In August 1948, at the age of 38, Mother Teresa decided to adventure into the poorest neighborhoods of Calcutta, India, in order to live out her utopian dream by providing food, care, education, and shelter for the poor. Feeding people the Word of God; clothing them with dignity; educating them with knowledge, peace, truth, justice and love; nursing the mind and spirit; and sheltering them with a heart that understands. ("servants") I believe that a utopian vision is any vision that follows natural law, creates happiness in the community, and is feasible. Mother Teresa's visions are, in fact, effective utopian visions. Mother Teresa's visions included living a simple life, serving the poorest of the poor, treating everyone as equals, suffering cheerfully, and loving all until it hurts. In this paper, the ideas and visions that Mother Teresa cherished will be evaluated and questioned based on my three defined criteria of a utopian vision.
Even twenty years after her death, the world continues to remember the princess who perpetually remembered them. Princess Diana lived as one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. She devoted her life in the spotlight to bring recognition to causes that she felt others should care about, such as AIDS, homelessness, leprosy, and landmine removal. Diana believed that love and kindness served as the remedy for any sort of suffering. She once stated in an interview with BBC journalist, Martin Bashir, “I think the biggest disease this world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved. I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour, for a day, for a month—I’m very happy to do that and I want to do that” (Roisin Kelly). While the matter remains certain that people were initially starstruck having a princess in their midst, it is undoubtedly Diana’s kindness that attracted and continued to attract beings to her presence. She held the hands of those deemed unsafe to touch and broke down stigmas in the process. Diana became a hero for those who had no one to speak up for them, or the trials they endured, through simple acts of kindness, such as a warm smile or a gentle handshake. While Diana aided those around her, she herself desperately craved love and kindness, as discussed in the following quote from the New York Times’ Article, “Diana in Search of Herself”. “Indeed, Diana's unstable temperament bore all the markings of one of the most elusive psychological disorders: the borderline personality. This condition is characterized by an unstable self-image; sharp mood swings; fear of rejection and abandonment; an inability to sustain relationships; persistent feelings of loneliness, boredom, and emptiness; depression; and impulsive behavior such as binge eating and
Mother Teresa was a global icon and loved by millions and millions of people. She was one of the greatest humanitarian in this world; A simple definition of humanitarian is someone who cares for the poor (“Kids”). Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910. She was born in Albania in a town named Uskup. During that time the town was under the Ottoman Empire rule. It was not until after many years later that the name was changed and government ruling also. The new name of the town was Skopje and governs under the Republic of Macedonia. The name that was given to her at birth was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (“Mother Teresa-Facts”).
Mother Teresa’s birthcity was Skopje in Macedonia and she was born on August 26, 1910. On August 27 1910 she was baptized by the name of Agnes Gonxha Bojazhiu, a name given by her parents (Mother Teresa, Biography [1]). Her parents, Nikola and Drana Bokaxhiu, were Albanian grocers (“Mother Teresa” Encyclopedia [1]) and weren’t very wealthy. When Mother Teresa was 8, in 1919, her father became ill and died. Throughout the rest of her life she was very close to her mother (Mother Teresa, Biography [1]). Her work for others started at home when every night her family would invite someone to eat dinner with them. Her mom would tell her “My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others.” Not every night would they know the person they ate with sometimes it was just a person from the city. Lastly her family was very involved in their catholic church and the city politics (Mother, Biography [1]).
Maria Theresa was always a generous, kind-hearted queen who always thought of her subjects needs before herself. She did not start out with much money, so she had to rely on her good judgment and self-discipline. She would often try to help the peasant class in any way possible. This also meant that the people in the wealthy class would be taxed more. She taxed the nobles more to ease the burden off of the struggling...
Many different people and events influenced Mother Teresa to becoming a figurehead of charity around the globe but one of the first were her parents. Mother Teresa’s father was wealthy so Mother Teresa’s mother would bring her along to distribute supplies such as food, medicine, clothes, and money to the poor in the cities’ worst neighborhoods. Mother Teresa’s parents would make sure to give anybody who asked food and money. When her father died expectantly, Mother Teresa became more religious and she started spending more and more of her free time in the church. Every year Mother Teresa’s family made the pilgrimage to pray at the statue of the Madonna of Letnice. At the age of twelve while she was praying she heard the voice of God calling her to Him and to the service of her neighbors.
Once she had her children she began being in the public’s eye much more often. Soon she would be labeled the “People’s Princess.” She was frequently called a fashion icon, role model, and arguably the most famous and photographed woman in the world. People who were close to her said that she had a “very easy going personality.” Lord St. John of Fawsley said “her appeal lay precisely in that she elevated feeling to the highest position. That is why people responded to her - they knew she really cared.” She became involved in numerous charities. Her most advertised ones were fighting the use of landmines and helping those who suffered from AIDs. One of her most famous pictures taken was of her holding ...
Princess Diana once said,“I would like to be a queen in the hearts of the people.”, and if there is anything she has done it has been to take over our hearts with her compassion and generosity. Princess Diana dedicated her life to helping others and using her fame to do it. She was humane and humble never seeing herself above others, even as royalty. This considerate woman would show up to hospitals just to talk and encourage people with her kind words. Princess Diana supported more than 100 charities in her lifetime, although she mostly impacted AIDS/HIV patients and landmine usage.
St. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain on March 28, 1515. She was baptized as Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada. At a young age she would often give gifts to the poor and pray. Her father and her mother were both Catholics which inspired her to do the same. Her father was a very strict man a demanded her to never lie, while her mother told her to lie and comforted her. This created a ton of turmoil in the family and made St. Teresa end up loving her mother more due to her father’s severe strictness. St. Teresa felt that everything she was doing was wrong. During her teens her mother passed away leaving her to deal with her father by herself and she was relieved of some of the pain by turning to the Virgin Mary for comfort. In her late teen years
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity, to care for the most destite of Indian society. In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) Home for Dying Destitutes in Calcutta. She and her fellow nuns took in dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during the days before they died, so that they might be able to die in peace and with dignity. In addition she worked with and cared for lepers. Mother Teresa expanded her work by creating a network of 569 missions in 120 nations. Today over 5000 sisters, brothers, and volunteers run approximately 500 centers worldwide, feeding 500,000 families and helping 90,000 lepers every year. For her work she was awarded many honors. For example she was awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
It is obvious from her feelings of extreme loneliness and battle with bulimia she was not getting the support she needed from her husband or family, therefore group therapy could have been another option for her in order to find that support system she was missing at home. Group therapy is helpful in as many as 75% of cases, especially when combined with individual insight therapy (Comer, 2006). I believe her charity work, while extremely noble and beneficial to the world, was a cry for the support and love she was missing in her marriage. The more charity work she did, the more affection she gained with the public.
“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” These words fully sum up the essence of Mother Teresa. Having left the world 17 years ago in 1997, her life continues to inspire many. So many lives touched by her. The story of her life inspires an awe of how someone could live such a life starting from her childhood, through adulthood, and ending with her later years and legacy.
As years went on she decided to do something productive with her life. Keller was a woman who made lot’s of achievements in her life with little ability to hear and see. Many thought Keller was the most admired women in America because she did so much with little ability (Feeny “From darkness and silence: The remarkable journey of Helen Keller). On March 3, 1887 she met with Alexander Graham Bell. He was the guy who invented the telephone and also worked with the blind (Feeny “From darkness and silence: The remarkable journey of Helen Keller). On this date she always referred to this “my souls birthday” (Feeny “From darkness and silence: The remarkable journey of Helen Keller). She went to a special school for the deaf as she was growing up (Feeny “From darkness and silence: The rema...
Evidence from her residence in the Indian village of Calcutta reveals that she sympathized with the poor and the vulnerable people in the society. Although she had conducted other voluntary missions before, the love for human beings was revealed when she decided to live among the poor people in the village of Calcutta. Her compassionate nature was largely derived from the teachings of Jesus Christ. For example, one of the many articles on Mother Teresa observed that Mother Teresa was on several occasions heard quoting the teachings of Jesus Christ. One of the quotes that she referred to was “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me” (Emilie 3). The foregoing reveals that she was ready to treat vulnerable human beings in a manner that upheld their
During this time period, Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship and spent several months in Patna to receive medical training at the Holy Family Hospital before venturing off to complete her charity work. She began her missionary work by founding a school in Motijhil, Kolkata, and from the start, Mother Teresa was joined by a group of young women who helped her form a religious community with the basic foundation of helping the “poorest among the poor” (“Mother Teresa,” n.d.). While Mother Teresa’s efforts were noticed by several officials, the first year of her missionary work was wrought with difficulty. During this time, Mother Teresa had no income, she had to beg for food, and the temptation to return to her previous life at the convent was great. A diary entry written by Mother Teresa herself describes in detail the hardships and lessons that she experienced: “Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today, I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home, I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food, and health. Then, the comfort of Loreto came to tempt me. ‘You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,’ the Tempter kept on saying, ‘of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your