Editor’s Note: This article, first published in Columbia in September 2006, contains previously unpublished writings of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, including quotes from locutions she received from Jesus about the founding of the Missionaries of Charity. These unpublished writings have now been collected in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, The Private Writings of the ‘Saint’ of Calcutta.

Sept. 5 marks the ninth anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death. When she died at age 87, the world’s attention turned to the motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, where she spent her last days. Thousands of people gathered there to pay their last respects to the nun whom Pope John Paul II, speaking at her Mass of beatification in October 2003, described as “a humble Gospel messenger” and “tireless benefactor of humanity.”

Mother Teresa was “one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th century,” Pope John Paul said. She traversed the globe numerous times in tireless service of the poor. People of all races and creeds admired her remarkable service. Her selfless love for the needy and her efforts for world peace appealed to many. Her firm stand in defense of the value and dignity of every human life, and her authentic spirit of Gospel simplicity influenced others. However, few people expected there to be more to her story than they had already witnessed in Mother Teresa’s rich spiritual and humanitarian heritage. Only when documents were collected for her cause of beatification and canonization did it become obvious that what we knew of her was just the tip of the iceberg. Much of Mother Teresa’s spiritual depth was hidden.

Mother Teresa became “one of the most important figures of our time,” according to Pope John Paul, thanks to the particular grace that she received on Sept. 10, 1946. Within the religious family of the Missionaries of Charity that she founded, the anniversary of that memorable day is known as “Inspiration Day.” The 60th anniversary will be observed this month.

On Sept. 10, 1946, while on a train journey to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa, then a Loreto nun teaching at St. Mary’s School in Calcutta, received what she later termed “a call within a call.” Eventually she would explain: “The message was quite clear. … It was an order. I knew where I belonged, but I did not know how to get there.”

She was to leave the Loreto order and found a new religious congregation dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. The call was a radical turning point in her life: She had to renounce the security of life as a teaching nun and step into an unknown world of human poverty and destitution. She was to leave all she loved and cherished and go into the streets and slums to serve “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.”

Further, she was not to remain alone; she was to gather others who would share her life and mission in radical Gospel living. And the “Voice” — as she referred to the communications she received from Jesus in a series of locutions and visions that started with the experience on the train and lasted for almost a year — kept insisting: “I want Indian Nuns victims of my love, who would be Mary and Martha, who would be so very united to me as to radiate My love on souls. I want free Nuns covered with my poverty of the cross — I want obedient Nuns covered with my obedience on the cross. I want full of love Nuns covered with My Charity of the Cross — Wilt Thou refuse to do this for Me?”

Mother Teresa kept notes on the “dialogue” between the “Voice” and herself. These writings reveal the unique beauty of her loving and intimate relationship with God. However, the core of the dialogue is God’s “tender love for His children.” God was revealing to her his love and compassion for the poorest of the poor. Challenging her trust and generosity, he was calling her to be his “hand and heart” to those most in need. God once told Moses: “I have seen the affliction of my people … I know their sufferings…” (Ex 3:7). God revealed his compassion for his people Israel. Repeatedly God heard “the cry of the poor” and raised up special messengers of his love to alleviate their sufferings. Now he entrusted to Mother Teresa his concern for those at the margins of society.

The heart of God reached out to the most dejected of his creatures. Human selfishness and injustice had brought about this extreme condition, and God was using human means to bring about solace and comfort. By the standards of this world, he was choosing someone insignificant to be his instrument: a nun who considered herself “His most unworthy child.” He wanted not only her hands to serve their needs and bind their wounds but also her heart to love them in their suffering and pain. Jesus was indeed calling her to be the light of his love in the darkness of their pain:

“My little one — come — come — carry me into the holes of the poor — Come, be My light — I cannot go alone — they don’t know Me — so they don’t want Me. You come — go amongst them, carry Me with you into them — how I long to enter their holes — their dark unhappy homes. Come be their victim — In your immolation — in your love for Me — they will see Me, know Me, want Me. Offer more Sacrifices — Smile more tenderly, pray more fervently and all the difficulties will disappear.” Mother Teresa was taken aback by these extraordinary communications from Jesus, yet she was determined to do God’s will at any cost. Her trust in his loving care for her and for those called to follow her prevailed over her initial struggles with fear and the numerous challenges of the first steps toward answering the call.

Mother Teresa’s response to God’s call has made her a universal symbol of love and compassion for the downtrodden. For her this call never became a matter of history; it was ever present and ever new. She heard it first on Sept. 10, 1946, but it resounded anew each day in the cries of the poor. As a permanent reminder of this call, she pinned next to the crucifix in every chapel of the Missionaries of Charity the words “I Thirst.” Jesus’ cry from the cross echoed in the cries of the poor. For Mother Teresa, “I Thirst” was a cry of a tender and loving God for her to show his love and tenderness to his poor. Her whole life was an endeavor to answer God’s cry of love, to satisfy his thirst to love and be loved.

In her humility, Mother Teresa kept hidden the precious details and the impelling force of God’s intervention in her life for more than 50 years. To those who asked her, she simply replied, “I heard the call to give up all and follow Him into the slums to serve Him among the poorest of the poor.” She hoped that the rest of the story would go to the grave with her. However, as providence ordained it, this great secret was to bring consolation and light to many others, to provide again a timely lesson of love for those most in need, to be an inspiration moving many to serve the poor as she did.

“God still loves the world through you and through me today,” Mother Teresa untiringly repeated. Her words tell us to look for “the poor” and show them our love: “Give Jesus your heart to love and your hands to serve. Be His light, His fire of love amongst the poor.” Recognizing, as she did, that the greatest poverty today is to be unloved and unwanted, we are called first to receive God’s love in our hearts and then carry that love to our homes, our communities and our neighborhoods. The means to do so are as simple for us as they were for her: “Give them always a happy smile; give them not only your ears but also your heart. Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science or eloquence. We will never know how much good just a simple smile can do. We tell people how kind, forgiving and understanding God is. Are we the living proof? Can they really see this kindness, this forgiveness, this understanding alive in us?”

Mother Teresa considered herself “just a pencil in His hand.” She claimed nothing for herself and attempted only “to be God’s presence, His love and compassion” to the poor. The call she received is now an invitation to each one of us to listen to God’s appeal on behalf of the poor so that the inspiration she received 60 years ago may continue to live in the hearts and deeds of her followers and in every person who is, or will ever be, touched by her life, work and message.

Missionaries of Charity Father Brian Kolodiejchuk is postulator of the cause for sainthood of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Father Kolodiejchuk and Missionaries of Charity Sister Mary Ozana are writing a biography of Mother Teresa’s spiritual life.