ST. TERESA OF CALCUTTA
“YES, WE WILL INVITE HER TO
DETROIT”
For a long-time faculty member, memories of
Mother Teresa still inspire after decades.
Sr. Mary Finn, HVM
W
HILE MOTHER TERESA AND I PURSUED OUR LIFE
VOCATIONS ON DIFFERENT PATHS AND IN DIFFERENT
WORLDS, OUR MEANDERINGS BEAR A STRONG SIMILARITY
TO EACH OTHER AND A BASIC PARA LLELISM. MY LIFE AS A
HOME VISITOR OF MARY IN DETROIT IS DEFINED BY “JESUS,
YOU ARE THE CENTER OF MY JOY.” MOTHER THERESA
WRITES, “JESUS IS MY EVERYTHING.”
When I was asked to commit to writing my reminiscence of Mother Teresa, I
had to visit the unofficial journal written
in my heart many years ago. Since those
first encounters with her, I have carried
these memories into my ministry in the
city of Detroit and, in the spirit of a Home
Visitor, into my daily Eucharistic liturgies
where the memories are being relived, refashioned, and reinterpreted.
Inspiration to Serve
Among the persons on my dream list
with whom I would have liked to visit
during my lifetime, one would not have
found Mother Teresa. I wanted to meet
Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and
Rosa Parks.
Nonetheless, the “God of surprises”
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brought my first experience of Mother
Teresa before me in the late 1960s. I was
in Canada participating in a formation
weekend with the Basilian Fathers and
candidates. On Canadian TV, I saw a
petite woman who appeared alongside a
tall and joy-filled man. It was Mother Teresa and Jean Vanier, best known for his
ministry among developmentally challenged persons.
As I watched and heard their words,
my soul leapt with a deepening desire to
follow Jesus by responding to persons in
their joy and sorrow and glory.
The vocation of Jean Vanier, Mother
Teresa, and my Home Visitors of Mary is
intensely Eucharistic. We each have the
call from Jesus to “see Jesus” under the
appearance of Bread and the same Jesus
Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Fall 2016
under the appearance of each human person. Every person is “consecrated,” worthy
of “adoration.”
“Yes, I Am Sad”
The second time Mother Teresa entered
my life was also by way of television. Several Sacred Heart faculty members had
gathered in the faculty lounge to view a
local daytime TV interview with Mother
Teresa. She was asked by the interviewer,
“Mother, are you ever sad?”
Her response was baffling, “Yes, I am
sad.” Years later, Bishop Bernard Harrington asked the same question of me.
“Of course I am sad. I am Irish,” was
my reply.
That question touched upon my own
Marian spirituality. I was moved to ask the
same question of Mary, the mother of Jesus. My own devotion, prayer, and conversation with Mary began to deepen at that
point as I often pondered what Mary’s response to that question might be.
“I am Jewish. Of course I am sad.
When I wrapped his tiny newborn body
in swaddling birth clothes . . . and when I
wrapped his same grown up dead body in
burial clothes—I wept and my soul was sad.