Which ones of the many books written about Mother Theresa's? The one I have is Come be My Light and, a few articles on her journals. The best one of the latter is Sacred Doubt written by Rabbi Irwin Kula of Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/irwin_kula/2007/09/sacred_doubt.html

The feeling of being unaccompanied by God was not exclusive to Mother Theresa though. Many saints have gone through the same. St Augustine and St Theresa of Liseux as well, to name a few. St Faustina of the Divine Mercy movement wrote extensively about it: Dark Night of the Soul. Here's an extract from it from my Catholic book club:

"Toward the first year of my novitiate, darkness began to cast its shadow over my soul. I felt no consolation in prayer; I had to make a great effort to meditate, fear began to sweep over me. Going deeper into myself I could find nothing but great misery. I could also clearly see the great holiness of God. I did not dare to raise my eyes to Him, but reduced myself to dust under His feet and begged for mercy. My soul was in this state for almost six months...

Further on, she continues with:

"My mind became dimmed in a strange way no truth seemed clear to me. When people spoke to me about God, my heart was like a rock. I could not draw from it a single sentiment of love for Him. When I tried, by an act of the will, to remain close to Him, I experienced great torments, and it seemed to me that I was only provoking God to an even greater anger. I felt in my soul a great void , and there was nothing with which I could fill it. I began to suffer from a great hunger and yearning for God, but I saw my utter powerlessness. I tried to read slowly, sentence by sentence, and to meditate in this way, but this also was of no avail..."

P.S. St Therese of Avila not Liseux.

What an amazing article, Lola.

This line would summarize my own spiritual journey more accurately than I've ever been able to articulate:

"And the more seriously we surrender to love the more we live on this razor’s edge of that doubt. [that we are one hundred per cent loved by another human being or by God or whether we actually love another person or God with all our heart and all our might.]"

To see it written in someone else's words based on the experience of so many other spiritual pilgrims helps...God keeps whispering into my doubt "Do not be afraid, never be afraid, for I am with you and go before you always"...this article whispers the same message. Thank you for sharing it here.

This is an excert from my prayer book’s meditation for July 29th…by Max Lucado…

“We need to remember that the disciples were common men given a compelling task. Before they were the stained-glass saints in the windows of cathedrals, they were somebody’s next-door neighbors trying to make a living and raise families. They weren’t cut from theological cloth or raised on supernatural milk. But they were an ounce more devoted than they were afraid, and as a result, did extraordinary things.”

Mother Teresa didn’t start out to be a “stained-glass saint”…she was just a feisty little woman who heard God calling her to care for the poor in Calcutta; she answered the call with every ounce of devotion and energy she could muster – even though time and the constant parade of death and poverty led her into her own “holy darkness” or soul journey. One of the paradoxes of faith for some (Mother Teresa included) is that the more deeply we experience God’s love and presence, the more impossible it is to comprehend His silence, and the more difficult the unanswered questions become to tolerate.

As I was reading Lucado’s meditation, I couldn’t help but think of our own Princess Lenora…I see Lynn as someone who has suffered through an unimaginable “dark night of the soul” and come out the other side “more devoted than afraid…doing extraordinary things” to help others.

That to me is what it’s (life, faith, wholeness) all about…turning our tragedies into strength for others, our perceived failures into compassion for others, our “dark nights” into beacons of light for others.

Everything that happens to us, no matter how dark, ugly or unredemptive it feels at the time, holds the powerful treasure of opportunity to learn and evolve “beyond the tears” (Lynn’s book title) and do extraordinary things for others along their way.

Eagle, I don't know what prompted you to say that about me. With sweet tears I humbly thank you for thinking of me. So many of us have been through the dark nights of our souls. What I've learned is by the grace of God. But first, I had to learn to recognize the grace of God. I read this in "Eat, Pray, Love" and I thought of Dotsie's initial post on this forum: "...there have been others who choose instead to get up before the sun and wash their faces and go to their prayers. And then fiercely try to hold on to their devotional convictions throughout the lunacy of another day." And I thought of Eagle with this line: "You have no idea how strong my love is." (context is that the author hears this as if a message from God." And this for me and my brother (perpetrator): "When the karma of a relationship is done, only love remains." I think of the word "karma" loosely, as if Karma is what the people are meant to go through in their relationship to get to the other side, which is love. Thank you Eagle, I do feel more devoted than afraid. I KNOW you are, my dear friend! From "Eat, Pray, Love" "Devotion is diligence without assurance." Thanks for the link to the article, Lola. It is deep to me, and required a couple of readings to grasp all he said within those sentences. L, PL

This is such a rich post. How touching to correspond with other women who take the love og God so seriously.

I was going to begin another topic with this quote, but I'll just throw it in here. We have a perpetual calendar that sits on our kitchen counter. It's called Hand in Hand:prayers and blessings for families. This was from July 25th.

"To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence a gift of His grace."
Thomas Merton

He longs to be gracious to us!

Giving thanks for the prompt from our gracious God to launch this site many moons ago. This is why I can't help but continue to listen and want to stay tuned in to Him. I don't want to miss another neat opportunity like this one, which I totally would have missed had I not turned to Him in prayer. It's all through His grace...and for that I'm grateful.

And we are the beneficiaries of that prompt. Amen to that!

What an awesome God, God is! His Spirit is evident in these forums. And how glad and grateful we are that the prompt of prayer birthed this website!

each day IS fresh and new ... may we be able to approach each day in that special NOW perspective.

NOW perspective? IMO a lot of folks would be better off if they could forget the past! Past heartache, past mistakes and embarrassments destroy more people than jj's alligators.

jabber, this is so true, but all the old hurts die so hard. They seem to jump into our mindset at the worse times. I think it takes a lot of mind games and positive thinging to make these changes, not to mention therapy.