Anyone interested in the spiritual or interior life should read this amazing collection of letters, with commentary. I read it over the space of about a month, 15 to 20 pages, four or five days a week. I finished three months ago and decided to let it percolate around in my head before posting this.
The book received quite a lot of publicity about six months ago, when it first came out. It is selected correspondence from Mother Teresa, mostly to her spiritual directors, but also to other friends and Sisters, and to the Archbishop of Calcutta.
The publicity was because many of her letters reveal and illuminate the spiritual darkness or dryness which she endured from shortly after she received the one year of inner promptings to found the Missionary Sisters of Charity (the Society), until her death fifty years later.
The spiritual dryness, how Mother Teresa dealt with it, and eventually came to terms with it, is a vital component of the book, but it is far from the only component.
The early years of her vocation to the Loreto Sisters, her one year of private revelations in the form of "interior imaginative locutions" (see note 12 on page 367 of the book for an explanation), the growth of the Society, and how Mother became a beloved figure worldwide, figure significantly. It becomes clear that Mother Teresa was what we would commonly call a "mystic" at an early age. Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., who is the postulator for her cause for canonization, edited her correspondence and wrote the commentary.
The spiritual dryness or darkness which Mother endured from the late 1940’s until her death in 1996, with only brief periods of respite, first came to be known by the public several years ago. It was revealed as her cause for beatification was pursued through the normal Roman Catholic channels.
With the aid of her spiritual directors, especially a Jesuit, Fr. Joseph Neuner, Mother Teresa was able to make some sense of her spiritual turmoil. Fr. Neuner pointed out that earlier in her life, Mother Teresa had asked to share in the sufferings of Jesus, both in his life and in the sufferings of the poor. In a very real way, Mother Teresa received what she asked for. Nevertheless, while she gained an intellectual understanding, she received little emotional or affective relief. And of course in the eyes of the Catholic Church, her spiritual aridity make her achievements even a more powerful witness to Holiness.
So, a wonderful work, skillfully edited by Fr. Kolodiejchuk. We are fortunate to be able to peer into the inner life of one of the great persons of the 20th century – or any century.
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