Inspiration for leaders

"We are called to be faithful"

(Excerpt from Mother Teresa's Lessons of Love and Secrets of Sanctity by Susan Conroy)

Some people who visit the Home for the Dying naturally are upset about the way this place is run, the quality of medical attention, and the overall conditions. I was not at issue with the goings-on, because I was more attuned to the spiritual side of what was happening there — the love, the peace, the joy, the tenderness with which the patients were cared for — more than the medical side, which was not the least bit “high tech,” but neither was it meant to be. As Mother Teresa has said in the past, “God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful.” To me, it was a beautiful place, a place where people died in peace with God after being loved and cared for like angels. “I don't want the work to become a business, but to remain a work of love,” Mother Teresa said. And that is what her work was and continues to be.

Mother Teresa was once asked: “Why do you give them fish to eat? Why don't you give them a rod to catch the fish?” She responded: “But my people can't even stand. They're sick, crippled, demented. When I have given them fish to eat and they can stand, I'll turn them over and you give them the rod to catch the fish!” She felt that we each have a role to play in serving those in need. She understood that there are many different levels of service, each of them important. Mother Teresa personally was called to serve at the level where people could not even help themselves; she was called to do work that was essential, and to do work that most of us would never care to do.