Today's Zenit article...Author: Mother Teresa Still Teaches Us How to Love

Author: Mother Teresa Still Teaches Us How to Love

Knights of Columbus Commemorate Nun

By Genevieve Pollock

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, AUG. 24, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Years after her death, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta still teaches us how to love by her words and humble example, says author Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle.

O'Boyle, author of "Mother Teresa and Me: Ten Years of Friendship" (Circle Press, 2009), will be speaking about her personal experiences with the saintly nun at an event celebrating the founder's 100th birthday on Thursday.

Thursday's celebration, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus at their New Haven museum, will include an unveiling of the Mother Teresa U.S. postage stamp.

O'Boyle, who will give an address on "Discovering Calcutta in Our Midst: Mother Teresa's Lessons of Love," told ZENIT that the nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity still has an important message for us today: "Love one another."

Even 13 years after her death, the author said, "Mother Teresa's love for Jesus transcends time."

O'Boyle affirmed, "She beckoned us all to answer our own calls to holiness in our lives -- to serve Jesus in one another -- to thirst for Jesus' love and love him in return."

She continued, "Now, 100 years after her birth we are blessed with the lessons of love from a remarkable yet humble woman's life."

Extraordinary love

This woman "may have looked overly ordinary, but because she loved Jesus so earnestly her life was immensely extraordinary and the effects of that love radiated out to the entire world," O'Boyle told ZENIT.

She observed that the nun's "one-by-one approach to serve Jesus in all she met changed the world and opened our eyes to understand the plight of the poor."

"She taught us that the poor are not just those starving for a piece of bread, but are those even in affluent areas starving for love and care," the author affirmed.

O'Boyle concluded, "We too can love as Mother Teresa loved by answering our Lord with our own 'Yes!' and living the Gospel of Mathew 25:35-46 as she did: 'Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of the family, you do to me.'"

The Knights of Columbus Museum is also currently featuring an exhibit on "Mother Teresa: Life, Spirituality and Message," which will run through Oct. 4.

It includes items such as the founder's sari, personal articles, and a full-scale replica of her convent cell in the Calcutta convent.

For more information visit the Knights of Columbus here.

[You can see the article at Zenit here.]