September 5th marked the physical departure of Mother Teresa from this world.

Eighteen years after her death, “The Blessed Teresa of Calcutta” is still considered one of the greatest spiritual teachers on earth.

Mother Teresa is Albanian by blood, yet Indian by citizenship. Mother Teresa truly lived for higher purposes. She devoted her life to the care of the poor, the sick and the homeless. She was a symbol of hope to many, especially those without families and alone.

In my own opinion—and after getting to know more about her when I was in India—Mother Teresa can be the role model for all humanity. Besides being generous, compassionate and kind, she is known for showing her immense love to everyone, without any exception. If we truly wish to learn how to love, Mother Teresa is the ultimate individual to learn from.

Her love to the world was unconditional. She didn’t look at religions, positions or statuses, rather she looked at the inside of each one in need of love. After reading her take on love, I was awestruck. Some quotes truly changed my being and had me change the direction of my life.

As someone who Mother Teresa deeply inspired, I chose 10 sayings from her on love in memory of her presence on earth.

“You and I have been created for greater things. We have not been created to just pass through this life without aim. And that greater aim is to love and be loved.”

“There is much suffering in the world—very much. And this material suffering is suffering from hunger, suffering from homelessness, from all kinds of diseases, but I still think the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, just having no one.”

“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your own home for this is where our love for each other must start.”

“You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself, but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless. To work without love is slavery.”

“People throughout the world may look different or have a different religion, education, or position, but they are all the same. They are the people to be loved. They are all hungry for love.”

“Love is not something that fossilizes, but something that lives. Works of love, and declaring love, is the way to peace. And where does this love begin? Right in our own hearts. We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, or this work and that work. Our goal is love.”

“It is easy to be proud, harsh, moody and selfish, but we have been created to love; why stoop down to things that will spoil the beauty of our hearts?”

“We must all fill our hearts with great love. Don’t imagine that love, to be true and burning, must be extraordinary.”

“Loving should be as normal to us as living and breathing, day after day until our death.”

“In one of the houses our sisters visited, a woman had been dead a long time before anyone knew it, and then they found out only because her corpse had begun to rot. Her neighbors didn’t even know her name.”

~ Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997)

“It’s not just what she did that made her holy. It’s why she did it. How she did it.” ~ David Scott

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Relephant Read:

Wanted: Bodhisattvas—Inquire Within.

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Author: Elyane Youssef

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Robert Perez Palou

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