People Are Often Unreasonable And Self-centered

graphic © eminentlyquotable.com | photo – Wikipedia – lic. under CC-BY-SA-2.0

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway. If you
are kind, people may accuse you of
ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are
honest, people may cheat you. Be honest
anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do
today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good
anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.”
-Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997) was a Roman Catholic nun known for founding the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India. Her charitable selfless work earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979; and in 2003, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Mother Teresa was baptized as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu after her birth on the 26th of August in Skopje, Macedonia. She came from a middle-class devoutly Catholic family. Other than being involved in their local church, his father Nikola Bojaxhiu, was also active in city politics as a strong supporter of Albanian Independence. It was from her mother Drana Bojaxhiu, who invited the city’s destitute to dine with the family, that she acquired traits of generosity and selflessness.

She felt her calling at a young age. After a few months of training with the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, she was then allowed to travel to India. In 1931, she took her religious vows and chose to be named after the patron saint of missionaries, St. Therese of Lisieux. She began by working as a teacher in Calcutta but later decided to start a new order called “The Missionaries of Charity” after seeing the profound effects of widespread poverty.

Her work in India was not without controversy and tragedy, yet she continued to do her mission until it grew and expanded to include orphanages and hospices. She remained in the public spotlight until she passed away from deteriorating health at the age of 87.