New saint, Teresa of Kolkata, called �example of living the Gospel�

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

Photography: MARLENE QUARONI | FC

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MIAMI | Kathleen Leger gave up her life as a business woman in 2000, moved into her brother’s home and decided to volunteer fulltime to help the poor. She used Mother Teresa as her model of holiness.

“I worked in Haiti for two years and served in various ministries in Broward County,” she said after a Mass at St. Mary Cathedral Sept. 4, celebrated to honor the canonization of Mother Teresa. “One day, I saw a story in the newspaper about the Missionaries of Charity shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Miami. I never knew it existed. 

“I prayed about volunteering there and touched the feet of the Mother Teresa statue at Nativity Church in Hollywood. I wanted to follow in her footsteps and within three days I found my way to the shelter.”

Leger, 63, has been volunteering at the shelter since November 2003. She said it was God who chose her to help the poor. “God called me and told me where to go. We are God’s instruments on earth.” 

Working at the shelter is difficult, however. She arrives at 6:15 a.m. to help prepare the day’s meals. The kitchen is hot and there’s no air-conditioning at the facility.

“I say, Lord, give me the grace and strength to do whatever you want me to do today,” she said. “It’s like I receive a dose of vitamins. Sometimes I feel exhausted; that’s when I pray with greater intensity.”

The shelter feeds about 300 homeless and very poor people each day.

“We’re there to feed them, clothe them, give them a shoulder to lean on, or a hug. We don’t solve social problems, we just accept them as Jesus Christ accepts us,” said Leger after Mass, at a reception and exhibit presenting the life of Mother Teresa.

Several orders of religious sisters, seminarians and others filled the cathedral for the Mass. In Rome a few hours earlier, Pope Francis had officially recognized Mother Teresa a saint, St. Teresa of Kolkata.

In Miami, the Missionaries of Charity sat in the front pews at St. Mary Cathedral wearing their familiar white saris with blue stripes. Shelter volunteers and clients sat across the aisle wearing white T-shirts with Mother Teresa’s image on the front and her words, “Every child is a gift of God,” on the back.

Sister Mángala, the superior at the Miami shelter, said she met Mother Teresa in 1969 in Chennai, India. She thanked God for giving the Church a new saint.

“I pray that Mother Teresa continues to be an example of living the Gospel and of loving Jesus with all your heart,” she said.

Members of Our Lady of Health Syro-Malabar Parish in Coral Springs, home of the Indian Apostolate, participated in the Mass by bringing a traditional flower offering to the steps of the altar.

“We are so lucky to be here on the day of Mother Teresa’s canonization,” said Valsa Sunny. “She’s from our country. We are so proud today.”

After Mass, many people in the congregation came forward to kiss a relic containing a drop of Mother Teresa’s blood.

Mother Teresa was born Aug. 26, 1910 in Albania. She left home in 1928 to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland where she learned English, which was the language that the sisters used to teach schoolchildren in India. She arrived in India in 1929, taught school and lived in a nearby convent.

But she was becoming increasingly disturbed by the poverty in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). In 1946, she received “the call within the call” to go out and help the poor while living among them. She eventually founded the Missionaries of Charity, and the congregation received Vatican approval in October 1950.

Since then, in homes and shelters throughout the world, they care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those who feel unwanted, unloved, and uncared for by society. In 1979, Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel Peace prize for her work, one of many honors she received during her lifetime.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski concelebrated the Mass at the cathedral with Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino, Archbishop Emeritus John C. Favalora, Bishop Fernando Isern, emeritus of Pueblo, Colo., and Bishop Luis Del Castillo, a retired bishop from Uruguay.

In his homily, Archbishop Wenski recalled Mother Teresa’s first visit to St. Mary Cathedral more than 40 years ago, in 1974.

“I was still in the seminary and had not heard of her until just before being invited to hear her speak here in the cathedral,” he said. “She came back to Miami a few more times and, eventually, brought her Sisters who have stayed and still serve the poorest of the poor in our community.”

He noted that Mother Teresa was one of two recently-canonized saints who visited the cathedral. The other was John Paul II, in 1987.

“And so, when in the preface of the Mass we say we join our voices with the angels and saints in heaven to praise God,” the archbishop said, “it is good to remember that at least two of those saints had raised their voices in praise of God here where we stand today.”