Mother Teresa Quotations | Page 3

Unless a life is lived for others, it is not worthwhile.

If I ever become a Saint - I will surely be one of "darkness." I will continually be absent from heaven - to light the light of those in darkness on earth.

Every day I see Jesus Christ in all his distressing disguises.

One day there springs up the desire for money and for all that money can provide - the superfluous, luxury in eating, luxury in dressing, trifles. Needs increase because one thing calls for another. The result is uncontrollable disatisfaction. If you have to go shopping, pick up the simplest things. We have to be happy with our poverty. Let us not be driven by our small egotism.

Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness.

So many signatures for such a small heart.

We cannot separate our lives from the Eucharist; the moment we do, something breaks. People ask, 'Where do the sisters get the joy and the energy to do what they are doing?' The Eucharist involves more than just receiving; it also involves satisfying the hunger of Christ. He says, 'Come to Me.' He is hungry for souls.

Make sure that you let God's grace work in your souls by accepting whatever He gives you, and giving Him whatever He takes from you. True holiness consists in doing God's work with a smile.

What you are doing I cannot do, what I'm doing you cannot do, but together we are doing something beautiful for God, and this is the greatness of God's love for us-To give us the opportunity to become holy through the works of love that we do because holiness is not the luxury of the few.

If your Eyes are Positive, You will Love the World. But if Your Tongue is Positive, The World will Love you.

Suffering is nothing by itself. But suffering shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift, the most beautiful gift, a token of love.

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or cancer or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling or being unwanted, uncared for, deserted by everybody. The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity, the terrible indifference towards one's neighbor who lives at the roadside, the victim of exploitation, corruption, poverty, and disease.

Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. What you see reflects your thinking. And your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see. If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

It is not enough for us to say: "I love God," but I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live?

If faith is lacking, it is because there is too much selfishness, too much concern for personal gain. For faith to be true, it has to be generous and loving. Love and faith go together, they complete each other.

There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.

Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.

Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength.

The child is the beauty of God present in the world, that greatest gift to a family

Life is beauty admire it!

The less we have, the more we give. Seems absurd, but it's the logic of love.

Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. It is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.

The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty—it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.

The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.

I see God in every human being

Holiness grows so fast where there is kindness. The world is lost for want of sweetness and kindness. Do not forget we need each other.

Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves - on God's grace and on our will to be holy.

How much love did you put into what you did?

If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.

The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action.

Silence gives us a new way of looking at something.

Be humble and you will never be disturbed. It is very difficult in practice because we all want to see the result of our work. Leave it to Jesus.

We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved.

We need prayer to understand God's love for us. If we really mean to pray and want to pray we must be ready to do it now. These are only the first steps towards prayer but if we never make the first step with determination, we will not reach the last one: the presence of God

We must remember that life begins at home and we must also remember that the future of humanity passes through the family

Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come; we must live each day as if it were our last so that when God calls us we already, and prepared, to die with a clean heart.

In reality, there is only one true prayer, only one substantial prayer: Christ himself. There is only one voice which rises above the face of the earth, the voice of Christ. Prayer is oneness with Christ.

God is everywhere and in everything and without Him we cannot exist.

There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience.

The other day I dreamed that I was at the gates of heaven. And St. Peter said, 'Go back to Earth, there are no slums up here.'

Our vocation, to be beautiful, must be full of thought for others.

In the end, dear friend, it is always between us and God, not between us and them.

Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best.

You know my God. My God is called love

As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves but does not speak … I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have free hand.

There is so much love in us all, but often we are too shy to express our love, and keep it bottled up inside us. We must learn to love, to love until it hurts, and we will know how to accept love.

In the final analysis it is between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway.

Let us not love by words alone, but let us love until it hurts.

To be alone with Jesus in adoration and intimate union with Him is the Greatest Gift of Love - the tender love of Our Father in Heaven.

I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Ask yourself “How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?” Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery.

God made the world for the delight of human beings-- if we could see His goodness everywhere, His concern for us, His awareness of our needs: the phone call we've waited for, the ride we are offered, the letter in the mail, just the little things He does for us throughout the day. As we remember and notice His love for us, we just begin to fall in love with Him because He is so busy with us -- you just can't resist Him. I believe there's no such thing as luck in life, it's God's love, it's His.

I believe in person to person. Every person is Christ to me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment.

How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.

Jesus has made Himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, He is there. If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that Adoration.

I choose the poverty of our poor people. But I am grateful to receive it (the Nobel) in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the lepers, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.

I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?

There are no great acts, only small acts done with great love

In ... silence we find a new energy and a real unity. God's energy becomes our, allowing us to perform things well.

Work without love is slavery.

Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.

Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.

The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion, which is war against the child. The mother doesn't learn to love, but kills to solve her own problems. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.

People ask me what advice I have for a married couple struggling in their relationship. I always answer: pray and forgive. And to young people from violent homes, I say: pray and forgive. And again, even to the single mother with no family support: pray and forgive.

I am nothing; I am but an instrument, a tiny pencil in the hands of the Lord with which He writes what he likes. However imperfect we are, he writes beautifully.

There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness, and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much.

Holiness is not the luxury of a few people, but a simple duty for you and me.

Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God

There is no great difference in the reality of one country or another, because it is always people you meet everywhere. They may look different or be dressed differently, or may have a different education or position. But they are all the same. They are all people to be loved. They are all hungry for love.

Perfect prayer does not consist in many words, but in the fervor of the desire which raises the heart to Jesus.

I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.

Holy Angels, our advocates, our brothers, our counselors, our defenders, our enlighteners, our friends, our guides, our helpers, our intercessors - Pray for us.

If you think well of others, you will also speak well of others and to others. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If your heart is full of love, you will speak of love.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

God does not demand that I be succesful. God demands that I be faithful. When facing God, results are not important. Faithfulness is what is important.

Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.

Bring love into your home, for this is where our love for each other must start

Souls of prayer are souls of great silence

Saints are only sinners who keep trying.

It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.

Life is a promise; fulfill it.

you [priests] are called 'another Christ.'

We have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are.

Abortion is murder in the womb...A child is a gift of God. If you do not want him, give him to me.

Prayer is as necessary as the air, as the blood in our bodies, as anything to keep us alive-to keep us alive to the grace of God.

The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.

On the British Royal Divorce (Charles and Dianna). She is such a sad soul. It is good that it is over. Nobody was happy anyhow. I know I should preach family love and unity, but in their case. . . .

We are not social workers. We are contemplatives in the heart of the world.

We don't need bombs and guns to destroy, to bring peace - just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence of each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world.

I don't think there is anyone who needs God's help as much as I do. Sometimes I feel so helpless and weak. I think that is why God uses me. Because I cannot depend on my own strength, I rely on Him twenty-four hours a day.

These are the few ways we can practice humility: To speak as little as possible of one's self. To mind one's own business. Not to want to manage other people's affairs. To avoid curiosity. To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully. To pass over the mistakes of others. To accept insults and injuries. To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked. To be kind and gentle even under provocation. Never to stand on one's dignity. To choose always the hardest.

All works of love are works of peace.

The first step to becoming is to will it.

Life is a challenge, we must take it.

We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God, together as a community as well as personally; to be alone with Him — not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything — to dwell lovingly in His presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless. We cannot find God in noise or agitation.

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

If our bones were not sending whispers of doubt to our hearts, there would be no need for prayer at all.

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

Everything starts with prayer. Love to pray-feel the need to pray often during the day and take the trouble to pray. If you want to pray better, you must pray more. The more you pray, the easier it becomes. Perfect prayer does not consist of many words but in the fervor of the desire which raises the heart to Jesus.

We are called upon not to be successful, but to be faithful,

What we sometimes consider a stumbling block is rather a rock we can step on.