Mother Teresa Day

Did you know that Mother Teresa was born on Aug.27 1910 in Skopja, Macedonia, and was of Albanian descent? I didn't know that until we moved here and noticed a lovely statue of her in front of the university and was told it was called Sheshi Nena Teresa or Mother Teresa square. Earlier this week my husband told me that he wouldn't have to work on Wed. because it is Mother Teresa Day in Albania- a national holiday!

One thing Albania can be proud of is its acceptance of all religions. Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims live here together in relative peace. The Protestants are a new addition but are definitely a growing force lead by many, many missionaries of various denominatons. One group which is having a harder time than the rest is the Jehovah's Witnesses who were in the headlines a lot this past summer. It seems that there were a large number of suicides involving rather young people and the Albanian authorities have been trying to link these to the JW's somehow. They are working hard to win converts and we have them at our door at least once a week. Perhaps this annoying habit is bringing them the negative image.

So in honour of Mother Teresa, for whom I have enormous love and respect, I am sharing some of her wonderful words:

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. "

"God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try"

"We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love."

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."

"What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."

"Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless"

"I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?"

and the last.... and my favourite:

"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world."