14th September 1997

She touched many with her piety

By Roshan Peiris

Dressed in a white cotton saree, her head covered, a cross hanging from her neck, that was Mother Teresa when I met her at Mutwal when she visited Sri Lanka in 1984. She had visited this country earlier in 1967.

The streets were lined with people and our vehicle had to stop half a mile away from the place she was visiting.

It was not glamour that brought the people in their thousands to meet the Saint of the gutters but her piety and dedicated effort to translate her religious beliefs into practice.

"Are you a Christian my child?" she asked me and when I said ‘No’ it did not deter her from blessing me and touching my face gently.

Her tremendous charisma was evident and one felt that one was before a religious dignitary of no ordinary proportions.

Mother Teresa spoke to many that morning with a soft voice. Her tone was compassionate, even to me a non-Christian. I felt that by both precept and example that she brought credit to the faith of Christ.

She received numerous awards during her lifetime, from the Albert Schweitzer Prize to the Jawaharlal Nehru Award and the Nobel Prize for Peace, but she remained a simple saint giving succour to the poor millions of Calcutta. Three white cotton sarees and her Bible were her only earthly possessions.

Mother Teresa has touched Sri Lanka as well. There are six Mother Teresa Institutes for the poor ranging from two in Colombo, to one each in Galle, Moratuwa, Kandy and strife torn Vauniya.

Mother Teresa obviously had the gift of touching the hearts of people. She loved all alike be they statesmen, sovereigns or the wretched poor living in the gutters of Calcutta.

Mother Teresa may be canonised for she lived totally the teaching of Christ in whose name she worked.

Farewell angel

You were an angel of mercy sent to us from  above
You came from distant Albania
To the slums of Calcutta
To tend the poorest of the poor
You provided a safe Haven
And your wealth of loving caring
You saw in every human being
An object of God’s creation
From India your Mission spread
And every where your good Nuns went
The flag of charity was unfurled
Never in human history
Did we ever see
Such tender,touching Kindness
Now as you lie beneath the sod
Malcolm Muggeridge’s words come to mind 
"Something beautiful for God" And may we add" 
A blessing for mankind".

- Premnath Moraes

Continue to Plus page 14 - Diana

Return to the Plus contents page

Read Letters to the Editor