Mother Saint Teresa - Finding Calcutta : what Mother Teresa taught me about meaningful work and service

"Mary Poplin takes us on a pilgrimage toward clarity about who we are and what our life amounts to. The pilgrimage is simultaneously through Calcutta and through the heart of the `sophisticated' dynamics of university life in America. As it proceeds we gain a better understanding of the social forces that govern the university in the name of intellect-but falsely so. It will be of special help to those engaged in academic life, at whatever level. They will find here a guide who has been grasped by God and enabled to see that life and the surrounding cultural world for what they really are, and what under God they could be."

Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy, University of Southern California, and author of The Divine Conspiracy and Hearing God

"Having been the spiritual director of the Missionaries of Charity in Asia for many years, I read Mary Poplin's book with keen interest and fond memories of these remarkable women. Finding Calcutta is a love story between God and two women, Mother Teresa and the author. In describing her encounter and the lessons learned with `God's pencil,' Mary Poplin has penned `something beautiful for God: This book not only captures the spirituality of Mother Teresa and her sisters but also reminds us of an important principle in spiritual formation that God taught its author: our own Calcutta is most often right smack where we are."

Albert Haase, O.F.M., director, School of Spirituality at Mayslake Ministries, and author of Coming Home to Your True Self. Leaving the Emptiness of False Attractions

"If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a worldly California academic curious enough to volunteer in Mother Teresa's Calcutta Mission, prepare to be surprised. After struggling to translate her experience there for a secular audience, Dr. Poplin has ended by translating her readers into Mother Teresa's own unfamiliar, spiritual dimension. Watch out-you will not be able to keep from meditating."

C. John Sommerville, author of The Decline of the Secular University

"In this poignant, elegant, humble memoir, Poplin gives us far more than Mother Teresa or even another Mother Teresa story. She gives us instead the Jesus and the Christianity that operated through Mother Teresa. Poplin's experience of finding Calcutta irrevocably changed her soul. It will change yours as well."

Phyllis Tickle, former religion editor, Publishers Weekly, and compiler of The Divine Hours

"Mary Poplin seeks to integrate her experience with Mother Teresa into her work and life and to come together with others who hunger and thirst. This book can be a platform to gather those of us so disposed so that the flame is not lost and will continue to produce abundant fruit, fruits of eternal life."

Father Angelo Devananda Scolozzi, U.F.W., Centro de Espiritualidad Madre Teresa, Chihuahua, Mexico

"Mary Poplin found her first Calcutta in India as she volunteered in Mother Teresa's ministry to the poorest of the poor. She found her second Calcutta in her own university as she returned to recognize that the poorest of the poor are not always those with no material wealth but those with no knowledge of God and nowhere to find it. The story of her transformed spiritual life segues beautifully into the story of her transformed academic life. An exciting book of great wisdom."

James W. Sire, author of The Universe Next Door and Habits of the Mind

"A profound journey of the heart, head and hands in which Mary Poplin discovers her own 'Calcutta'-the classroom with its students in whom seeds of life must be sown for the life of the world to come."

Kelly Monroe Kullberg, founder, The Veritas Forum, and author of Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas

"Mary Poplin's pilgrimage of discovering Christ among the most vulnerable of the world's poor is an accessible and inspiring invitation to us all. Her honesty, thoughtfulness and reflections are an important provocation for those who find their realities separated from our sisters and brothers who suffer today. Mary does an excellent job of building the bridges between the insulated and isolated lack of experience of poverty in academia and the oppression and injustice on the streets of one of the world's poorest cities. Her interactions and stories of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity are a true glimpse of grace and a sweet reminder that God is with and among those who suffer most. Honest, thoughtful and reflective, Finding Calcutta will challenge you to love more freely where you find yourself."

Christopher L. Heuertz, international director, Word Made Flesh, and author of Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World

"Mary Poplin's spiritually nurturing account of her experiences with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta is a loving portrait of a true work of God. In these pages readers encounter Mother Teresa's deep spiritual wisdom as a call to reflection, repentance and a renewed concern for `the poorest of the poor' as bearers of Christ's image. There is spiritual refreshment here for believer and doubter alike."

James A. Herrick, Guy Vander Jagt Professor of Communication, Hope College, and author of The Making of the New Spirituality and Scientific Mythologies

MARY POPLIN

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

PHILIPPIANS 4:8 KJV

In memory of Mother Teresa, whose life eternally renders glory to God.

In honor of the Missionaries of Charity, who follow every day in her footsteps, serving Christ in the "distressing disguise of the poor."

And In honor of my parents, George and Inez Poplin, for the extraordinary and countless number of "small things done with great love."

Contents

Introduction

Telling the Truth About Mother Teresa

IN THE SPRING OF 1996, I WENT TO CALCUTTA to work for about two months as a volunteer with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa was eighty-six years old; I was forty-four. It was about a year and a half before her death in September 1997. Two years prior, I was at a monastery in Pecos, New Mexico, when I saw an excellent film by Ann and Jeanette Petrie in which a group had followed and filmed Mother Teresa for five years.' Before this, I had not given the work of this small, curious-looking nun much thought, but the film touched me in a way I could not explain. The very force of her work and her life had an inexplicable effect on me.