The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta - Come Be My Light

Honest and revealing: shows that while some humans rise above the rest, they are nevertheless human. Mother Teresa had insight and fervour, and it is no surprise that she is seen as a modern day mystic.

The editing of Mother Teresa's letters allows us to see her spiritual development, immense courage, and call within a call. Most reviews have been superficial. They take no notice of the theology of suffering from a Christian point of view.The inner desolation that Mother Teresa suffered is that of the poor and abandoned of this world. Her inner suffering should make us pay more attention to human suffering all around us. That's the point !

I was inspired, not scandalized, that Mother Teresa underwent a protracted dark night of the soul. The book may not have the impact it now has on those who knew her media image in another decade or so; one reason the book surprised me so much was that it presented a hidden and totally different portrait from her public persona.

This is a story of authentic conversion; Mother Theresa like most saints, lived "one foot in Heaven,and one foot in Hell. She discovered early on that suffering was not to be avoided; suffering was an opportunity to earn grace which could be gratuitously given also to another person, to worship God.
She was truly in love with God, in contradistinction with some of us who love ourselves only. Grace is love itself.. She lived with a darkness which was really a kind of deep pain. Ironically, to live in darkness was in her case an inability to perceive God , since God is so far above . This idea was,first I think, first discussed by John of the Cross, who theorized that God in this instance, is an entity that that simply could not be be understood by the human mind, and hence one who tried to spiritually approach God was left in a painful state. of darkness.
So inarticulate, stupid people like me are best off reading this book.over and over; Better experienced than studied, perhaps.

Very interesting book. Knowing she struggled, despite being one of the most revered women of her generation, is enlightening. Her talking about not "feeling" God's presence for extended periods despite doing his "work" is eye opening and challenging.

I read this book when it was first published years ago and I have mentioned it to countless patients, medical colleagues, mental health practitioners, family, friends, Catholic parishioners and everyday people fighting their own personal demons. Blessed Mother Teresa is an example that most people don't need prozac, lexapro, celexa and other anti-depressants (though some might for a short term). Struggling interiorly, loneliness, depression and sense of abandonment are part of life. Read this book slowly and marvel at how a woman of little means was able to rock the world on its axis in spite of the fact she was just like you and me.

The story of Mother Teresa is incredible. Her faith and obedience to her principles is like something I have never witnessed before and is an example to us all. The book became very difficult for me to read however, first as she was trying to get her mission started and then as her darkness set in and every page became a repeat of the page before. She wrote letter after letter expressing her struggles with her darkness and it became repetitive, tedious and boring and this after reading page after page of the same thing regarding her struggle to get her mission to "the poorest of the poor" started. I think it could have been shortened by 50-75 pages and still have gotten the same message across. Perhaps my expectations of the book were incorrect but I was very disappointed in how the author decided to present her story.

Clearly shows that St. Teresa of Calcuta, though she willingly suffered along with Christ for many years, continued giving herself to the poorest of the poor, for the sake of Christ, in total obediance to her vow.

The writings of Mother Teresa reveal the determination of a devout Christian who pursued her dream of helping destitute people regardless of the obstacles that beset her and the time that it took for her to achieve her dream. She was a remarkable woman whose example can inspire us to save a fractured church today--and live out our responsibilities as Christians.

I need to order myself another one. I have forgotten to whom I loaned my copy to & I miss not being able to read it again. Her live is so touching. She was just an other human being that live a remarkable live. I have talked to others many times about her live, it so impressed me.

this book is so compelling- i had heard about the darkness that Mother Teresa experienced throughout most of her life- and this book in her own words really helps me because we all experience spiritual darkness at times. it's amazing to me that i have lived in a world with an actual saint.

I actually think this book should not of been sold to the public .After reading that she wanted the letters burned I feel bad for buying .I also feel like her spiritual directors should have insisted Mother have time away more retreats from such emotional heartbreaking work. She is a true saint her love is so strong . Just conflicted as to the right to read this had to stop reading.

Father Brian Kolodiejchuk has given the world a wonderful gift, of which I am convinced Mother Teresa approves from heaven, in this heart-rending book. Regarding her inspiration for the MC, she said that it was difficult to explain. She knew it, she understood it, but she couldn't explain it. That's the way I feel about the impact of this book for me at this stage in my life.
Once when asked how she handled all the praise and adulation she received, she replied, ". . . Jesus has given me a very great grace and that is: the deepest conviction of my total nothingness."
If Jesus gives you the grace to receive the message in this book, you will be blessed, as I am.

It is a pleasure to read the simplicity of Mother Teresa's language expressing in a remarkable way the depths of a soul face to face to an unseen God, her deepest love,notwithstanding the fact of being totally unseen. Very touching and a Light to the reader. I strongly recommend it to souls looking for Light.

This books really helped me to understand what the Bible means when it talks about suffering. I love how you can see where Mother Teresa's suffering was the same as Christ's when he was on the cross and said, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

While most people are accustomed to speak of Mother Teresa in a glowing sense, as a very holy woman, a woman of great faith, someone of outstanding virtue, this book is a revealing look at her inner world. The Spiritual Life of Mother Teresa was not filled with the ecstasy that we hear with many other saints. No, hers was a Spiritual Life that over-abounded in desolation. The sense of God's presence in her life all but vanished for most of the time that the world knew of her as Mother Teresa. Since we are created as individuals, God does not treat us all the same. As disciples of Jesus, he knows how to treat us as individuals, meaning so as to bring about in us the most good and also to give the Father the most glory. How this works itself out in individual lives can produce remarkable differences in persons. Lest we think that some get "off the hook" we must remember: for all of us there lies before us the decree of Jesus who summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" (Mk 8:34). Saint Paul declares that in become his followers, from baptism on, "we have died" (see Rom 6:3-8)! If this is reality, then our growth in the Spiritual Life must be such that we must become what we are. We must become dead.

Archbishop Fénelon, in his book Let Go, tells us that all that really needs to die is "the living." In reality, we look for all sorts of solutions, which are not solutions at all. They only prolong the agony. Likewise, he says, "You asked for a remedy, that your problems might be cured. You do not need to be cured. You need to be slain. Quit looking for a remedy and let death come. This is the only way to deal with self." The author of the book The Cost of Discipleship expresses this well. To open it and read the Forward is enough to scare anyone. It begins, "'WHEN CHRIST calls a man,'" says Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "'he bids him come and die.' There are different kinds of dying, it is true; but the essence of discipleship is contained in those words."

And so we see in the life of Mother Teresa the shadow of the Cross. Following Christ brought the gospel to life for her. As Bonhoeffer said, "When a man really gives up trying to make something out of himself--a saint, or a converted sinner, ...a righteous or unrighteous man... when in the fullness of tasks, questions, success or ill-hap, experiences and perplexities, a man throws himself into the arms of God... then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith...."

We see here that Mother Teresa paid the price for responding to the call of Jesus. She's happy now, though! More than we can imagine!