Life and Deeds of Mother Teresa - Essay Example

Mother Teresa Earlier Years Born as Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu, on August 26 1910, in Skopje as the youngest of the 5 children of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, Mother Teresa was influenced by her mother for her belief in love, caring and God. She lost her father when she was 8 years old and then her mother brought up the children with lot of love and care. They were ardent believers of Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart. Gonxha left her home in 1928 and joined the Sister’s of Loreto in Ireland to become a missionary. She received her name Sister Mary Teresa there and came to Calcutta, India in 1929. She taught in a school for girls first after she took her First Profession of Vows. She became the “spouse of Jesus for all eternity” by taking the Final Profession of Vows in 1937. She became Mother Teresa from then on. She became the principal of the St. Mary’s school in 1944. Missionaries of Charity sisters In 1946 during her journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling she felt an inner call she believed to be from Jesus. She felt Jesus was asking her to be His side and reach out to the poor. He asked Mother Teresa to establish the Missionaries of Charity Sisters committed to serve the poorest. It took Mother Teresa 2 years of hard work and prejudice before she could start the mission. She came out of Loreto in a white sari on 17th August 1948 to enter the world of the poor. She did a short course with Medical Mission Sisters in Patna and stayed temporarily with the Little Sister of the Poor. She went to a slum for the first time and took care of many sick, old and young people. There were old people dying on the roadside of hunger and TB. Some of her former students joined her within a short time. Within a span of 12 years’ of beginning the Missionary, Mother Teresa was able to send her sisters to new parts of India to dole out the deprived. Decree of Praise was granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in 1965 and after that she opened a house in Venezuela. By 1990 Mother Teresa was able to open a house in almost all communist countries in all continents including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba. In order to reach out to more and more poor and needy people Mother Teresa established various institutions such as the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, the contemplative branch of the sisters in 1976, the contemplative brothers in 1979 and the Missionaries of Charity Fathers in 1984. She also formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and the Suffering Co-Workers, which involved people from many religions and beliefs to get together for a common noble cause. She also established the Lay Missionaries of Charity and a Corpus Christi Movement for Priests in 1981 for the kind-hearted priests to contribute their share. In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Indian Padmasree Award and in 1963 she won the Nobel Peace Prize. The entire world began to know about her work and her mission and started supporting her mission to help the poor and needy. She lived her entire life serving the sick and the poor. Though she found happiness in doing so she was never able to overcome the pain she felt for them. Even during her last years of life, though she was not healthy, she continued to manage the Society and take action to the need of the poor and the Church. With around 4000 sisters, Mother Teresa had managed to establish 610 foundations in 123 countries around the world by 1997. She elected her successor and made her the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and traveled abroad to meet Pope John Paul II. She came back and spent her time with her visitors and advising her Sisters. She died on 5th September 1997 and was given the honor of a State funeral by the Government of India. Her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. In 2003, the Holy Father sanctified Mother Teresa before an entreating crowd of about 300000 who had assembled at the St. Peter’s Square for thanksgiving to God for the contribution of her life and devotion (Mother Theresa of Calcutta center). Family Background Nikola was a contractor by profession and a successful businessman. He bought a house and many properties in Skopje soon after he moved in from Prizren. He did lot of businesses notably supply of medicine and trading oil, sugar, cloth and leather in partnership with an Italian. Nikola was proficient in 5 languages and had traveled across the globe for business purposes. He was very much involved in local politics and his firm helped to build the first theatre in Skopje. He was an ardent believer of Roman Catholic Church. He married Dranafile Bernai and settled in a spacious and beautiful house with a huge garden in Skopje. They named their youngest daughter Gonxha that meant “flower bud” in Albanian. Elder to her was Aga and Lazar. Nikola was very caring and he loved his family more than anything. He was so close to the children that they would keenly wait for Nikola to return from work. To shower his affection on his kids, Nikola would often bring them jewellery while he returned home. Visitors who dropped in to discuss business or politics always crowded their house. Drana or affectionately called “Nana Loke” (meaning Mother Soul) was a traditional family woman who looked after her house, husband and children. Drane would not accept foolish behavior and was very strict with the kids about that. Gonxha too would never waste her time and words and did not want others also to do the same. She was chubby like her mother and her oval face and unique nose. Lazar recollects that Gonxha was very generous and helpful though it often put her in trouble. Nikola taught his children to always remember their roots and to be proud of their nation. Nikola was always accessible to any national cause and even financially supported the Albanian Independence. On one hand where Nikola developed a sense of cultural individuality and patriotism, Drane on the other hand helped the children develop a strong religious outlook. Being a Catholic, Drana made her children not only believe in their religion but also to apply them in daily life. Drana also believed in the value of good deed and her husband supported her in all ways he could and Gonxha also assisted her mother. Anytime, the house was open to anyone in need and Nikola would make sure that Drane had enough money to help someone before he left the house. Drana helped the needy financially and they ate meals along with the family. Drana always told her children that they were all people and needed special attention and love to recover from their current problems. She would also visit the poor and helped them spiritually and materially. Gonxha used to accompany her mother during such visits. Nikola’s Death Nikola fell fatally sick while traveling for political purposes. He could not survive the illness and left his family in deep grief. Though he is believed to have been poisoned by his rivals it could not be proven. Drana took a while to recover though never fully from her husband’s death. Yet she did and took over complete responsibility of her children. Nikola’s partner seized the business his death and did not bother to give anything to Drana. Drana lost all the properties and business Nikola had since there were no documents in proof and she did not have the money or support to take legal action. Though she could have fought legally for possession of properties she did not bother to do so and her only possession turned out to be their family house. Drana started selling her handcrafted embroidery and started marketing cloth and carpets to textile factories. Lazar would accompany her to the textile visits where she would meet the managers and clear their doubts and give suggestions on cloth and design. With a better financial status for her family, she started supporting the poor as she did earlier. She managed time for visiting the needy and made 6 orphan children stay with her family. All her acts always reminded her children to love and take care of the poor and the needy. In spite of her busy schedule, Drana spent quality time with her children and taught them many moral values through simple examples in daily life. The children were very attached to their mother and she was their best guide. The influence Drana had on her children was so strong that Gonxha recalls, “Home is where the mother is”. Drana made sure her children participated in the church’s activities. The church promoted spirituality along with patriotism and ethnicity. Gonxha readily accepted the church’s preaching and wanted to be a nun at the age of thirteen itself. What makes this more surprising was the fact that she had never seen a nun till then and yet a desire to serve the God. A new priest introduced new books on spirituality, which impressed Gonxha a lot. He implemented new methods to support the poor. The most important aspect of the priest’s influence was the introduction of Missionaries’ work to Gonxha. She was so impressed by the virtue of their hard work that she asked her cousin who was making extra money to send some to India. As she grew up her longing to join the missionaries got deeper and her love for the needy grew stronger. She was just like her mother and cared for everyone. She was struggling with the thought whether or not to become a nun. The priest helped her to clear her doubt. She believed God wanted her to be a nun and guided her through the priest. Though her family was unsure of her decision, they supported her whole-heartedly (Greene.2004). Theories on Personality applied on Mother Teresa’s life Mother Teresa was always very self-sufficient, well behaved; yet challenging some set philosophy and prospect. She was always willing to listen and follow her own ethics even when it was not an expected one. Though the family was very religious, Mother Teresa reveals that till she attained an age of 18 she never thought of being a nun. She was always passionate about missionary life and was able to locate any missionary on the map and tell their service given at each place. This probably led later to becoming a missionary herself (Guntzelman). Let us take two different theories of Personality – Entity theory and Incremental theory and try to apply it to Mother Teresa’s life. Entity theory states that personal qualities, which are inherited or learnt from the parents or at home, are stable over the time. Incremental theory stresses that personal traits are changeable and can be developed over the time. She was much influenced by her mother for caring, loving and helping young and old, rich and poor all alike and to believe in God and to pray. Her mother Drana made sure that her children never wasted their time and had a helping mentality towards the poor and needy. This was deep rooted in Mother Teresa’s mind from her childhood and stayed till her death. This supports the entity theory. It just kept improving and she made her area of service broader by treating the sick and the dying. Loving and caring for children and poor was innate in her. Treating the sick was an acquired skill though the urge to do so came from within. Mother Teresa believed that God asked her to take care of the less privileged and thereafter she put her entire life into fulfilling God’s demand. So the aspect of treating the sick and dying can be attributed to the incremental theory. If we analyze further we can find that both theories are very much inter-related especially in Mother Teresa’s case (Dweck. 2000). Human Behavior Human behavior in general can be attributed to 8 different perspectives. They are: The Social Perspective – society’s influence. The Conflict Perspective - influence of conflict, compulsion, discrimination and governance. The Rational Choice Perspective – self-evaluation and own idea to achieve goals. The Social Constructionist Perspective – how people learn through discussions to categorize and find their own place in the world. The Psychodynamic Perspective – needs, desires and emotions from within and self-motivation. The Developmental Perspective – changes in behavior over experience. The Social Behavior Perspective – how individuals react to their environment. The Humanistic Perspective – freedom and meaning of life. For most humans the Psychodynamic perspective is the most influential aspect in their behavior. The Social and Developmental perspectives come next to that. Only for the rare, truly sacred people the Humanistic Perspective makes important influences in their life. Humanistic, Social, Conflict and Social Behavior perspectives will shape their behavior. The Psychodynamic perspective will have no influence on them. Reference Dweck,C.S. 2000. Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development. Routledge: Psychology Press. Greene, M. Mother Teresa: A Biography Westport. C.T:Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Guntzelman,J. Who Was Blessed Mother Teresa? (online). Available:http://www.americancatholic.org/features/teresa/WhoWasTeresa.asp Mother Theresa of Calcutta center. (online). Available:http://www.motherteresa.org/layout.html Read More