CALCUTTA, India (CNS)—The Missionaries of Charity have launched a year of programs celebrating the 2010 centennial of the birth of Blessed Mother Teresa, the religious order's founder who dedicated her life to serving some of India's poorest people.
"Mother Teresa's birth centenary begins today," said retired Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta Aug. 26 during a Mass marking what would have been the 99th birthday of the devoted caretaker at the congregation's motherhouse chapel, according to the Asian church news agency UCA News.
Sister Mary Prema, the congregation's superior general, said the celebrations would conclude Aug. 26, 2010. During the centennial year, "the best gift we can all prepare for Mother's 100th birthday is our sincere endeavor to be channels of God's love and peace to the poor," she told a gathering at the motherhouse.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910, into an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in present-day Macedonia. She came to Calcutta as a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto nuns) in 1929 and founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003.
She became known around the world as Mother Teresa by "dedicating her life totally to God and serving the poorest of the poor, doing small things with great love and recognizing the dignity of a child of God in every person," Sister Prema said.
The superior general also said that when people experience God's love they want to share it with others in different ways. Mother Teresa inspired many by loving all people, she said.
"Maybe there is someone in our families who is lonely, unloved or in need of forgiveness, so beginning at home we can become a channel of love for them today," Sister Prema said.
The example of Mother Teresa remains relevant, she explained, because poor people remain marginalized. "Mother taught us to give them the dignity of human beings, which is of significant need today and will always be needed," she said.
