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A Note From Father Jack

One day Mother Teresa was tending to the poorest of the poor on the streets of Calcutta. Mother happened across a man lying in the gutter, very near death. He was filthy, dressed in little more than a rag and flies swarmed around his body. Immediately Mother Teresa embraced him, spoke to him softly and began to treat his festered flesh. A passer-by was repulsed by the sight of the man and explained to Mother Teresa, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” Mother’s response was immediate, “Neither would I.”

Obviously, monetary gain did not motivate the diminutive nun known as the “Giant of Calcutta”. Love did! She reminds all of us that Jesus said: “Love one another”.

We must grow in love, and to do this we must go on loving and loving and giving and giving until it hurts – the way Jesus did. Speaking in New York City during her last visit to the United States Mother Teresa said: “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love; little things like caring for the sick and homeless, the lonely and the unwanted.”

We are not asked to leave home and family and we are not asked to wash the poor of the teaming streets of Calcutta, but we are asked to assist in whatever way possible those who have been called to minister to the poor and the deprived. Your contributions to the Basilian Fathers Missions will support our clinic in Colombia staffed by Mother Teresa’s Sisters or provide food and medical attention to countless children in Mexico.

God will surely bless you and your family for sharing your love and material gifts with “the least of my brothers and sisters.” You are in our daily prayers.