Hey bets,

there is no doubt that she was a caring person, and it what obviously not the intend of this topic to point her out as cruel or something else.
It was more the fact, that a person, that is now known as a saint, had suffered from feelings of being not connected by god, doubting religion at all, for quite a time during her work, and what was said by DocM, the spiritual key to god, that some users see in sharing love and living amongst love.

I found it striking to hear and read about this crisis, since her work impressed me much, I made some (maybe stupid) assumptions how it came to that, and if it had any bad influences on the ones that she helped.
What I also consider to be a bit of a hypocritical argument, that she started "a cult of suffering".

Love,

pulsar

I tend to look at Job in the bible as a journey of the common person so in that way I don't  see M.Theresa as any different light than you or I. if you look at a persons act and behavior, it probably says more about their measure of enlightenment than the media, wow, the media and some books I've seen are not at all enlightened, so its the media's job to find dirt as they love to knock someone down to their level, as indicated by people who inspire people start needing body guards.

She's done good and she's done bad.. Just like the rest of us.. She's merely human and not a saint..

peace

that's interesting, darth.  well things aren't always as they seem with people.  some very "mean" people are actually great people, and some "saintly" people aren't saintly at all.

I have now seen how Don is marshalling his armies together, implying in other threads that I, by posting this article, had a set intention to malign a saintly Mother Teresa for some New Age agenda. Nothing could be further from the truth.  I am more disappointed in him, and his unloving attitude toward posters on this site than anything else.  Don, you can not come here and unload your venom on us and then act/feel lovingly only amongst your flock; to act in a loving/spiritual manner necessarily implies that it is not so biased or conditional - otherwise you are caught in the quagmire of "us vs. them," and miss the point about loving acts entirely.

But I digress.  The article in Time moved me, as I had not read up on Mother Teresa previously, and as such, I found her prolonged "dark night of the soul," to be both intriguing and illuminating.  Rather than enter the discussion on this topic, Don chooses to see my posting as a deliberate anti-Teresa/anti-christian commentary.  Rubbish.  For those of you who don't know me, who have any doubt about my intentions, read through my past posts and you will see that I am supportive of both christianity as a path to spirituality and to the need for civility and decorum on this board - I vehemently oppose blind bashing of the religion or faith of another.  I have notified the moderators of threads which were anti-christian or hateful to christianity or another religion and asked that they be moved or removed.

Don's anger regarding the existence of this thread is particularly telling.  Why, you may ask?  Because it is a sign of the struggle in all of us to integrate love on one's neighbour and love of God into our lives.  There is no shame in this struggle, and no reason that knowing that Mother Teresa had a prolonged struggle in any way detracts from her earthly charity and accomplishments.  Why would Mother Teresa not feel God's presence or prolonged joy as she cared for the sickest of the sick, the most down-trodden of men and women?  Some answers have already been given by posters.  Admittedly, some who have posted have their own anti-religious/christian take, but that was not what I was after in posting this thread.

There is a joy we are all meant to experience in life, simply by its living.  An unbridled joy which in no way detracts from our compassion toward others or our love of God.  No guilt should rightfully be associated with this joy in living and being incarnate, and the deliberate denial of this joy of our own existence and participation in the world sometimes sets up a conflict in us that distances each of us from God and the divine.  In response, some will deny themselves all earthly pleasures, figuring there is divinity in suffering.  I can not say whether MT felt compelled to go down this path, but this was one of the conversations I hoped to get started here.  

My main intention in starting this thread was to stimulate discussion about the disconnect between earthly actions and spirituality.  It is not enough to walk the walk to have a personal connection with God, or feel that connection.  Swedenborg, Don's most coroborated source agrees with those he calls "New Age wackadoodles"  in saying that love is our main reason for being - love of God and love of one's fellow man.  But earthly acts of charity - going down a path of service to others, while being noble, and seeming to fulfill the criteria of love, does not guarantee the inner connectedness some people feel to the divine and God's presence.  Sometimes even "walking the walk," leaves us empty - and a discussion of that idea, is what I am looking for in this thread.

Matthew

Quote:


I am more intrigued with the Dark Night aspect but this aspect is pretty interesting too. Maybe they are interconnected.

The other night...well actualy it as early morning and I had woken up and gone back to sleep, classic conditions...I had a very lucid dream. Well, very for me. I knew I was dreaming! I was talking to myself..."Hey I'm dreaming!"...and just grooving with the dream as it unfolded. What was amazing was that this time telling myself I was dreaming did not cause me to wake up as it has in the past. I can also distinguish this experience from the ones where I get the electric tingles and hear roars; none of that happened. Other than being aware fo dreaming, it was a normal dream. The hard part is, I don't know how to get back there.

So on a larger scale, that happened to MT when she couldn't hear God's direction any more (you have to read the article!).

Now good works didn't get her back there to hearing the guidance. That is an interesting observation. So what is the point of good works?

On my much more mundane level, I am learning that when I feel bad that doing something for someone else can relieve some of the pain. Maybe it is just the act of taking the focus off myself that works. But there must be more to it tha that because service is a well-accepted path in many traditions.

Maybe the mistake is expecting the contact to last. There is an idea from Eatern traditions that says, what do you do before Enlightenment? Chop wood, carry water. What do you do after Enlightenment? Chop wood, carry water.

Hi matthew and all I sometimes think that when God is silent,that he has been there but because of the suffering ,hurt and the pain,we need him more than ever and want God so much to come and end the suffering ,fear and pain that we think he is not listening,but i have always felt that God does come to our aid with his love when we die,our spirits rise into a beautiful existance with our loving God with spirit into what God wanted for us ,a world of beauty and love and no more suffering as our dear saviour Jesus died on the cross and took all the sins of the world and suffered for us so that we could join him in the spirit with God.

I read this story of a Jewish Man who died with lots of children and adults and said of the fear in there and the tears especially from those beautiful little children and as it happened in there ,he started to rise out of his body as so did the others and the children and as there spirits were rising there was this most beautiful light opening up to receive them.

 This light was giving so much love and as he looked down he saw all the bodys ,which he said  looked like a load of discarded rags,so God is listening and watching even when we dont think he is.Ready to deliver us from evil as it says in the Lords prayer.God's love is unconditional for all of his children.

When the German-born pontiff visited the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz last year, he publicly asked why God was silent when 1.5 million victims, mostly Jews, died there.

Love and God bless    Love juditha