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Regaining Faith in God

Author: St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
"Love One Another!" 39/2017
Catholic Church

Mother Teresa was canonized on 4th September 2016 by Pope Francis. While in heaven she longs to light the flames of faith and love in the hearts of each person. Let us get to know her words of advice and guidance.

Holiness is not a luxury meant for the few, but is a common duty – your duty and mine. St. Thomas said: “Holiness is nothing more than an unwavering resolution,” a heroic act of the soul giving itself up to God. Our progress on the road to holiness depends on God and on ourselves, on the grace of God and our will to achieve holiness. We must carry in us the true and live determination to reach holiness. “I will be holy” means casting aside all that is not God.

Learn to believe and love

I have never, even for a moment, doubted the existence of God, but I know that this happens to some people. If you long to regain your faith in God, build a personal relationship with Him. Start by first helping others, showing them love, and this will bear fruit in the form of blessings that transform your soul. Then you will slowly open up to and experience the joy that God’s love gives. Love and faith go hand in hand, complementing each other. True faith always expresses itself in love.

Jesus takes the form of the starving, the naked, the homeless, the sick, the imprisoned, the lonely, the rejected, and says: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25,40). He longs for our love just as our poor long for it. This is a hunger which we should find. People lose faith because they let themselves be ruled by egoism, sin, and the pursuit of money.

If you desire to learn to believe and love, look to Jesus, give up to Him in daily prayer and, like a child, trust him completely. Only then will your doubts disappear and will you have peace in your heart. Jesus said: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18,3). But no one can force you to change. Even the Omnipotent God cannot change anyone against their will. It is only when we accept our nothingness, our emptiness, that God can fill us with Himself. Accept that which God is offering and repay Him with deep gratitude. If God gives you great wealth, try to use it well, share it with others, especially with those who have nothing. Always try to share what you have with others, because even the smallest bit of help can save them from despair. And remember to not acquire more than you need.

Food for the Soul

I always begin my prayer in silence because God speaks to a quiet heart. God is a friend of silence – we should listen to God, because it is not important what we say, but rather what He longs to say to us. Prayer is the food of the soul; what the blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul. It is due to prayer that our hearts become cleaner and nobler. A clean heart can see God, can speak to God, and recognize the love of God in others. To have a pure heart is to be open and earnest with God and not hide anything from Him. If you are looking for God and you do not know where to start, learn to pray and make the effort of praying everyday. Look for Him in silence, adore His presence in the Eucharist; then you will find Him in those that suffer, that need your help. You can pray always and everywhere.

If you are looking for God and you do not know where to start, learn to pray and make the effort of praying everyday

If we pray, we will receive the answer to all the questions troubling us. Without prayer I would not know how to work even for an hour. God gives me strength thanks to prayer.

Begin and end your day with prayer. Ask God as a child does. If it is hard for you to pray, you can say: “Come to me, O Holy Spirit. Guide me, enlighten my mind so I can pray.” While praying thank God for all His gifts, for each thing comes from Him, they are his gift for you. You can recite the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, the rosary, the Apostle’s Creed, and all of the known prayers. If you believe in God and the strength of prayer, you will overcome all feelings of doubt, fear and loneliness to which people are subject. Make the effort to pray daily. It opens the heart to God, and God gives Himself to us as a gift. Ask and seek for it, and your hearts will become so great that it will be able to accept God and keep Him for yourselves.

Love starts at home, which is why praying with the family is so important. If you pray together, you will stay together, you will love each other with the love that God loves each of you. Children need to be taught how to pray, and parents need to pray together with their children.

People turn to me for advice on how to help conflicted couples. I always say: “Let them pray and forgive each other.” It is the same with children from troubled families: “Pray and forgive each other.” To single mothers who do not have the support of their families I also say: “Pray and forgive each other.”

Go to Confession

On our road to complete happiness one thing is absolutely necessary: confession. Confession is an act of humility, a sacrament of love and forgiveness in which I let Jesus free me from all things that divide and destroy. We should go to confession with great simplicity, like children.

If something is bothering you, go to confession and cleanse your heart, for Jesus – through the priest – forgives everything. How wonderful is this gift of God. Burdened with sin we can kneel at the confessional and in a moment we can rise completely cleansed.

Each evening, before sleeping you should perform an examination of conscience (you may not survive to the morning!) Everything that is troubling you, that weighs on your conscience, you ought to reveal in confession and consequently amend in life. If, for instance, you have ever stolen from anyone, try to give it back. If you have hurt anyone, apologize to them immediately, do not delay. If this is not possible, then at least admit to God that you sincerely regret it. How good it is to go to confession and to be freed of this overwhelming weight and to have a pure heart.

Sin follows us, it is in us. We must not fall into despair; we must believe in the caring love of God. We are precious to Him as we are beloved by Him, loved so tenderly that he shaped us with his own hands. When it seems that your heart is in such pain that it is about to break, say to yourself: “I am precious to Him, He loves me. He called me by name and I am His.”

Remember that God is the merciful Father of all. We are His children and He will always forgive, free and heal us if we only turn to Him. But first you must look into your hearts whether you have lingering resentment towards others whom you cannot forgive. You cannot ask God for forgiveness if you cannot forgive others yourself. Remember that if your regret is truly sincere, flowing from a pure heart, then you will experience the miracle of God’s mercy. Pray that you will be able to forgive those that have hurt you or you do not like, and forgive just as you were forgiven.

Treasure of the Eucharist

If we adore Christ hidden in the Eucharist, we will be able to see Him in the lowly and neglected bodies of the poor. Let us start our day with the Holy Mass in which we receive the Holy communion, and end it with an hour of adoration. This will bring us closer to Jesus and unite us with Him and with the poor, through the service that we do in His name. I cannot imagine even one day without the Eucharist. I touch Jesus, love Him, serve Him by serving the poor, and am strengthened with His love.

We are created to love, so hungry are we for God. This is why Jesus shares with us his Divine life and love in the Eucharist. We should receive Him with pure hearts. My greatest love is Jesus in the Eucharist. It is through the Eucharist that I meet Him, receive Him, love and discover Him, and serve Him among the poorest of the poor. My life would be empty if I did not receive the Holy Communion daily. It is only through fervent prayer and the Holy Communion can we live with Jesus, for Jesus and for our poor.

The darkness of soul and yearning for God gave Mother Teresa so great a pain that it seemed to her that she was experiencing the reality of hell

We cannot separate our life from the Eucharist. People ask us: “Where do the sisters get your joy and strength to do everything that you are doing?” We get all this from Christ who is present in the Eucharist. This is why the Eucharist is the center of our lives. Without Jesus I would not be able to survive a single day, not even a single hour of my life.

The Greatest Danger to Peace

The greatest danger to peace is abortion, because this is war: this is murder, murder committed at the hands of the mother. We can read in the Holy Bible that God clearly says: “Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Is 49,15-16). […] the unborn child rests on the palms of God […]. Many people worry about children from India and Africa where many of them die from hunger and diseases, but millions of children are murdered on the wishes of the mother. This is why abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace. If a mother can kill her own child, of what consequence is it for me to kill you, or you to kill me? Nothing stands in the way any longer.

The Sense of Suffering

One cannot follow Christ without taking up the cross. Each of us should take up our own cross and be with Jesus in His way to Calvary. Together with Him we can participate in the joy of resurrection. Suffering is not punishment but a sign that we have come so close to Jesus suffering on the cross that He can kiss us, show us his love, enable us to take part in His mission. In the dark night of suffering, never forget that in union with Christ, suffering becomes the way to the joy of resurrection.

Source: https://loamagazine.org/archive/2017/2017-39/regaining-faith-in-god

The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!" in April 2021.

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