Mother Teresa Poems

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We have collected and put the best Mother Teresa poems. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others.

Saint Mother Teresa, also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), born Anjezë Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was an Albanian-born Indian citizen, Roman Catholic Sister, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Anyway Poem

Mother Teresa did not write the words, though; that honor goes to a man named Kent M. Keith, who called them “the Paradoxical Commandments.” Keith was a sophomore in college when he wrote the words for the book, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council, published by Harvard Student Agencies in 1968, according to his website.

How did the poem become tied to Mother Teresa? Keith writes that Mother Teresa posted a version of the poem on the wall of a children’s home in Calcutta, this was mentioned in a book about her, and the rest is history.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa

Life Is

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is life, fight for it.

Short Poems

It is our emptiness and lowliness that God needs and not our plenitude. These are a few of the ways we can practice humility:
Speak as little as possible of oneself.
Mind one’s own business.
Avoid curiosity.
Do not want to manage other people’s affairs.
Accept contradiction and correction cheerfully.
Pass over the mistakes of others.
Accept blame when innocent.
Yield to the will of others.
Accept insults and injuries.
Accept being slighted, forgotten, and disliked.
Be kind and gentle even under provocation.
Do not seek to be specially loved and admired.
Never stand on one’s dignity.
Yield in discussion even when one is right.
Choose always the hardest.

― Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living

Keep the joy of loving God
in your heart
and share this joy
with all you meet
especially your family.
Be holy — let us pray.

― Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living

It is very important for us
to realize that love, to be true,
has to hurt. I must be willing to
give whatever it takes not to harm
other people and, in fact, to do
good to them. This requires that
I be willing to give until it hurts.
Otherwise there is no true love
in me and I bring injustice,
not peace, to those around me.

― Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living

Radiating Christ prayer

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly,
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.

Shine through us, and be so in us,
that every person we should come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine;
so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, Jesus, will be all from you.

None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best,
by shining on those around us.

Let us preach you without preaching:
not by words, but by our example,
by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear for you.
Amen.