Category: Saint of Calcutta

2 John 1.5-6 – And now, dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

“Once you begin to neglect obedience, one by one everything goes. It can happen to any one of us. Obedience is difficult but that’s where love comes from.

“We belong to Jesus and obedience is our strength. You must do small acts of obedience with great love… Obedience is a cross—pick up your cross and follow him. Everyone in the world has to obey in some way or another. People are forced to obey or they will lose their jobs. But we obey out of love for Jesus…

“Ask yourself: Is your love free? Is there total surrender to God in your life? Loving trust and total surrender complete each other. Jesus had unshakable trust in his Father. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed: ‘Father…not my will but yours be done.’ …This trust was the fruit of Jesus’ intimate knowledge and love of the Father. Jesus trusted his whole life and his mission into the hands of his Father. That is loving trust. Do we have that trust?” [Quotes of Mother Teresa from Thirsting for God]

May we love Jesus by walking in obedience to His commands. May there be total surrender to God in our lives. Take this moment to sing, worship and pray to the Lord, to express our loving trust and total surrender to Him. Song: “Close” by Hillsong Young & Free.

– JP

John 14:15 ff. –If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth… Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them… Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching…

“Obedience is the most perfect act of love for God. I obey not because I am afraid, but because I love Jesus…True obedience is a genuine act of love…The more you love God the more you will obey.

“For our obedience to be cheerful and prompt, we have to be convinced that it is Jesus we obey… If you want to know whether you love God, ask yourselves the question: ‘Do I obey?’ If I obey, everything is alright… Knowledge of God, love of God, service of God—that is the end of our lives—and obedience gives us the key to it all.”

[Quotes of Mother Teresa from Total Surrender]

Let’s pray that the Lord would have His way with us. Let’s surrender totally to God as we sing and worship Him with the song, “I Surrender” by Hillsong.

– JP

Jeremiah 29.12-14a – “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD…

“My secret is a very simple one: I pray. To pray to Christ is to love Him…

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts…

I am asked what is one to do to be sure that one is following the way of salvation. I answer: ‘Love God. And, above all, pray.’” [Quotes of Mother Teresa from In My Own Words]

“God has created us to love and to be loved, and this is the beginning of prayer—to know that He loves me, that I have been created for greater things…

Love to be true has to begin with God in prayer. If we pray we will be able to love and if we love, we will be able to serve and therefore let us all promise that we will give our hearts to love them for they too have been created for greater things…

…prayer is the burning flame of God’s love for you and for me…”

[Quotes of Mother Teresa from The Joy in Loving]

Use the following prayer as a starting point to help you enter into a time of praying to Jesus:  [A prayer of Mother Teresa from A Simple Path]

“O Jesus!
Grant that You may be the object of our thoughts and affections,
The subject of our conversations,
The end of our actions
The model of our life,
Our support in death, and
Our reward eternally in Your heavenly Kingdom.
Amen”

– JP

Isaiah 43:1-5; 49:15-16a – This is what the Lord says…
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you…
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned…
Since you are precious…in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you…”
[…]
“Can a mother forget her nursing child?
Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?
But even if that were possible,
I would not forget you!
See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.”

“God is love. He loves each one of us. We read something beautiful in the Scriptures: ‘I have called you by your name, you are mine. Water will not drown you, fire will not burn you, I will give up nations for you, you are precious to me, I love you. Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you on the palm of my hand.’ This is God speaking to you and to me, to that leper man and that alcoholic woman, to the person with a mental handicap and to the little child: ‘You are precious to me. I love you.’” [The Wisdom of Mother Teresa]

Sing and declare that you belong to God through Jesus! Song: “I Belong to You.“

– JP

John 15.9-11 (RSV) – As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. I have said these things so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

“Who is Jesus to me?

Jesus is the Word made flesh.
Jesus is the Bread of Life…
Jesus is the sacrifice offered…for the sins of the world and for mine…
Jesus is the truth to be told.
Jesus is the way to be walked.
Jesus is the light to be lit.
Jesus is the life to be lived,
Jesus is the love to be loved.
Jesus is the joy to be shared.
Jesus is the peace to be given…

To me: Jesus is my God…
Jesus is my life.
Jesus is my only love.
Jesus is my all in all.
Jesus is my everything.

Jesus, I love with my whole heart, with my whole being. I have given Him all, even my sins, and He has espoused me to Himself in all tenderness and love.” [Mother Teresa, No Greater Love]

As you listen to “Broken Vessels,” take a moment to write down who Jesus is to you… thank Him, worship Him, express your desire to know Him and to love Him.

– JP