I read Mary Poplin 's 'Finding Calcutta ' recently and it triggered
I have read a lot about Mother Teresa and have visited the local Missionaries of 
About the Book"Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are. . . . You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see." --Mother Teresa
Lifelong educator Mary Poplin, after experiencing a new found awakening to faith, sent a letter to Calcutta asking if she could visit Mother Teresa and volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity. She received a response saying, "You are welcome to share in our works of love for the poorest of the poor." So in the spring of 1996, Poplin spent two months in Calcutta as a volunteer. There she observed Mother Teresa's life of work and service to the poor, participating in the community's commitments to simplicity and mercy. Mother Teresa's unabashedly religious work stands in counter cultural contrast to the limitations of our secular age.
Poplin's journey gives us an inside glimpse into one of the most influential lives of the twentieth century and the lessons Mother Teresa continues to offer. Upon Poplin's return, she soon discovered that God was calling her to serve the university world with the same kind of holistic service with which Mother Teresa served Calcutta.
Not everyone can go to Calcutta. But all of us can find our own meaningful work and service. Come and answer the call to find your Calcutta!
(All the above photos have been taken from the Internet)
Here are some reviews
Having been the spiritual director of the Missionaries of Charity in Asia for many years, I read Mary Poplin’s book with keen interest and fond memories of these remarkable women. Finding Calcutta is a love story between God and two women, Mother Teresa and the author. In describing her encounter and the lessons learned with ‘God’s pencil,’ Mary Poplin has penned ’something beautiful for God.’ This book not only captures the spirituality of Mother Teresa and her sisters but also reminds us of an important principle in spiritual formation that God taught its author: our own Calcutta is most often right smack where we are.” — –Albert Haase, O.F.M., director, School of Spirituality at Mayslake Ministries, and author of Coming Home to Your True Self: Leaving the Emptiness of False Attractions
“If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be a worldly California academic curious enough to volunteer in Mother Teresa’s Calcutta Mission, prepare to be surprised. After struggling to translate her experience there for a secular audience, Dr. Poplin has ended by translating her readers into Mother Teresa’s own unfamiliar, spiritual dimension. Watch out–you will not be able to keep from meditating.” — –C. John Sommerville, author of The Decline of the Secular University
“In this poignant, elegant, humble memoir, Poplin gives us far more than Mother Teresa or even another Mother Teresa story. She gives us instead the Jesus and the Christianity that operated through Mother Teresa. Poplin’s experience of finding Calcutta irrevocably changed her soul. It will change yours as well.” — –Phyllis Tickle, former religion editor, Publishers Weekly, and compiler of The Divine Hours
“Mary Poplin seeks to integrate her experience with Mother Teresa into her work and life and to come together with others who hunger and thirst. This book can be a platform to gather those of us so disposed so that the flame is not lost and will continue to produce abundant fruit, fruits of eternal life.” — –Father Angelo Devananda Scolozzi, U.F.W., Centro de Espiritualidad Madre Teresa, Chihuahua, Mexico
“Mary Poplin takes us on a pilgrimage toward clarity about who we are and what our life amounts to. The pilgrimage is simultaneously through Calcutta and through the heart of the ’sophisticated’ dynamics of university life in America. As it proceeds we gain a better understanding of the social forces that govern the university in the name of intellect–but falsely so. It will be of special help to those engaged in academic life, at whatever level. They will find here a guide who has been grasped by God and enabled to see that life and the surrounding cultural world for what they really are, and what under God they could be.” — –Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy, University of Southern California, and author of The Divine Conspiracy and Hearing God
Not everyone can go to Calcutta (now renamed Kolkata). But all of us can find our own place of service. Come let us find our Calcutta.
No comments:
Post a Comment