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Mother Teresa
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“To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.”
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“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. ”
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“We must free ourselves to be filled by God. Even God cannot fill what is full.”
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“There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty ...”
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“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”
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“Love is a fruit in season at all times ...”
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“God is the friend of silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence.”
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“Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of himself.”
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“... joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”
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“God has not called me to be successful; he has called me to be faithful.”
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“The ocean is made of drops.”
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“Any work of love brings a person face to face with God.”
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“The poverty of the West is far more difficult to solve than the poverty of India.”
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“True holiness consists in doing God's will with a smile ...”
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“It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.”
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“I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.”
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“Humility is truth ...”
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“Love has a hem to her garment that reaches the very dust. It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must.”
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“The beginning of prayer is silence ...”
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“Violence of the tongue is very real — sharper than any knife ...”
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“We can do no great things — only small things with great love.”
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“Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science, or eloquence.”
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“Failure is nothing but the kiss of Jesus.”
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“The more you forget yourself, the more Jesus will think of you.”
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“Prayer to be fruitful must come from the heart and must be able to touch the heart of God.”
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“People are not hungry just for bread, they are hungry for love.”
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“And so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love ...”
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“How many times we have picked up in the streets human beings who had been living like animals and were longing to die like angels!”
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“I don't want you to give me your surplus. I want you to give with personal deprivation.”
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“Holiness is not a privilege of a few but a need for all.”
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“The first time I received an award, I was very surprised. I did not know whether to accept it or not. But I came to the conclusion that I should accept awards in the name of the poorest poor, as a form of homage to them. I think that basically, when awards are given to me, the existence of the poor in the world is being recognized.”
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“The worst illness today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but the sense of being unwanted, of not being loved, of being abandoned by all.”
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“It is easy to love those who live far away. It is not always easy to love those who live right next to us.”
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“I will never tire of repeating this: What the poor need the most is not pity but love. They need to feel respect for their human dignity, which is neither less nor different from the dignity of any other human being.”
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“From the moment a soul has the grace to know God, she must seek.”
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“Prayer is in all things, in all gestures.”
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“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.”
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“Let's not pray long, drawn-out prayers, but let's pray short ones full of love. Let us pray on behalf of those who do not pray. Let us remember, if we want to be able to love, we must be able to pray!”
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“In vocal prayer we speak to God; in mental prayer he speaks to us. It is then that God pours Himself into us.”
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“In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.”
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“We cannot find God in noise or agitation. Nature: trees, flowers, and grass grow in silence. The stars, the moon, and the sun move in silence. What is essential is not what we say but what God tells us and what He tells others through us. In silence He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice.”
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“Holiness is not a luxury for the few; it is not just for some people. It is meant for you and for me and for all of us. It is a simple duty, because if we learn to love, we learn to be holy.”
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“On certain continents poverty is more spiritual than material, a poverty that consists of loneliness, discouragement, and the lack of meaning in life.”
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“Riches, both material and spiritual, can choke you if you do not use them fairly. For not even God can put anything in a heart that is already full.”
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“Death, in the final analysis, is only the easiest and quickest means to go back to God. If only we could make people understand that we come from God and that we have to go back to Him!”
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“The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace.”
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“Don't look for big things, just do small things with great love ... The smaller the thing, the greater must be our love.”
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“... do not spare me in anything — let there be less and less of me in everything.”
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“Love is proved by deeds; the more they cost us, the greater the proof of our love.”
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“To be able to proclaim the Good News to the poor we must know what is poverty.”
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“I can do only one thing, like a little dog follow closely the Master's footsteps. Pray that I be a cheerful dog.”
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“It often happens that those who spend their time giving light to others, remain in darkness themselves.”
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“Thank God we don't serve God with our feelings, otherwise I don't know where I would be. — Pray for me.”
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“... even God could do nothing for someone already full. You have to be completely empty to let Him in to do what He will.”
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“People are hungry for God. What [a] terrible meeting [it] would be with our neighbour if we give them only ourselves.”
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“We are not social workers. We are contemplatives in the heart of the world.”
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“The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small.”
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“Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.”
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“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do ...”
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“I can't help thousands. I can help only the one who stands before me ...”
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“If you are discouraged, it is a sign of pride, because it shows you trust in your own powers ...”
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“Love should be as natural as living and breathing ...”
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“If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
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“Prayer is the mortar that holds our house together.”
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“[On people with AIDS:] Each one of them is Jesus in a distressing disguise.”
Mother Teresa, Yugoslavian missionary in India, Nobel Peace Prize winner
(1910 - 1997)
Born: Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu.