Greeting Mick and others, Just 'lurched' (others surf I lurch) across this site.

Much has been written on Mother Teresa's crisis of faith. But since actions speak louder than words, her sainthood is a given in my book. What is faith other than stepping out in the dark.

"how does one become a saint?"

Mother Teresa's reply (and I paraphrase), You become a saint by doing what is in front of you to do.

Cheers

Hi Mick. Hi all. I have been such an admirer of Mother Teresa over the years, not so much for her persona that is pasted everywhere, but for the mystery of who she was. People who have shared with me their experience of her have often said how strong and forceful she was, in spite of the seemingly frail, tiny image we all saw.

My admiration for Mother Teresa has increased tenfold in learning of her questions, doubts, and "dark nights of the soul". She walked into the great Abyss, knowing that she had something to do in life, and had the courage to follow it, realizing in time that there was no reward from a Silent God, no guidance from the Invisible Christ. Oh, that we could all be so brave as to follow the hard path of giving fully of ourselves to humanity, or to any worthy cause however small, knowing that the reward was the inner calling itself.

I do suspect the thing that keeps any of us going in 'dark times' is Love. And, if we use 'Love' as a synonym for 'God' it all makes sense.

Many years ago I read a short article about a house fire leaving a family with nothing. The pastor called all the church members together to pray for unfortunate family. As they asked for God's help, a horse drawn wagon, noisily, pulled up to the church, disturbing the congregation.

Rushing to the door the pastor saw the wagon with a young boy perched atop a pile of household goods.

Jumping down from his perch, he started unloading the items, with the comment, "Pa is sorry he couldn't make the prayer service, so he sent his prayers."

You gotta love it!

appreciate the comments of all, and thank the moderator for creating the opportunity for dialogue.

~

I've always appreciated Mother Teresa, and even MORE after reading about her "dark nights of the soul".

Show me a man (or woman) who lives a life of faith where they feel continually connected to the divine and has no doubts about what they believe....

And if you show me such, i will suggest that is not what it appears. And if i am wrong, then i think at least we would agree - this would be no life of faith.

Mother Teresa, lived a life of Faith.

From dictionary.com:

faith –noun

1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.

2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.

I was brought up Catholic, was an altar boy and convinced that I would be a priest someday. Then at about 12 or so the good questions started to come to me. About the hundredth time or so when the response was always "You just gotta have _faith_ son" I realized that the adults were just making it all up and they had no clue either.

As a practicing Buddhist (who still believes a great deal of what the church teaches, but not blindly all) I no longer have faith. I prefer to believe that which has been reasonably proved to my satisfaction and I am open to it being disproved.

There is 'faith' and 'blind faith'. That appears to be where we have problems with religion (I was a 4th generation Lutheran). Like the Catholic Church, when I questioned my pastor about matters of faith, his reply was, "because I said so".

Didn't work for me, so I struck out on my own, reading everything 'spiritual' that I could get my hands on. I was determined to find some path that would make sense to me. A faith that would go with me into the week after Sunday Services.

And, I found it. Not in any 'ism' but in all the great religions. I took the truth, (cherry picked) and then filtered it through my life experiences (not the pastors) and came up with a faith that worked for me. As it worked for me,it became factual in my daily life.

Hi Indy,

I like your reply very much. Could you give us a few examples of which truths you 'cherry picked' and then a few example of how they have become factual in your daily life?

Mick.