A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
28 years ago today St. Teresa of Calcutta received honorary citizenship of the United States. It was only the fourth time this honor was bestowed upon a foreigner since the beginning of the United States. By the end of her life, she was one of the most famous women in the world, followed by paparazzi wherever she traveled. Despite her fame, St. Teresa had a deeply hidden interior life that no one, apart from a few discreet spiritual directors, was aware of until the publication of the book Come Be My Light. Today, the author of that book, Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, spoke on these revelations in a lecture at the North American College. The event, entitled "Revealing the Depths and Intensity of Mother Teresa's Interior Life," began with a lecture by Dr. Leonora Tanushaj-O'Connell (pictured above). She traced St. Teresa's spiritual journey in the outline on the screen in the photo. What's most surprising about this journey of a saint is the last stage-- the 49 years of spiritual darkness, the length of my entire life thus far. These years caused her terrible psychological torment until at last she embraced the suffering as redemptive, saying, "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.”
Liturgical: Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Will he be slow to answer them?
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: Saint Margaret of Scotland, +1093
Human: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical, The Sound of Music, premiered– 1959; Mother Teresa received honorary U.S. citizenship– 1996
Natural: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is established– 1945; Meteor fireball turned night into day in Finland– 2017
Italian: 8 Italian Sounds English Speakers Struggle to Pronounce Correctly
Quote: “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller
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