I Loved Jesus in the Night

I just finished reading a wonderful little book on Mother Teresa by Paul Murray O.P. : I Loved Jesus in the Night: Teresa of Calcutta-A Secret Revealed.

The inside jacket of the book introduces its content in these words:

"The world was shocked when the letters of Mother Teresa were published last year [2007] for the first time. The media focused attention at once on the unexpected phenomenon of darkness in the life of the saint, the astonishing revelation that, for decades, Mother Teresa had struggled mightily with belief in God. To some, this seemed to lend support to the arguments of the "new atheists." But what we are offered in this beautiful book is, at last, a serious grappling with the deeper meaning of her darkness, a work of sharp and unusual insight, written by someone who knew her."

I would add to this that it is not simply something about Mother Teresa that is revealed in this book, but something about God and his presence in our world today. It is God who calls and transforms a person that the Church will one day recognize as a saint. It is God who invites that person to a specific mission; and that mission is always to be God's presence in the world. In Mother Teresa the "secret" that "is revealed" is that God so wishes to be with the poorest of the poor, the unloved, the forgotten, the rejected that he accepts to enter into their dark nights to be close to them.

Related: Online resources on Mother Teresa