BOOK REVIEWS

Pray Always

by Joseph McCleary

A Life For God

The Mother Teresa Reader

compiled by LaVonne Neff

Charis/Servant Publications, 262 pp.

Blessed Are You

Mother Teresa and the Beatitudes

prepared by Eileen Egan & Kathleen Egan, O.S.B.

Servant Publications, 143 pp.

Breakfast with the Pope

Daily Readings from Pope John Paul II

selected by the editors of Servant Publications

Charis/Servant Publications

One day in Calcutta Mother Teresa borrowed a wheelbarrow to trundle a suffering ragged man to the hospital. When she arrived at the door she was refused entrance but she persisted and was finally allowed to have her patient admitted. It is an incident that characterizes her life: a reliance on others for the material help necessary as well as the unswerving single mindedness that she shows in doing God's work. When asked about her reasons for attending to the dying she has a favorite gesture, pointing to each of the fingers of her left hand in turn, she says the five words of the Gospel: "You did it to me."

Two books published by Servant Publications in Ann Arbor, Michigan bring to light Mother Teresa's attitude toward the people she serves and the God she is in love with. A Life For God: The Mother Teresa Reader and Blessed Are You: Mother Teresa and the Beatitudes are compilations of the prayers and thoughts of the leader of the Missionaries of Charity. The first book is divided into four parts: the first part gives biographical details of Mother Teresa; the last three explore what is made evident in the first part: this religious puts prayer ahead of everything else in her life. In part two the reader learns about the prayers of St. Francis and Cardinal Newman, prayers that are particularly important to Mother Teresa because they help her to speak with God. In part three there is an exploration of some prayers of the Mass that begins the day of every Missionary of Charity. The final part contains Mother Teresa's words about the daily work her sisters carry out as a way of prayer.

Most of the book is organized in the form of short paragraphs so that the reader can turn to one of the four headings and find Mother Teresa's thoughts and experiences that coincide with a particular topic. But it is wrong to say that the book follows several topics; it is really only about prayer expressed in different forms: the prayer of the Mass, the vocal prayers of the saints, the active prayer that is the everyday work of the missionaries, and the one long prayer that is the life of Mother Teresa. This last form of prayer, the personal life of one soul, is something that Mother Teresa touches on often and seems to hold especially important. "We cannot learn humility from books," she says. Although she has allowed her thoughts to be transcribed it is clear that she does so in the hope that they will help others to fall more in love with Christ and serve others for the sake of Christ.

Blessed Are You: Mother Teresa and the Beatitudes is a pocket-sized collection of Mother Teresa's thoughts, organized around Christ's eight Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. Each of the eight chapters begins with a short paraphrasing of the beatitude being meditated on and is followed by the particular way that the Missionaries of Charity try to live this counsel in their work with the poor. These examples taken from the lives of the missionaries are the result of many years of collaboration between the editors, Kathleen and Eileen Egan, and Mother Teresa. Both women are Americans who have helped the work of the Missionaries of Charity to spread in this country and abroad.

A common feature of each of the book's eight sections is an emphasis on bringing the teachings of Christ into direct contact with the humanity of those who serve as well as the poor who are being served. "It is hard for human beings to love God whom they cannot see," says Mother Teresa. And she points to the Eucharist as God's answer to humanity's need. She follows the incarnational logic of her God in the most humble details of her daily life. Under the chapter entitled "Blessed Are the Meek" we learn about her first encounter with the poor children of Calcutta. Having obtained permission from her superiors she went out and borrowed a chair, gathering some near-naked children around her. Drawing with a stick on the ground she began to teach them the alphabet, and later they learned to read. It is an example that illustrates a phrase she likes to use: she started "right on the ground." It is a phrase that she has made a part of her instructions to her sisters; they are to "remain right on the ground" because that is where the poor are whom they serve.

The other beatitudes are expressed in thoughts that continue this intensely practical humility. Blessed are the poor in spirit: poverty leaves us "free to give." Blessed are the peacemakers: peace comes from service and "love is service." Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: "Those who believe in changing structures may follow their consciences. Our work is with the individual person..." Everywhere words are translated into deeds of the most ordinary kind. Mother Teresa seems bent on practicing charity so that her prayer will be uninterrupted and she understands the beatitudes as practical advice on how to do it.

The prayer that Mother Teresa lives is also preached by the Pope but in a different way. While the Missionaries of Charity serve Christ in poverty, Pope John Paul II is busy with the administration and governance of the Church that includes not only the poor but the wealthy and the middle class as well. Breakfast With the Pope is a short book of excerpts from the pope's speeches and writings on many topics. There are one hundred and twenty short paragraphs with headings such as "Work and Rest," "Trials Strengthen a Marriage," and "The Limits of Democracy." The book's dust jacket advertises these brief portions of the Pope's thought as suitable to be taken in with the morning coffee, presumably to provide material for thought during the day. If the book is used with this purpose in mind it could surely help to lift the mind and heart to God and so begin the loving conversation that is at the root of the life of both Mother Teresa and the Pope.

Joseph McCleary teaches at The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland.