Mother Teresa Says "Sshhh!"

Mother Teresa has become an even bigger role model for me since I read her schedule and her attitude about work not getting done. I read this in Conversion Diary, Jennifer Fulwider's wonderful blog. In a previous post, Jennifer wrote that she had learned that Mother Teresa did not feel overwhelmed ... even when faced with all the poor to help, all the work to do.  Her attitude was that God would not ask you to do work that he didn't give you the time and resources to do. "So be at peace."

Mother Teresa's life was about loving God and loving the poor.  She spent time with both equally as her daily schedule reflects.

Daily Schedule for the Missionaries of Charity
4:30-5:00 Rise and get cleaned up
5:00-6:30 Prayers and Mass
6:30-8:00 Breakfast and cleanup
8:00-12:30 Work for the poor
12:30-2:30 Lunch and rest
2:30-3:00 Spiritual reading and meditation
3:00-3:15 Tea break
3:15-4:30 Adoration
4:30-7:30 Work for the poor
7:30-9:00 Dinner and clean up
9:00-9:45 Night prayers
9:45 Bedtime

Somehow, working 7-1/2 hours a day for the poor, she got a lot done. So should we fret about being overwhelmed, not getting it all done.  Mother Teresa would say "Sshhh."

Mother Teresa didn't just seek a lack of whining.  She also wrote beautifully about why we need quiet:

"We cannot find God in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how Nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence. ... The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls. For the essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us."

Amen.