Thomas F. O'Neill: The 25th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa .......🦅

Saint Mother Teresa was born on August 26th, in 1910, and she died on September 5th, 1997. She was made a Saint on October 19th, 2003, on my Birthday, but that is purely coincidental.

In 1992, I volunteered my services with the Missionaries of Charity for eight months. It was truly an extraordinary experience that profoundly changed me for the better. I fed patients and washed their clothes and bed linens by hand. It was hard work, but I truly felt that I was there for a reason and that my being there was not coincidental.

I enjoyed talking with Saint Mother Teresa and her Nuns every evening outside on her veranda near her private chapel. On several occasions, she invited me to Breakfast at the Mother House, and she took an interest in me and where I was from. I told her about the poverty in Schuylkill County and how depressed the county is.

She was very intuitive when it came to us volunteers, and she made us feel special, especially regarding the work we were doing.

Every evening I would meditate in her private chapel, and she would drop a small plastic rosary in my hand. It became almost like a game, my meditating, and suddenly, a plastic rosary dropping into my hand.

Once she asked me, “what is that you are doing in the chapel?”

“I meditate in your Chapel,” I said to her.

“You meditate on what?” She asked.

“I believe the spirit of God is in all things,” I said to her, “I’m more spiritual than religious.”

Her reply, “when you’re in God’s chapel,” she paused then went on to say, “hold the rosary in your hand, then you can do your own thing.”

Volunteers worked with the Missionaries of Charity from all religions, various religious sects, and nationalities worldwide. But she never once tried to convert people to her brand of religion, and she felt her mission was to be the presence of God to others.

She also never tried to convert the patients she cared for, all of her centers in India were named after Hindu deities, like Prem Dan and Kalighat. In other parts of the world, her centers were given generic names like, ‘Gift of peace,’ ‘Gift of hope,’ ‘Gift of mercy,’ and ‘Gift of love,’ the reason being she did not want to offend non-Christians, and she felt the spirit of love transcends all of the world’s religions.

The day before I left India, she asked me to volunteer with her Aids center in Washington, DC. I did that for one year before accepting a Maryland State Government position.

The last time I saw Saint Mother Teresa, she said, “You are now a witness to the mighty power of love,” and I believed her. I believed her wholeheartedly because you can’t accomplish what she accomplished without the spirit of love backing you up .......🦅