New Mother Teresa movie opens this Friday

By Tom Quiner

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxFRKQIuZIQ]

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta scares me.

This tiny slip of a woman was far stronger than any man I’ve ever known, and I’ve known some strong men.

But her strength, grounded in unquestioning faith in God, required  “a letting go” that is daunting.

Mother Teresa took a leap of faith into a lifelong pursuit of service to the most “wretched” of the poor in Calcutta, India.

She founded the Missionaries of Charity with about a buck in her pocket. Imagine walking into one of the poorest places in the world with little more than the shirt on your back.Before she died, she leveraged that buck into an international outreach to 133 countries served by some 4500 sisters.

She taught us about sacrifice:

“A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.”

She encouraged us to embrace the unique mission God entrusted to each of us:

“Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.”

A biopic on her, “The Letters,” opens this Friday. I look forward to checking it out should it come to my fair city.