of sharing. But there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy with their mother because she had the love to give. And you see this is where love begins - at home. And I want you - and I am very grateful for what I have received. It has been a tremendous experience and I go back to India - I will be back by next week, the 15th I hope - and I will be able to bring your love. And I know well that you have not given from your abundance, but you have given until it has hurt you.

Today the little children they have - I was so surprised - there is so much joy for the children that are hungry. That the children like themselves will need love and care and tenderness, like they get so much from their parents. So let us thank God that we have had this opportunity to come to know each other, and this knowledge of each other has brought us very close. And we will be able to help not only the children of India and Africa, but will be able to help the children of the whole world, because as you know our Sisters are all over the world. And with this prize that I have received as a prize of peace, I am going to try to make the home for many people that have no home. Because I believe that love begins at home, and if we can create a home for the poor - I think that more and more love will spread. And we will be able through this understanding love to bring peace, be the good news to the poor. The poor in our own family first, in our country and in the world. To be able to do this, our Sisters, our lives have to be woven with prayer. They have to be woven with Christ to be able to understand, to be able to share.

Because today there is so much suffering - and I feel that the passion of Christ is being relived all over again - are we there to share that passion, to share that suffering of people. Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult. Our Sisters are working amongst that kind of people in the West. So you must pray for us that we may be able to be that good news, but we cannot do that without you, you have to do that here in your country. You must come to know the poor, maybe our people here have material things, everything, but I think that if we all look into our own homes, how difficult we find it sometimes to smile at each, other, and that the smile is the beginning of love.

And so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love, and once we begin to love each other naturally we want to do something. So you pray for our Sisters and for me and for our Brothers, and for our Co-Workers that are around the world. That we may remain faithful to the gift of God, to love Him and serve Him in the poor together with you. What we have done we should not have been able to do if you did not share with your prayers, with your gifts, this continual giving. But I don't want you to give me from your abundance, I want that you give me until it hurts. The other day I received 15 dollars from a man who has been on his back for twenty years, and the only part that he can move is his right hand. And the only companion that he enjoys is smoking. And he said to me: I do not smoke for one week, and I send you this money. It must have been a terrible sacrifice for him, but see how beautiful, how he shared, and with that money I bought bread and I gave to those who are hungry with a joy on both sides, he was giving and the poor were receiving.

This is something that you and I - it is a gift of God to us to be able to share our love with others. And let it be as it was for Jesus. Let us love one another as he loved us. Let us love Him with undivided love. And the joy of loving Him and each other - let us give now - that Christmas is coming so close. Let us keep that joy of loving Jesus in our hearts. And share that joy with all that we come in touch with. And that radiating joy is real, for we have no reason not to be happy because we have no Christ with us. Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor that we meet, Christ in the smile that we give and the smile that we receive. Let us make that one point: That no child will be unwanted, and also that we meet each other always with a smile, especially when it is difficult to smile. I never forget some time ago about fourteen professors came from the United States from different universities. And they came to Calcutta to our house. Then we were talking about that they had been to the home for the dying.

We have a home for the dying in Calcutta, where we have picked up more than 36,000 people only from the streets of Calcutta, and out of that big number more than 18,000 have died a beautiful death. They have just gone home to God; and they came to our house and we talked of love, of compassion, and then one of them asked me: Say, Mother, please tell us something that we will remember, and I said to them: Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family. Smile at each other. And then another one asked me: Are you married, and I said: Yes, and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at Jesus because he can be very demanding sometimes. This is really something true, and there is where love comes - when it is demanding, and yet we can give it to Him with joy. Just as I have said today, I have said that if I don't go to Heaven for anything else I will be going to Heaven for all the publicity because it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really ready to go to Heaven.

I think that this is something, that we must live life beautifully, we have Jesus with us and He loves us. If we could only remember that God loves me, and I have an opportunity to love others as he loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love, then Norway becomes a nest of love. And how beautiful it will be that from here a centre for peace has been given. That from here the joy of life of the unborn child comes out. If you become a burning light in the world of peace, then really the Nobel Peace Prize is a gift of the Norwegian people. God bless you!. 1. Apparently Mother Teresa had planned to begin her Nobel lecture on the following day with this prayer, as is indicated in her prepared text, which is what was submitted for publication in Les Prix Nobel and is printed below. In the newspaper reports of the ceremonies, however, it is clear that she included the prayer in her acceptance speech on 10 December and did not refer to it in her lecture the next day. 2. The text which Mother Teresa used of the prayer which is attributed to St. Francis has been kindly provided by the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.

It reads as follows: Lord, make 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 forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. From Nobel Lectures , Peace 1971-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997 * Disclaimer Every effort has been made by the publisher to credit organizations and individuals with regard to the supply of audio files. Please notify the publishers regarding corrections.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1979 Share this: To cite this page Mother Teresa - Questions and Answers Mother Teresa The Nobel Peace Prize 1979 Mother Teresa Mother Teresa - Questions and Answers Question: When and where was Mother Teresa born? Answer: Mother Teresa was born on 26 August 1910 as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje in Macedonia, Ottoman Empire. She was baptised on 27 August. Question: What were the names of Mother Teresa's family members? Answer: Mother Teresa was the third child of Albanian grocer Nikola Bojaxhiu and his wife Drane. She had an older sister, Aga, and an older brother, Lazar. Her father died when she was about eight years old. Question: Why did Mother Teresa go to India? Answer: In 1928, when Mother Teresa was 18 years old, she went to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a community of nuns with missions in India. Six weeks later she travelled to India to work as a teacher in the order's school in Calcutta. Question: What order did Mother Teresa start?

Answer: In 1946 Mother Teresa experienced what she described as a "call within a call", or inspiration, to leave the Loreto convent and devote herself to caring for the sick and poor. She then moved into the slums. In 1950, she received permission from the Vatican to found the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious order of women, dedicated to serving "the poorest of the poor". Question: Why was she called Mother Teresa? Answer: When she joined the Irish order Sisters of Loreto, she was given the name Sister Teresa after Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. She became Mother Teresa after making her final vows. Question: Why did Mother Teresa start her own hospice? Answer: Mother Teresa's "call" was caring for the sick and poor. In 1952, she established a hospice where the terminally ill could die with dignity. At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters and hundreds of thousand of volunteers working in hundreds of centres around the world. These included homes for orphaned children, homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leper colonies, and hospices for the terminally ill.

Question: What influenced Mother Teresa? Answer: In her Nobel Lecture , Mother Teresa said: "I think that we in our family don't need bombs and guns, to destroy to bring peace - just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence of each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world." Question: Was Mother Teresa ever named a saint and is it documented? Answer: In 1999, only two years after her death, the process to declare her a saint began; a process that normally takes about five years. On 10 October 2003 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, the third of the four steps in the canonization process to declare a deceased person to be a saint. On 4 September 2016 Mother Teresa was canonized, declared a saint, by Pope Francis. Question: Why did Mother Teresa get the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize? Answer: The Norwegian Nobel Committee writes in their motivation : "In making the award the Norwegian Nobel Committee has expressed its recognition of Mother Teresa's work in bringing help to suffering humanity.

This year the world has turned its attention to the plight of children and refugees, and these are precisely the categories for whom Mother Teresa has for many years worked so selflessly." Question: When did Mother Teresa die? Answer: Mother Teresa died of heart failure at the age of 87 on 5 September 1997 in Calcutta, India. First published 17 September 2008 Share this: To cite this page MLA style: "Mother Teresa - Questions and Answers". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 20 Jan 2017. < Mother Teresa of Calcutta Wins Peace Prize By FRANK J. PRIAL tockholm - Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian stock who has cared for the poor and sick in India for more than 30 years, was named the winner today of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. "I am unworthy," Mother Teresa said in Calcutta on hearing that she had been selected by the five-member Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo.

But, she said, because she is "more aware of the condition of the poor," she plans to use the money, the equivalent of $190,000, to build more homes for the destitute, "especially for the lepers." The Nobel Committee's announcement said: "This year, the world has turned its attention to the plight of children and refugees, and these are precisely the categories for whom Mother Teresa has for many years worked so selflessly." Mother Teresa, who is 69 years old, has been a candidate for the Peace Prize ever since her work first gained worldwide recognition more than two decades ago. Even so, she was a surprise winner today. Message Sent by President Among the names more frequently mentioned in recent weeks as possible winners were those of Steve Biko, the black leader who died in a South African prison in September 1977; the Anti-Slavery League in London, and President Carter, who reportedly had been nominated for his efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East. But doubts about Mr.

Carter's chances began to circulate this week in Oslo as reports said it was unlikely that the Nobel Committee would award the prize for peace efforts in the Middle East for a second year since it had honored President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978. Mr. Carter sent a message to Mother Teresa today congratulating her for an award that was "richly deserved," the White House announced. "Your work on behalf of children, refugees, the poor and the sick has been a great inspiration for many years to those of us who cherish and espouse human rights," the President declared.

"Mankind is in your debt for your fine contributions and for the example you have provided of selfless concern for others." The award announcement from Oslo noted that Mother Teresa was not directly involved in the struggle to achieve and maintain peace but said, "It is not the first time that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Peace Prize for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome the poverty and distress in the world, which also constitute a threat to peace." Mother Teresa founded her order, the Society of the Missionaries of Charity, in Calcutta's slums in 1948 when she opened her first school with special permission from Rome to live outside a convent. Her work among the poor of Calcutta, where her society's workers collect the dying and destitute from the streets, has spread to 50 Indian cities and more than 25 countries, from Papua, New Guinea to the United States, with a branch also in the South Bronx. Society Has 158 Branches The society has 158 branches and there are 1,800 nuns and 120,000 co-workers.

Her order operates schools, hospitals, youth centers and orphanages, and 53,000 lepers are among the patients treated at medical centers in Africa and Asia. Mother Teresa refuses direct financial assistance from the Indian Government but has accepted an occasional gift of land for a new project. Among the prizes she has won for her work are the Jawaharial Nehru Award of India and an award from the Joseph Kennedy Jr. Foundation. She has said that her work is paid for by "cash and kind" with funds "really no problem." "We depend on divine providence," she declared. The Nobel Committee said today that it had decided to honor her as much for her organizing and managerial skills as for her compassion and dedication to the poor. Gave Up a Teaching Post Mother Teresa, who gave up a post as a teacher in Calcutta to work with the sick in the slums, is the first person to win the Peace Prize for work connected with religion since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was honored in 1964. Five other women have won it - most recently, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who shared the 1977 award for their efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

It was not immediately known whether Mother Teresa would travel to Oslo to accept her prize at the simple award ceremony to be held in the Norwegian capital on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite. The four other awards established by his will, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics set up by the Central Bank of Sweden in 1968, will be given at a glittering formal ceremony here on Stockholm on the same day. Only the 1979 Nobel Prize in Literature awarded by the Swedish Academy, is still to be announced. It is due tomorrow. The other awards for 1979, all announced here, are the Prize in Physiology or Medicine, given to Allan MacLeod of the United States and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield of Britain; the Prize in Physics to Steven Weinberg and Sheldon L. Glashow of the United States and Abdus Salam of Pakistan; the Prize in Chemistry, to Herbert C. Brown of the United States and Georg Wittig of West Germany, and the Memorial Prize in Economic Science, to Theodore W. Schultz of the United States and Sir Arthur Lewis, British subject.

She Calls Prize 'Gift for the Poor' Mother Teresa had just arrived back at her headquarters from a hospital today when a reporter told her of the award. She was quiet for a moment and then said: "Thank God for his gift for the poor. God's blessings will be with the people who have given the prize. I hope it will be a real means of bringing peace and happiness in the world of today." Asked how she felt about winning the award, Mother Teresa said: "Personally I feel unworthy. But more aware of the condition of the poor." She added that the prize would serve as a bridge to help the poor. Mother Teresa has established a worldwide organization to help the poor, with a simple message: "The poor must know that we love them." As more reporters and television crews descended on her headquarters, she said, "I am going to hide somewhere." Happy Birthday, Mother Teresa, 1979 Winner of Nobel Peace Prize Happy Birthday, Mother Teresa, 1979 Winner of Nobel Peace Prize August 26, 2010 by Shannon Firth Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her outstanding devotion to the poor in Calcutta’s slums.

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents on August 26, 1910. She joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish Catholic order of nuns, in 1928. After learning English, she became a teacher in Calcutta. In 1948, while teaching in India, she felt called to her life’s mission of living among the poor and helping them in any way she could. Two years later, she founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. In the years that followed, “she became known to millions as a slight, brown-eyed figure—she was only 5 feet tall—smiling and dressed in the plain white sari with blue trim of her order,” The New York Times writes. In 1979, at the age of 69, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. She “ received the news with characteristic lack of fuss ,” Time magazine reported at the time. “Personally, I am unworthy,” she said. In accepting the prize, she expressed her unequivocal opposition to abortion.

Mother Teresa refused to attend the traditional Nobel banquet in her honor, asking that the $7,000 cost of the dinner instead be donated to the poor of India. Nobel officials offered to donate $7,000 and also hold a banquet; Mother Teresa held fast, asking that whatever money was available to honor her be donated to the poor. The people of Norway responded to her selflessness by raising an additional $52,000 to support her work. Despite her dedication to the homeless, the sick and the abandoned, and the recognition she received, the Vatican Web site reveals that “her interior life [was] marked by an experience of ... being separated from God , even rejected by Him.” This “‘painful night’ of her soul” inspired Mother Teresa to seek “an ever more profound union with God,” the Vatican explains. Mother Teresa died on Sept. 5, 1997, of cardiac arrest. Biography Mother Teresa -Biography Online About Biography Mother Teresa Mother Teresa (1910–1997) was a Roman Catholic nun who devoted her life to serving the poor and destitute around the world.

She spent many years in Calcutta, India where she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation devoted to helping those in great need. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and has become a symbol of charitable selfless work. She was canonised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 2016. “It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” – Mother Teresa Short Biography of Mother Teresa Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in Skopje, capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Little is known about her early life, but at a young age she felt a calling to be a nun and serve through helping the poor. At the age of 18 she was given permission to join a group of nuns in Ireland. After a few months of training, with the Sisters of Loreto, she was then given permission to travel to India. She took her formal religious vows in 1931, and chose to be named after St Therese of Lisieux – the patron saint of missionaries.

On her arrival in India, she began by working as a teacher, however the widespread poverty of Calcutta made a deep impression on her and this led to her starting a new order called “The Missionaries of Charity”. The primary objective of this mission was to look after people, who nobody else was prepared to look after. Mother Teresa felt that serving others was a key principle of the teachings of Jesus Christ. She often mentioned the saying of Jesus, “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.” As Mother Teresa said herself: “Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service .” – Mother Teresa She experienced two particularly traumatic periods in Calcutta. The first was the Bengal famine of 1943 and the second was the Hindu/Muslim violence in 1946, before the partition of India. In 1948, she left the convent to live full-time among the poorest of Calcutta. She chose to wear a white Indian sari, with a blue border, out of respect for the traditional Indian dress.

For many years, Mother Teresa and a small band of fellow nuns survived on minimal income and food, often having to beg for funds. But, slowly her efforts with the poorest were noted and appreciated by the local community and Indian politicians. In 1952, she opened her first home for the dying, which allowed people to die with dignity. Mother Teresa often spent time with those who were dying. Some have criticised the lack of proper medical attention, and their refusal to give painkillers. Others say that it afforded many neglected people the opportunity to die knowing that someone cared. Over time the work grew. Missions were started overseas, and by 2013, there are 700 missions operating in over 130 countries. The scope of their work also expanded to include orphanages, and hospices for those with terminal illnesses. “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” - Mother Teresa Mother Teresa never sought to convert those of another faith. Those in her hospices were given the religious rites appropriate to their faith.

However, she had a very firm Catholic faith and took a strict line on abortion, the death penalty and divorce – even if her position was unpopular. Her whole life was influenced by her faith and religion, even though at times she confessed she didn’t feel the presence of God. The Missionaries of Charity now has branches throughout the world including branches in the developed world where they work with the homeless and people affected with AIDS. In 1965, the organisation became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI. In the 1960s, the life of Mother Teresa was first brought to a wider public attention by Malcolm Muggeridge who wrote a book and produced a documentary called “Something Beautiful for God”. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace.” She didn’t attend the ceremonial banquet, but asked that the $192,000 fund be given to the poor. In later years, she was more active in western developed countries. She commented that though the West was materially prosperous, there was often a spiritual poverty.

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” - Mother Teresa When she was asked how to promote world peace, she replied,”Go home and love your family”. Over the last two decades of her life, Mother Teresa suffered various health problems but nothing could dissuade her from fulfilling her mission of serving the poor and needy. Until her very last illness she was active in travelling around the world to the different branches of The Missionaries of Charity. During her last few years, she met Princess Diana in the Bronx, New York. The two died within a week of each other. Following Mother Teresa’s death the Vatican began the process of beatification, which is the second step on the way to canonisation and sainthood. Mother Teresa was formally beatified in October 2003 by Pope John Paul II . In September 2015, Pope Francis declared: “Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded,” “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.” Mother Teresa was a living saint who offered a great example and inspiration to the world. Awards given to Mother Teresa The first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. (1971) Kennedy Prize (1971) The Nehru Prize –“for promotion of international peace and understanding”(1972) Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), The Nobel Peace Prize (1979) States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) Congressional Gold Medal (1994) Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Nobel prize winner who dedicated life to the poor, to be made a saint - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Nobel prize winner who dedicated life to the poor, to be made a saint Updated December 18, 2015 21:41:51 Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Nobel laureate who dedicated her life to helping the poorest of the poor, will be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican says.

Key points Mother Teresa to be sainted, Vatican says The late Nobel laureate is expected to be canonised in early September Pope Francis cleared the way by approving a decree recognising a miracle attributed to her intercession with God Pope Francis has cleared the way for her sainthood by approving a decree recognising a miracle attributed to her intercession with God. Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, was beatified in 2003 by the late Pope John Paul. Beatification, which requires one miracle, is the last step before sainthood. The second miracle attributed to the intercession of Mother Teresa, which is required for canonisation, involved the inexplicable healing of a Brazilian man who was suffering from a multiple brain tumours, according to Catholic media reports. Relatives prayed to Mother Teresa and he recovered, leaving doctors at a loss to explain how. Known as the "saint of the gutters", the diminutive nun is expected to be canonised in early September. It was not clear if the ceremony would take place in Rome or if the Pope would travel to India to preside over it.

Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in Macedonia in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire. She founded the Missionaries of Charity to help the poor on the streets of Calcutta and the religious order later spread throughout the world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. 'Not a day's holiday, not a day's rest' Her missionary order in Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, said it was "thrilled" and grateful to the Pope. The pontiff met the late nun in Rome in 1994 when he was a bishop, and joked last year that while he admired her strength, he "would have been scared if she had been my mother superior". Sunita Kumar, a missionary spokeswoman who worked closely with Mother Teresa, said the late nun was an extraordinary woman who believed hard work was the best way to serve God. "She of course read the Bible but her main understanding was to serve the poor," Ms Kumar told the NDTV network.

"Look at the work she did, not a day's holiday, not a day's rest." Her canonisation in Rome is expected to again draw large crowds for what will likely be one of the highlights of the special Jubilee year. In 2002, the Vatican officially recognised a miracle she was said to have carried out after her death, namely the 1998 healing of a Bengali tribal woman, Monika Besra, who was suffering from an abdominal tumour. The commission found Besra, diagnosed with tuberculosis and a cancerous tumour, got well after prayers by the Missionaries of Charity. Reuters/AFP First posted December 18, 2015 21:10:44 Top Stories Mother Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech Mother Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech MOTHER TERESA The poor people are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things.

Lord, make 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 forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. - St. Francis of Assisi As we have gathered here together to thank God for the Nobel Peace Prize I think it will be beautiful that we pray the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi which always surprises me very much we pray this prayer every day after Holy Communion, because it is very fitting for each one of us, and I always wonder that 4-500 years ago as St.

Francis of Assisi composed this prayer that they had the same difficulties that we have today, as we compose this prayer that fits very nicely for us also. I think some of you already have got it so we will pray together. Let us thank God for the opportunity that we all have together today, for this gift of peace that reminds us that we have been created to live that peace, and Jesus became man to bring that good news to the poor. He being God became man in all things like us except sin, and he proclaimed very clearly that he had come to give the good news. The news was peace to all of good will and this is something that we all want the peace of heart and God loved the world so much that he gave his son it was a giving it is as much as if to say it hurt God to give, because he loved the world so much that he gave his son, and he gave him to Virgin Mary, and what did she do with him? As soon as he came in her life immediately she went in haste to give that good news, and as she came into the house of her cousin, the child the unborn child the child in the womb of Elizabeth, leapt with joy.

He was that little unborn child, was the first messenger of peace. He recognised the Prince of Peace, he recognised that Christ has come to bring the good news for you and for me. And as if that was not enough it was not enough to become a man he died on the cross to show that greater love, and he died for you and for me and for that leper and for that man dying of hunger and that naked person lying in the street not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, and New York, and London, and Oslo and insisted that we love one another as he loves each one of us. And we read that in the Gospel very clearly love as I have loved you as I love you as the Father has loved me, I love you and the harder the Father loved him, he gave him to us, and how much we love one another, we, too, must give each other until it hurts. It is not enough for us to say: I love God, but I do not love my neighbour. St. John says you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbour.

How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbour whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live. And so this is very important for us to realise that love, to be true, has to hurt. It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him. And to make sure we remember his great love he made himself the bread of life to satisfy our hunger for his love. Our hunger for God, because we have been created for that love. We have been created in his image. We have been created to love and be loved, and then he has become man to make it possible for us to love as he loved us. He makes himself the hungry one the naked one the homeless one the sick one the one in prison the lonely one the unwanted one and he says: You did it to me. Hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find, it may be in our own home. I never forget an opportunity I had in visiting a home where they had all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them in an institution and forgotten maybe.

And I went there, and I saw in that home they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking towards the door. And I did not see a single one with their smile on their face. And I turned to the Sister and I asked: How is that? How is it that the people they have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not smiling? I am so used to see the smile on our people, even the dying one smile, and she said: This is nearly every day, they are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten, and see this is where love comes. That poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect to love. Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried, and these are difficult days for everybody. Are we there, are we there to receive them, is the mother there to receive the child?

I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and girls given into drugs, and I tried to find out why why is it like that, and the answer was: Because there is no one in the family to receive them. Father and mother are so busy they have no time. Young parents are in some institution and the child takes back to the street and gets involved in something. We are talking of peace. These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly: Even if a mother could forget her child I will not forget you I have carved you in the palm of my hand. We are carved in the palm of His hand, so close to Him that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God. And that is what strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even if a mother could forget something impossible but even if she could forget I will not forget you. And today the greatest means the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. And we who are standing here our parents wanted us.

We would not be here if our parents would do that to us. Our children, we want them, we love them, but what of the millions. Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child what is left for me to kill you and you kill me there is nothing between. And this I appeal in India, I appeal everywhere: Let us bring the child back, and this year being the child's year: What have we done for the child? At the beginning of the year I told, I spoke everywhere and I said: Let us make this year that we make every single child born, and unborn, wanted. And today is the end of the year, have we really made the children wanted? I will give you something terrifying. We are fighting abortion by adoption, we have saved thousands of lives, we have sent words to all the clinics, to the hospitals, police stations please don't destroy the child, we will take the child.

So every hour of the day and night it is always somebody, we have quite a number of unwedded mothers tell them come, we will take care of you, we will take the child from you, and we will get a home for the child. And we have a tremendous demand from families who have no children, that is the blessing of God for us. And also, we are doing another thing which is very beautiful we are teaching our beggars, our leprosy patients, our slum dwellers, our people of the street, natural family planning. And in Calcutta alone in six years it is all in Calcutta we have had 61,273 babies less from the families who would have had, but because they practise this natural way of abstaining, of self-control, out of love for each other. We teach them the temperature meter which is very beautiful, very simple, and our poor people understand. And you know what they have told me? Our family is healthy, our family is united, and we can have a baby whenever we want.

So clear those people in the street, those beggars and I think that if our people can do like that how much more you and all the others who can know the ways and means without destroying the life that God has created in us. The poor people are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. The other day one of them came to thank and said: You people who have vowed chastity you are the best people to teach us family planning. Because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other. And I think they said a beautiful sentence. And these are people who maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home where to live, but they are great people.The poor are very wonderful people. One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition and I told the Sisters: You take care of the other three, I take of this one that looked worse. So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: Thank you and she died.

I could not help but examine my conscience before her, and I asked what would I say if I was in her place. And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself, I would have said I am hungry, that I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain, or something, but she gave me much more she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face. As that man whom we picked up from the drain, half eaten with worms, and we brought him to the home. I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for. And it was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that, who could die like that without blaming anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel this is the greatness of our people. And that is why we believe what Jesus had said: I was hungry I was naked I was homeless I was unwanted, unloved, uncared for and you did it to me. I believe that we are not real social workers.

We may be doing social work in the eyes of the people, but we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the Body of Christ 24 hours. We have 24 hours in this presence, and so you and I. You too try to bring that presence of God in your family, for the family that prays together stays together. And I think that we in our family don't need bombs and guns, to destroy to bring peace just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence of each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world. There is so much suffering, so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do. It is to God Almighty how much we do it does not matter, because He is infinite, but how much love we put in that action. How much we do to Him in the person that we are serving.

Some time ago in Calcutta we had great difficulty in getting sugar, and I don't know how the word got around to the children, and a little boy of four years old, Hindu boy, went home and told his parents: I will not eat sugar for three days, I will give my sugar to Mother Teresa for her children. After three days his father and mother brought him to our home. I had never met them before, and this little one could scarcely pronounce my name, but he knew exactly what he had come to do. He knew that he wanted to share his love. And this is why I have received such a lot of love from you all. From the time that I have come here I have simply been surrounded with love, and with real, real understanding love. It could feel as if everyone in India, everyone in Africa is somebody very special to you. And I felt quite at home I was telling Sister today. I feel in the Convent with the Sisters as if I am in Calcutta with my own Sisters. So completely at home here, right here. And so here I am talking with you I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there.

Be that good news to your own people. And find out about your next-door neighbour do you know who they are? I had the most extraordinary experience with a Hindu family who had eight children. A gentleman came to our house and said: Mother Teresa, there is a family with eight children, they had not eaten for so long do something. So I took some rice and I went there immediately. And I saw the children their eyes shinning with hunger I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And she took the rice, she divided the rice, and she went out. When she came back I asked her where did you go, what did you do? And she gave me a very simple answer: They are hungry also. What struck me most was that she knew and who are they, a Muslim family and she knew. I didn't bring more rice that evening because I wanted them to enjoy the joy of sharing. But there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy with their mother because she had the love to give. And you see this is where love begins at home. And I want you and I am very grateful for what I have received.

It has been a tremendous experience and I go back to India I will be back by next week, the 15th I hope and I will be able to bring your love. And I know well that you have not given from your abundance, but you have given until it has hurt you. Today the little children they have I was so surprised there is so much joy for the children that are hungry. That the children like themselves will need love and care and tenderness, like they get so much from their parents. So let us thank God that we have had this opportunity to come to know each other, and this knowledge of each other has brought us very close. And we will be able to help not only the children of India and Africa, but will be able to help the children of the whole world, because as you know our Sisters are all over the world. And with this prize that I have received as a prize of peace, I am going to try to make the home for many people that have no home. Because I believe that love begins at home, and if we can create a home for the poor I think that more and more love will spread.

And we will be able through this understanding love to bring peace, be the good news to the poor. The poor in our own family first, in our country and in the world. To be able to do this, our Sisters, our lives have to be woven with prayer. They have to be woven with Christ to be able to understand, to be able to share. Because today there is so much suffering and I feel that the passion of Christ is being relived all over again are we there to share that passion, to share that suffering of people. Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult. Our Sisters are working amongst that kind of people in the West.

So you must pray for us that we may be able to be that good news, but we cannot do that without you, you have to do that here in your country. You must come to know the poor, maybe our people here have material things, everything, but I think that if we all look into our own homes, how difficult we find it sometimes to smile at each, other, and that the smile is the beginning of love. And so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love, and once we begin to love each other naturally we want to do something. So you pray for our Sisters and for me and for our Brothers, and for our Co-Workers that are around the world. That we may remain faithful to the gift of God, to love Him and serve Him in the poor together with you. What we have done we should not have been able to do if you did not share with your prayers, with your gifts, this continual giving. But I don't want you to give me from your abundance, I want that you give me until it hurts.

The other day I received 15 dollars from a man who has been on his back for twenty years, and the only part that he can move is his right hand. And the only companion that he enjoys is smoking. And he said to me: I do not smoke for one week, and I send you this money. It must have been a terrible sacrifice for him, but see how beautiful, how he shared, and with that money I bought bread and I gave to those who are hungry with a joy on both sides, he was giving and the poor were receiving. This is something that you and I it is a gift of God to us to be able to share our love with others. And let it be as it was for Jesus. Let us love one another as he loved us. Let us love Him with undivided love. And the joy of loving Him and each other let us give now that Christmas is coming so close. Let us keep that joy of loving Jesus in our hearts. And share that joy with all that we come in touch with. And that radiating joy is real, for we have no reason not to be happy because we have no Christ with us.

Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor that we meet, Christ in the smile that we give and the smile that we receive. Let us make that one point: That no child will be unwanted, and also that we meet each other always with a smile, especially when it is difficult to smile. I never forget some time ago about fourteen professors came from the United States from different universities. And they came to Calcutta to our house. Then we were talking about that they had been to the home for the dying. We have a home for the dying in Calcutta, where we have picked up more than 36,000 people only from the streets of Calcutta, and out of that big number more than 18,000 have died a beautiful death. They have just gone home to God; and they came to our house and we talked of love, of compassion, and then one of them asked me: Say, Mother, please tell us something that we will remember, and I said to them: Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family. Smile at each other.

And then another one asked me: Are you married, and I said: Yes, and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at Jesus because he can be very demanding sometimes. This is really something true, and there is where love comes when it is demanding, and yet we can give it to Him with joy. Just as I have said today, I have said that if I don't go to Heaven for anything else I will be going to Heaven for all the publicity because it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really ready to go to Heaven. I think that this is something, that we must live life beautifully, we have Jesus with us and He loves us. If we could only remember that God loves me, and I have an opportunity to love others as he loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love, then Norway becomes a nest of love. And how beautiful it will be that from here a centre for peace has been given. That from here the joy of life of the unborn child comes out. If you become a burning light in the world of peace, then really the Nobel Peace Prize is a gift of the Norwegian people. God bless you! Acknowledgement Mother Teresa.

"Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech." December 11, 1979 Oslo, Norway. The Author Mother Teresa (Saint Teresa of Calcutta) was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, to Albanian heritage. She founded the Missionaries of Charity which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters active in 133 countries. She described herself in this way: "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus." Among her books are One Heart Full of Love: Mother Teresa , No Greater Love , and Where There Is Love, There Is God .

Question: In what year did Mother Teresa of Calcutta win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: 1979