Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service (Veritas Books)

by Mary Poplin

Paperback, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

Missions Pop

Genres

Religion & Spirituality

Biography & Memoir

Biography

Nonfiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

IVP Books (2008), Edition: unknown, 224 pages

Description

"Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are. . . . You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see." --Mother TeresaLifelong educator Mary Poplin, after experiencing a newfound awakening to faith, sent a letter to Calcutta asking if she could visit Mother Teresa and volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity. She received a response saying, "You are welcome to share in our works of love for the poorest of the poor." So in the spring of 1996, Poplin spent two months in Calcutta as a volunteer. There she observed Mother Teresa's life of work and service to the poor, participating in the community's commitments to simplicity and mercy. Mother Teresa's unabashedly religious work stands in countercultural contrast to the limitations of our secular age.Poplin's journey gives us an inside glimpse into one of the most influential lives of the twentieth century and the lessons Mother Teresa continues to offer. Upon Poplin's return, she soon discovered that God was calling her to serve the university world with the same kind of holistic service with which Mother Teresa served Calcutta.Not everyone can go to Calcutta. But all of us can find our own meaningful work and service. Come and answer the call to find your Calcutta!… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member swivelgal

Finding Calcutta is a short book with a lot of substance. Poplin describes her experiences working with Mother Teresa in India. Her emphasis is on the spiritual experience as opposed to the physical experience. I would re-read this book and would also recommend it to a friend. Even for the fastest

readers, this book should be read slowly.

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LibraryThing member lbudd

Finding Calcutta gave me a glimpse into the ministry of Mother Teresa and how her belief in Jesus Christ. She firmly believed what Jesus taught : when we help the poor, the hungry, the prisoners, the oppressed, we are helping Jesus. Jesus is present in the "distressing disguise of the poor." I

found her statement: "God did not create poverty. We do, because we don't share" to be very convicting. I also appreciated the impact that Mother Teresa had on Mary Poplin. Poplin's discussion of worldviews and the exclusion of the Christian worldview at secular universities to be very engaging. Poplin gave a Veritas lecture at Pepperdine that is available on YouTube. In it she shows a 5 minute clip of Mother Teresa which was fascinating.

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LibraryThing member deldevries

From the end of the Introduction: "... It is the story of how God used her and the Missionaries to cause a crisis in my own life which revealed more clearly my purpose and my calling. Mother [Teresa] called it 'finding your Calcutta'. "

Notable quotes:
Ch 3 "I never heard a Missionary of Charity say

she could not do something."
Ch 6 Do All Things Without Complaining or Disputing
Ch 8 There Is Always Enough "Divine providence assumes that God has provided an abundance for every need."
Ch 10 The Vow of Obedience "The superior of each house, however, will remember that she is first for the sisters and next for the work."
Ch 13 Mother Teresa's business cards read "Love to pray -- feel often during the day the need for prayer and take trouble to pray. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own.
Ch 18 "... statistically speaking, what Mother achieves is little, or even negligible. But then Christianity is not a statistical view of life. ... God is fond ... of doing much with little. ... He uses the simple to confound the wise, and the despised to become mighty."

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