Mother Teresa's Early Ministry in Motijhil

Early Days and Initial Challenges

• Archbishop Périer's caution towards Mother Teresa's "call within a call" stemmed from the historical focus of Roman Catholic and Anglican missionary work on the educated middle class in colonial India.
• The neglect of the poorest of the poor, particularly the Dalit caste, made Mother Teresa's desire to serve and live among them a surprising proposition.
• Périer gave Mother Teresa a one-year probationary period due to doubt about her efforts or fears of burnout.
• The first months of Mother Teresa's work were difficult and disheartening.
• After her first aid course, Mother Teresa established her home in Motijhil, a vast slum surrounding the Loreto Sisters' compound named "pearl lake" for its polluted water body.
• Motijhil lacked potable water, had overflowing sewage, and rampant disease.
• Thousands of homeless individuals lived and died in the streets.
• During her early ministry, Mother Teresa walked daily from the convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor, facing loneliness and inadequacy.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky's concept of love in action as harsh and dreadful resonated with Mother Teresa's experiences, yet moments of grace sustained her.
• A priest's request for a contribution to the Catholic press led to Mother Teresa giving her last rupee, which was followed by a man donating fifty rupees to her projects.

Establishing a Presence and Community

• Mother Teresa began her work in Motijhil by educating children, which was her primary Loreto ministry for two decades.
• She held an open-air school, teaching children the alphabet by scratching letters in the dust.
• She also provided scrubbings and treated their scrapes and scratches.
• After three months, Alfred Gomes offered Mother Teresa the second floor of his home on 14 Creek Lane as a convent, closer to Motijhil.
• The Loreto Sisters furnished her with a bed.
• Mother Teresa created a desk, bookshelf, and altar from discarded wooden crates.
• Subhasini Das, a former student, joined her ministry. She later became Sister Agnes and remained with Mother Teresa for life.
• The following months brought more aspirants, with ten girls joining Mother Teresa.
• The new members sacrificed their expensive saris for humble cotton ones.

Sacrifices, Recognition, and Growth

• The aspirants' families, who were mainly middle class, faced shame and anger due to their daughters' contact with the untouchable caste.
• Some fathers disowned daughters for ministering to the poorest of the poor.
• Mother Teresa became an Indian citizen in 1949.
• Archbishop Périer's probationary period ended, allowing Mother Teresa to apply to the Vatican for canonical recognition.
• Fr. Van Exem helped draft the constitution for the proposed order, called Missionaries of Charity.
• In early October 1950, Pius XII granted recognition.
• On October 7, 1953, Mother Teresa and her companions took their vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and charity, with the fourth vow committing them to serving Christ in the poorest of the poor.
• The Missionaries of Charity treated the ill, including those with maggot-infested sores, without surgical gloves to honor the flesh of Christ.
• Lepers were treated with respect.
• Joyful service was always expected.
• Deep prayer and Eucharist renewed the spiritual clarity needed for their work.
• The ministry began to grow, with the open-air school moving into a building.
• Additional school buildings were acquired over the years.
• Some buildings were donated, and others were acquired through a law mandating government provision for every one hundred students.
• The Indian government supported the Missionaries of Charity due to the country's challenges after gaining independence and the limited resources for social reform.

Ministry Expansion and Challenges

• Mother Teresa established a home for the dying after encountering a woman refused admission to a hospital because she was poor.
• She rented a hut, which quickly became insufficient, leading her to seek a larger venue with government and bureaucratic assistance.
• Two rooms attached to a temple dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and fertility, were offered as a hospice.
• The hospice was named Nirmal Hriday, or Place of the Immaculate Heart.
• Initial opposition arose from those fearing conversion to Christianity in a Hindu sacred space.
• Mother Teresa clarified that the Sisters' purpose was to love and not to convert, emphasizing that they avoid evangelizing through means other than their work.
• Angry Hindus threw stones at the house, accusing the nuns of forcible baptisms.
• Mother Teresa confronted the attackers.
• Eventually, trust was established with Hindu neighbors, who began volunteering.
• A local businessman provided cigarettes for the patients.
• Mother Teresa said her goal was conversion to becoming a better Hindu, Catholic, Muslim, or Jain/Buddhist in order to find God.

Continued Growth and New Ventures

• Teresa's primary motive was to let people who had been marginalized die with dignity in the presence of someone who loved them, and to ease the incredible loneliness
• In 1955, Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, an orphanage, was opened due to the high mortality rate and women seeking abortions.
• The Missionaries of Charity rescued parentless children and urged pregnant women not to abort, promising to take in their newborns.
• The orphanage soon expanded with the help of the Bengali government due to the large number of children in Calcutta's slums.
• The Missionaries treated a wide range of illnesses caused by unhygienic conditions, including leprosy.
• In 1957, Mother Teresa launched a mobile leprosy clinic, with Archbishop Périer's blessing, to treat the leper population with the new drug dapsone.
• Stationary clinics were constructed, and the Indian government provided land for a leper colony named Shanti Nagar.
• Mother Teresa raffled off Pope Paul VI's car to build a hospital at the leper colony.
• In 1960, the US Council for Catholic Women invited Mother Teresa to speak in Las Vegas.
• After Las Vegas, Teresa visited New York City and was shocked by the poverty she encountered.
• She met her brother, Lazar, in Rome, after being separated from him since 1928.

International Expansion

• Lazar had a dark turn in his life, he became a fascist and fought with Mussolini's Italian forces during WWII.
• Teresa met with Pope John XXIII, who granted her a decretum laudis, which allowed the Missionary Sisters to expand their ministry outside India.
• Five years later, John's successor, Paul VI, granted the decree, and the Missionaries of Charity established a mission in Venezuela.
• The Missionaries of Charity had gone international.