[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 168 (Wednesday, November 19, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 IN HONOR OF MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 18, 2003

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, on October 19, 2003, Roman Catholics, 
humanitarians, and social justice advocates the world over celebrated 
the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta by Pope John Paul II in 
Rome. Beatification is one of the steps toward sainthood in the Roman 
Catholic Church.
  It is impossible to encapsulate the life and work of Mother Teresa 
into one entry. Many know the basics of her story: born in Albania in 
1910, she turned from a comfortable existence when she decided to 
become a Catholic nun in 1928. Assigned to a convent school in 
Calcutta, she taught geography and history. Feeling the need to serve 
God and her fellow human beings in another way, Mother Teresa founded a 
religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, in, 1948. The order was 
based on reaching out to the poor, the suffering, and the dying 
wherever they were: streets and alleys, shacks and hovels. From that 
first mission there are now more than 400. The work has expanded to 
hospices for AIDS patients so that these sufferers, along with the 
least among us, enjoy comfort and some measure of peace in their final 
days. Though 5,000 sisters are now members of the order, thousands more 
volunteer for periods of their lives in the Missionaries of Charity. So 
many of these are inspired by the diminutive foundress herself. ``My 
vocation is love'' she said. ``There is joy in transcending self to 
serve others.''
  Celebrated throughout the world for her works, honored with many 
awards including 1979's Nobel Peace prize, Mother Teresa is already 
considered a saint by many of those whose lives she touched. No one who 
met her, who shook her strong hands, who looked at the deeply wrinkled 
face, who spoke to the dark eyes which penetrated into one's soul, who 
listened to the deep and powerful voice, came away from the encounter 
the same person. Even people who saw her only casually were moved by 
her graceful strength and quiet dignity. I am reminded of a leader in 
our own country recalling a story of a time on an airplane when people 
saw her and took out their checkbooks. She never said a word, simply 
her presence called them to help. In more dramatic ways, meetings with 
Mother Teresa changed the course of people's lives. Still, she eschewed 
such trappings of notoriety, gaining her greatest sustenance from her 
love of God and her work to alleviate the suffering in the world. More 
than anyone else in our time, Mother Teresa lived Christ's admonition 
``Whatsoever you do to the least among you, that you do also to me.'' 
She ignored the accouterments of affluence by admonishing, ``God does 
not ask me to be successful, he only asks me to be faithful.''
  She wrestled within herself and struggled through daily hardships, 
yet she somehow transcended the difficulties and was cherished as a 
living embodiment of God's love for every human being. I close this 
recognition of Mother Teresa's beautification with her own summation of 
her life's work: ``My community is the poor. Their security is my own. 
Their heart is my own. My house is the house of the poor--not just the 
poor, but the poorest of the poor: those who are so dirty and full of 
germs that no one goes near them; those who do not go to pray because 
they are naked; those who do not eat because they do not have the 
strength; those who collapse on the sidewalks knowing they are about to 
die while the living walk by without even looking back; those who do 
not cry because they have no more tears left.''
  In one's own lifetime, rarely does a person observe a living saint. 
Mother Teresa will remain for all time such a living legend. May her 
selflessness inspire a world beleaguered by war, affluence, and ancient 
hatreds.

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