Mother Teresa

Question: Mother Teresa forbade fundraising and relied solely on "divine providence." Define "divine providence" and give examples for its work in Mother Teresa's life.

Divine providence means that God will provide. While Mother Teresa was in Guatemala, a man wanted to document her saintly work and ask people in America for donations of money and medicine. Mother Teresa made it very clear that she does not except donations from groups of people. She said that if the man wanted to donate, she would accept his individual donation. She wanted people to give from their heart. Mother Teresa and her group of sisters took a vow of poverty, and as an outsider we might think that they are crazy not to fundraise, but Mother Teresa states that individual people always provide them with the basic necessities.

My favorite quote of Mother Teresa's is, "I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

This is especially true to me since I am in high school. A lot of us are stressing over what classes to take junior year. How many APs can I take? What happens if my GPA drops? These are just some of the questions swarming my head during the school day. I find myself praying to God when I am faced with decisions like these. I know that I have to make the final decision myself, but God will always be one step ahead of me, guiding me on the right path. I realize that I will be faced with these decisions for the rest of my life, just in different circumstances. Next year I will be taking the SATs, which determine what college I will get into. Senior year I will be faced with the decision of picking a college to attend. Once I am in college, I will have to choose my major. The list goes on and on, but if I have strong faith in God, I can find comfort knowing that He is watching me every step of the way.

Contemplative Prayer

I really enjoy the contemplative prayer every morning in class. It allows me to relax for five minutes from my busy day and pray. It's nice to have someone else read the bible passage to me rather than get the bible myself and read the passage. Considering how busy my day is, I would probably never open the bible in the middle of the day to read the daily passage. I also really enjoy the questions they ask. It allows me to reflect on my relationship with God. Hopefully we will continue listening to the daily reading and meditating.