Spero News Religion editor Martin Barillas conducted an exclusive interview with US Catholic Relief Services director for overseas operations, Sean Callahan. The publication of Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, compiled by the postulator for her sainthood – Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, has sparked widespread comment and even criticism of the Albanian-born nun who inspired millions with her charitable work that started in the slums of Calcutta and was spread to countries around the world. In the book, a compendium of letters, Blessed Mother Teresa expresses deep longing for God while struggling with the feeling of the absence of God that has been compared to “dark night of the soul” testified in the writings of
Here, Sean Callahan recounts something of his personal acquaintance with Mother Teresa and her work with the Missionaries of Charity – the order that she started to respond to the mandate to Christians to feed the poor and clothe the naked.
Given that Mother Teresa reveals a kind of spiritual darkness in the forthcoming book based on her letters to her spiritual directors, can you provide any insight into her spiritual life? Did you have any inkling as to her abandonment by God?
As someone who worked alongside Mother Teresa as Country Representative for Catholic Relief Services in India during the mid-90’s, I can tell you Mother’s faith was visible everyday in the service she provided to those in need.
I remember a day when I was assisting at the Center for the Dying, one of more than a dozen houses run by the Missionaries of Charity in greater
Mother was there at the time visiting the center. She came over to me and asked, ‘How are things going?’ I said, ‘Well not too well today, actually. I just lost this gentleman right here.’ And she replied, ‘No you were lucky. You were with him when he went to God. You were with him at a time in his life when he was suffering. You were there and helped him go to God.’
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