“The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on Earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in heaven, and will help bring about everlasting peace on Earth.”—St. Teresa of Calcutta
Mother Teresa–born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910–devoted her life to care for the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in 1979. It was her love of the Eucharist and daily Adoration that gave her and fellow members of the Missionaries of Charity the strength to carry out their difficult work.
“Unless we believe and see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor,” she said. Mother Teresa believed that an hour spent in Adoration helped her and the other sisters to love the poor more fully. It’s a pillar for the religious community she founded in 1950.
“Jesus has made himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, he is there. If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that Adoration,” she said.
Mother Teresa grew up with great reverence for the sacraments, having received her First Communion at age five and Confirmation a year later, She joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland in 1928, where she was soon sent to India to serve as a high school teacher in the city of Calcutta. She taught history and geography for seventeen years, educating the daughters of the city’s wealthy elite. In 1946, she experienced a new call, which led her to establish the Missionaries of Charity.
Mother Teresa devoted herself and her community to caring for the Eucharistic Christ visible in the poor and vulnerable, the sick and the dying. Her selfless love was not formed on her own strength. Rather, she started every day with the Eucharist. It was through his Body and Blood that she heard Christ calling her to deeper love.
Mother Teresa advocated for perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in every parish around the world. “Nowhere on Earth are we more welcomed or loved than by Jesus in Eucharist. When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now.
Are you able to find a few minutes to spend with the Real Presence of the Lord this week?
