Madre Teresa. Al amparo de Nuestra Señora

by Joseph Langford, María Jesús Asensio Tudela (Translator)

"With great love and trust stand with Our Lady at the cross." --Mother Teresa

For Mother Teresa as well as for the rest of us, it is through Our Lady's presence that we find the grace and courage to stand at our own personal crosses. Summon the same extraordinary intercession and aid of Our Lady in your daily life through the example of Mother Teresa.

"Sitting with Mother Teresa, watching her tend to the sick and the dying, feeling the aura of holiness around her person, seeing her bent in prayer, lost in God how often I asked myself if I was not seeing something of Our Lady, experiencing a glimpse of the Virgin of Nazareth," --Author and co-founder of Mother Teresa s Priest Community, Joseph Langford, MC

"Stay very close to Our Lady. If you do this, you can do great things for God and the good of people." --Mother Teresa

From dawn to dusk, decade to decade, Mother Teresa's life had been spent, in every sense of the word, in the shadow of Our Lady. Our Lady was a core element in Mother Teresa's own self awareness and day by day, intimacy became transformation.

Mother Teresa's perseverance in living Mary s example over fifty long, faithful and fruitful years shows us that there is a meaning to all that happens, and that there is a God who watches over all even when he is neither seen nor felt.

Our Lady helps us, as Mother Teresa found in her third vision, to become contemplatives at the foot of the cross to see in a new way the beauty of God's presence in us and around us. Nothing was impossible for Mother Teresa and nothing is impossible for all who call Mary mother.

Through thirty years of knowing her, Mother Teresa became the one book on Our Lady that I could never put down; the one that continues to teach me, to fascinate me, to draw me beyond myself into God. Here are the lights and lessons I have learned from the pages of her life.

Everything is here. Our Lady enfolding Mother Teresa as she desires to enfold you and me, in order to bring us to the cross of Jesus to bring light where there is darkness, so Jesus can transform all through the Resurrection.


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[image]I remember Mother Teresa's passing as if it was yesterday. The crowds of Calcutta's grieving poor, pressing ahead, with tributes of stray flowers clutched to their hearts, hoping to get a glimpse of their saint, as she lie in state in St. Thomas' Church. The media everywhere; snapping photos, lining up interviews, and hefting video cameras from place to place in the drenching heat. A who's-Who of the U.N. lining up to lay garlands before the bier at her state funeral. And finally, closed away from the crowds and cameras, the family she founded huddled around her grave, as we lowered her into the vault, and cast handfuls of sand from a plastic bucket onto her casket as she disappeared from view for the last time.

In the days surrounding her funeral, those who had known Mother Teresa closely mingled with those who had known her only from afar; sharing their common sorrow, but also their stories. Stories of meeting Mother Teresa for the first time; things she said and did; how she had touched them and marked their lives. Among the reminiscences were the kudos of gratitude you would expect to hear, there was one that took me aback--not out of disagreement, but out of wonder that these simple people, many of whom did not share her faith, could have been so perceptive. Time and again they remarked that Mother Teresa had reminded them of Mary, the mother of Jesus; that they had felt a presence, some special anointing of tenderness and goodness, that brought to mind the Virgin of Nazareth. They didn't understand how or why, but they knew they felt it, and they were still touched by it.

For those who had known Mother Teresa well, this would only confirm what they knew, what they had long observed in her and admired--a deep and even intimate relationship with Mary, solid not sentimental, lived in the realm of spirit but without fanfare, in the midst of the simplest daily duties, as she bathed the dying and fed the hungry. Things that surely the mother of Christ would have done right along side her.

The heights of the spirit, scaled from the bottom of a teacup, from the wound of a leper, from a plate of rice. This was the legacy Mother Teresa received from Mary, and was formed in, living day after day in this hidden school of God's goodness going on between the two of them in her heart. With this little volume, In the Shadow of Our Lady, I wanted to share some of that hidden intimacy with a larger public—and not just as a way of understanding the courage and commitment she showed at standing at today's Calvaries, as did Mary, but as an invitation...

Genres: Catholic, Faith, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Prayer

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Fr. Joseph Langford, saw the book about Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “Something Beautiful for God”; the photo on the cover of the book touched him profoundly and from that moment he had a great desire to know her and her charism and to adapt it to the life of the priest. After his ordination to the priesthood, he founded, together with Mother Teresa, the Corpus Christi Movement for diocesan priests who wished to participate and live the spirituality of Mother Teresa of Calcutta in their priestly life. his Movement began to grow and to spread among priests in various parts of the world until on July 16, 1983, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Father Joseph had the inspiration to ask Mother Teresa to found a community of priests in the charism of the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa accepted to carry out this project which began in the city of New York as the Corpus Christi Fraternity. Soon became the religious congregation of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers.

In 1986 Father Joseph wrote the meditation, “I Thirst for you,” which has been translated into many languages and distributed throughout the world. This meditation is an expression of the spiritual sentiments that marked his life and his pastoral work. Fr. Langford spent most of the rest of his life working among the poorest of the poor in Tijuana, Mexico. He also wrote and published two important books, one about the Virgin Mary, and the second, “Secret Fire,” a profound meditation on the mystery of the thirst of Jesus, the center of Mother Teresa’s spirituality.

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful synopsis of the spirituality of Mother Teresa, Founder of the Missionaries of Charity by Fr. Joseph Langford, co-founder of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Best if read after some other background books by and about Mother Teresa such as: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta and Mother Teresa's Secret Fire: The Encounter That Changed Her Life, and How It Can Transform Your Own.

[Nick Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this the last night of retreat just because it wasn’t too long and I thought I would just make my way through certain parts. I couldn’t put it down wow it was all so good.

“He will transform our suffering and raise it to the Father. Though the pain might remain, our anguish will turn to peace. There will be healing of bitterness, of resentment, and of despair. Jesus does not take away all our wounds, any more than the Father erased all of his wounds. Rather, he disinfects them and glorifies them. For Jesus, the Resurrection was not an emergency room where the Father took away all the signs of the Passion. Jesus rose with his wounds, wounds now transformed from darkness to light, dug into his hands in time and in pain and now become eternal fonts of light and blessing and glory.”

That was really long but wow I love the Saints I can’t wait to hangout with them for all of eternity

[Penelope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helped me to understand some aspects of the BVM that I had been struggling with for a long time, while also unpacking aspects of Mother Teresa's spirituality that were fascinating & enlightening.

[Donna Syler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What an excellent book. So many rich nuggets. Mother Teresa was such a special child of God.

[Nancy P.]

What do I need to do to start reading this book?

[Oceanna Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a special lady!