![]() ![]() He used, 'I thirst,' instead of 'Give Me your love'. Reflecting on Jesus' words from the Cross, Mother Teresa said,Īt this most difficult time He proclaimed, 'I thirst.' And people thought He was thirsty in an ordinary way and they gave Him vinegar straight away but it was not for that thirst it was for our love, our affection, that intimate attachment to Him, and that sharing of His passion. What specifically is Jesus thirsting for in us? He longs for our love - our attention, our ardent devotion, the total entrusting of our lives to Him. If you remember anything from Mother's letter, remember this - 'I Thirst' is something much deeper than just Jesus saying 'I love you.' Until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you - you can't begin to know who He wants to be for you. Why does Jesus say "I Thirst"? What does it mean?. Near the end of her life, in a letter to all of the Missionaries of Charity sisters, she made a passionate appeal to draw closer to the thirst of Jesus and take His statement "I Thirst" more seriously in their daily lives: And she said Jesus is constantly awaiting our response to His thirst. Mother Teresa, however, sees Jesus' "I thirst" as a very personal statement spoken to each individual today, at every moment. But I understood this more in a general, abstract way: Jesus wanted souls "out there" in the world to be saved. ![]() In my youth, I heard that Jesus' words from the Cross, "I thirst," expressed His thirst for souls. And the way she expressed it was revolutionary for me. But Mother Teresa focused on God's thirst for us. The tradition often has emphasized our thirst for God. Augustine put it best in his prayer to God in the opening of his Confessions: "Our hearts are restless until they rest in you." We see this also in the Catechism, which teaches that the human person has "longings for the infinite" which only God can fulfill (CCC, 33). My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42:1). We see this in the famous Psalm 42: "As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. "We have these words in every chapel of the MCs to remind us what an MC is here for: to quench the thirst of Jesus for souls, for love, for kindness, for compassion, for delicate love." Ever since her call to serve the poorest of the poor in 1946, Mother Teresa insisted that the Missionaries of Charity were founded "to satiate the thirst of Jesus," and she included this statement in the founding Rules for the new religious order: "The General End of the Missionaries of Charity is to satiate the thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross for Love and Souls."īut what does this mean - "to satiate the thirst of Jesus"? Throughout the ages, men and women have expressed the human person's thirst for God. Mother Teresa said that those words in the chapel - taken from Jesus words from the cross on Good Friday - were a constant reminder of the purpose of the Missionaries of Charity. The image that stands out most is a large crucifix behind the altar and the stark words painted in bold, black capital letters on the wall alongside it: "I THIRST." Just a gold tabernacle behind the altar and a statue of Our Lady in one corner. Typically, there are no ornate pieces of religious art. The sisters take their shoes off before entering the chapel and sit or kneel on the bare floor. ![]() Mother Teresa founded - one is immediately struck by the simplicity, indeed the austerity, of the sacred space. When visiting a chapel of the Missionaries of Charity - the religious order Bl. ![]()
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