MOTHER TERESA: ONE OF THE GREATEST MISSIONARIES OF 20TH CENTURY

VATICAN CITY, OCT 20, 2003 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received in audience the pilgrims who participated yesterday in the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to whom, he said, "he was bound by great esteem and sincere affection."

Speaking about the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, John Paul II affirmed that "there is no doubt that the new blessed was one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th century. The Lord made a chosen instrument of this simple woman, who came from one of the poorest areas of Europe, in order to announce the Gospel to the whole world, not with preaching but with daily gestures of love toward the poor. Missionary with the most universal language: charity without limits and exclusions, without preferences even toward to most abandoned."

The Holy Father indicated that Mother Teresa also was "a missionary of charity, a missionary of peace and a missionary of life. ... She always spoke out in defense of human life, even when her message was unwelcome. Mother Teresa's whole existence was a hymn to life. ... Her very smile was a 'yes' to life, a joyful 'yes', born of profound faith and love, a 'yes' purified in the crucible of suffering. She renewed that 'yes' each morning, in union with Mary, at the foot of Christ's Cross."

"Teresa of Calcutta," he continued, "was really a mother. Mother of the poor, mother of children. Mother of so many young girls and boys who had her as their spiritual guide and who shared her mission. From a small seed, the Lord made a big tree grow, full of fruit."

Addressing her spiritual sons and daughters, the Pope said: "You are the most eloquent signs of this prophetic fecundity. Preserve her charisma and follow her example, and she, from heaven, will always sustain you on your path every day."

"Mother Teresa's message is more than ever an invitation directed at everyone. Her whole life reminds us that to be Christian means to be witnesses to charity. These are the instructions of the new blessed. Echoing her words, I urge each one of you to follow with generosity and courage the footsteps of this genuine disciple of Christ. Mother Teresa walks alongside you on the path of charity."

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