Catholic Fire

Today marks the feast day of Saint Teresa of Calcutta - a beautiful servant of God who is one of our most celebrated mothers and a universal symbol of God's merciful and preferential love for the poor and forgotten. She has been widely known as both a model of mercy and of charity. There is no one more renowned for practicing the heroic virtue of charity than Blessed Teresa of Calcutta! A diminutive figure, just under five feet tall, she gave every ounce of strength she had to care for the poorest of the poor with love, prayer, and all the gifts God had given her. Mother Teresa’s parents named her Agnes—or Gonxha in her own language. One of four children born to an Albanian chemist and his wife, Agnes had a comfortable childhood. However, when she was about eight years old, her father died suddenly, which left the family in financial straits.  At the age of twelve, Agnes felt called to religious life to help the sick and the poor, and by the age of fifteen, she had focuse...

Origin Entertainment will release a biographical film on Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-97) in 2015, according to a recent Hollywood Reporter article . The producer of the film, entitled I Thirst, is the former executive producer of the television series 24; the scriptwriter co-wrote the script for the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda. The film’s producer, Tony Krantz , said that he would work in “lockstep with the Missionaries of Charity,” the religious institute Mother Teresa founded. “They should not just be a part of it but also be one of the authors,” he said. Source

The fundamentalists attacked the religious, accusing them of the "kidnapping and forced conversion" of four children between one and two years old. Although their identification documents were in order, the children were taken away from the sisters and put in a government hospital. Tough condemnation by the Indian Church. New Delhi (AsiaNews) - The Missionaries of Charity are again in the crosshairs of the fundamentalists: yesterday, September 5 - the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta - four sisters of Mother Teresa were attacked by about 20 Bajrang Dal activists at the Durgh train station in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India. The Hindu radicals forced them off the train, and then handed them over to police officers while chanting anti-Christian slogans. MORE Let us pray for an end to the violence and for the safety of all our religious. H/T: Lisa

Sr. Nimala Joshi, head of the Missionaries of Charity, is skillfully interviewed here by Father Thomas Rosica on Salt and Light's TV program Witness . I think you'll like this.