Rome, Italy, Aug 26, 2010 / 03:25 am
The “exemplary model” of Blessed Mother Teresa was highlighted in a letter from Pope Benedict XVI released for the 100th anniversary of her birth. An accompanying message from the current mother superior of the Missionaries of Charity reproposed Mother Teresa’s call to change the world through small acts performed with great love.
Celebrations of all types, especially Eucharistic ones, are being observed across the globe on Thursday to honor the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity (MC) and her legacy of love. According to a letter dated May 18, but just released for the Aug. 26 occasion, the Pope has also been “spiritually” joining in with the year’s celebrations.
The Holy Father remembered Mother Teresa as an “exemplary model of Christian virtue” in the brief message to MC superior general, Mother Mary Prema. He expressed his confidence that this year’s celebrations of her life would be “an occasion of joyful gratitude to God for the inestimable gift that Mother Teresa was in her lifetime and continues to be through the affectionate and tireless work” of the order she founded.
The Holy Father also asked that the love showed by Mother Teresa continue to inspire the order’s members as they carry out their service, drawing from her example and spirituality and choosing, as she did, to “take up Christ’s invitation, ‘Come, be my light’.”