The Order of the White Moon Goddess Gallery
Presents
Saint Teresa of Calcutta
A Level III Final Project for The Sacred Three Goddess School
by Priestess Sage Moonmaiden
(©2020. All original material in this work is under copyright protection and is the intellectual property of the author.)
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WHY I CHOSE MOTHER TERESA
I read the project
description to choose a goddess or a person that represents the goddess to do
my final project on. I instantly knew I would choose
Mother Teresa. I grew up in a pagan family of Hungarian Gypsy women. When I was
four years old, I fell in love with Mother Teresa and felt strongly that I wanted
to be her. I would run around with jeans on my head saying I wanted to be
married to our goddess and serve the people with love and kindness the way she
had. When I was in elementary school, I would always choose her as my idol for
papers and projects, so naturally here I am again honored to write about this
woman, as she is the reason, I chose this path.
No, she is not of my faith
and no she is not by faith matriarchal, however I find that the path she chose
in her own right embodied the mother.
“Yesterday is gone.
Tomorrow has yet com. We have Only today. Let us begin.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojahiu in Skopje,
Macedonia, now in the Republic of North Macedonia. She was baptized August 27th,
1910 and claims this as her birthday. She was born the youngest of three
children to Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu. Her father
died when she was just eight years old, leaving her mother to raise the three
children. At the age of eighteen, she
chose the life of a missionary and left home to join the institute of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in Ireland also known as the Sisters of Lerato. She would
be known there as Sister Mary Teresa. After four months there she left to move
to India and made her first Profession of Vows in Calcutta in May of 1931 and
was assigned to teach at the St. Mary’s School for girls. She later went on to
become the school’s principal in 1944. She spent 20 years at Lerato and was
there noted for her hard work, unselfishness, courage
and natural talent for organization.
On
September 10th of 1946 on her way to Darjeeling for annual retreat,
Mother Teresa experienced what she called her “call within a call”. She said
that she experienced a divine intervention to devote herself to the sickest and
the poorest of people. After Her calling she moved to the slums after lobbying
for a year and a half to her convent to pursue her calling. She went on to learn
basic medicine and wandered out into the streets of Calcutta’s slums. It was
that August she first put on the blue and white sari she would wear the rest of
her life.
She convinced the government to donate to her cause, and
they donated a decapitated building which she used as a home for the dying. She
began open-air schools and In October 1950, she received recognition for a new
congregation, which was mostly made up of former teacher and students from St
Mary’s School.
Donations poured in from around India as she gained
more and more recognition for her efforts, which allowed her to expand. Over
the next ten years she would go onto establish a leper colony, and orphanage, a
nursing home, a family clinic, and mobile health clinics. Her first trip to the
United states was in 1971 when she came to New York City to open her first
American house of charity. In 1982 she traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, where she
would secretly cross between Christian and Muslim Beirut to aid children of
both areas. Three years later she would travel back to the USA and opened Gift
of Love, a home for those infected with HIV and Aids. AT the time of her death
she had over 4,000 missionaries and thousands of more volunteers all around the
world. She died September 5th,1997. September 5th is
honored as her feast day.
Her
Achievements and Honors
1971-Pope Paul VI gave her the inaugural
Pope John XXIII Peace Prize
1973-Templeton Prize
1976-received Pacem
in Terris Award
1979- received Nobel Peace Prize
1982-appointed honorary Companion of the
Order of Australia
1983-United Kingdom and United States gave
her many awards which lead to the Order of Merit
1994- Albania gave her the Golden Honour of the Nation
1996- honorary citizenship of the United
States
2003-beatified
2016-Sainted
There is much controversy surrounding the good deeds
Mother Teresa has done and her beliefs about women and especially women’s
rights. She spoke against things such as abortion and was very committed to
patriarchal ways. While this does go against my own beliefs, these do not deter
me from my admiration to this woman. She was as equally devoted to her higher
power as I am to mine, and her need to help those in need was very inspiring to
the world. She was said to not have always felt her god and that she feared he
may have left her for some time. Nonetheless she continued the work of
selflessness, compassion and unconditional love the
only way she knew how, and the world took notice.
“If we judge people, we have no time
to love them”- Mother Teresa
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About
Her Sari
Mother
Teresa chose a simple sari and opted out of her traditional Habit to show the
poor that she was simple and like them. It also was more practical considering
the Calcutta climate. The sari is white cotton with three blue bands. These
blue bands represent the three vows taken by her missionaries. Initially the
nuns would each get about three saris, but as their work became more intense
the need for more saris became greater. The eventually bought their own loom
and started making them since buying the saris in bulk proved to be difficult.
The novices of the missionary wear an all whit sari without the three bands.
After four years of formation, and after they have taken their vows, they
receive their white and blue sari.
Each
blue band represents a vow taken by the nuns during their four years of
formation. The first band represents Poverty, the second band Obedience and the
third Chastity and Wholehearted service to the poorest of the poor.
Prayer
Ritual
Colors –
White and Blue
3 Blue
candles and one white
Sage to
cleanse and purify the space and mind
Rose
quartz to honor love and an open heart
Wear
white to symbolize purity and humility
Moon
water to cleanse the body
Set up
the altar and cleanse the area with the sage. Use the moon water and cleanse
the rose quartz.
Call the
quarter and the elements to protect you and keep out anything unwanted. Honor
Mother Teresa with the symbol of the cross either physically or drawn in the
air.
Light
the candles and hold the rose quartz.
Call
Saint Teresa of Calcutta and pray to her for strength to heal others, for the
ability to stay humble and to release ego and for her healing love to help us
overcome our own illnesses.
Pray to
the goddess
Mother
thank you for creating a human representation of unconditional love and compassion.
We hope to honor you with the same will and drive to heal others and ourselves.
Release all that does not serve this intention and release our own ego so that
we may be open to all that may need our help. Let this be so.
Give
thanks to the goddess, Saint Teresa, elements and the
quarters. Close the circle.
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References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mother-Teresa
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/838305.Mother_Teresa