This is the twenty-third volume in the Great Spiritual Teachers series I have read, it released in 2004, but was not included in the two rebranding’s since then. Two Years ago I read my first book in the series, it was
Born to Do This: 30 Days with Joan of Arc by Jaymie Stuart Wolfe, and loved it and the concept of the series. I have read one almost every month since that first one, and I have tracked down all the out of print, and will read and review them, will do so until I finish all 25 released to date in the series. This marks the antepenultimate volume for me to read. After I finished all of them that had eBook editions I have been randomly jumping around. I prefer the digital editions or eBooks with my dyslexia is easier to read.
The description of this volume states:
“John Kirvan adds the wisdom of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) to the The Thirty Days with a Great Spiritual Teacher series. For Mother Teresa, Jesus was always near at hand, especially for the destitute and dying. The depth of her dedication and spiritual vision captured the imagination of the world and led to her beatification in 2003, only six years after her death. Love Without Measure invites us to encounter the presence of Christ -- in the poor as well as the comfortable, in the stranger and in the friend -- and to respond with a service grounded in love. Over 340,000 copies sold in this series.”
About the series we are informed:
“Each book in the Great Spiritual Teachers series provides a month of daily readings from one of Christianity's most beloved spiritual guides. For each day there is a brief and accessible morning meditation drawn from the mystic's writings, a simple mantra for use throughout the day, and a night prayer to focus one's thoughts as the day ends. These easy-to-use books are the perfect prayer companion for busy people who want to root their spiritual practice in the solid ground of these great spiritual teachers.”
The back of the physical edition states:
“Teresa of Calcutta knew well that compassion embodied in service makes life worth living. We will be measured not by our words, but by how we treat the poor. Teresa treated the poor as God meant them to be treated, and the world embraced her. We recognize in her someone who lived truthfully the values that many of us only profess.
Where is the face of God?
The answer is simple.
That naked one, that lonely one, that unwanted one
is my brother and my sister.”
About the authors we are informed:
“John Kirvan (1932-2012) wrote primarily about classical spirituality. He conceived the 30 Days with a Great Spiritual Teacher series and edited most of its seventeen titles. Kirvan's other books include God Hunger, Silent Hope, Raw Faith, and There Is a God, There Is No God.”
I believe there are 19 volumes in this series currently in print, but only 16 of those have digital editions. This one appears to have been out of print a while. There are also a number of others that are currently out of print, The oldest I have seen are from the mid 1990’s and it looks like they went through a rebranding and format change in the mid 00’s, and they have undergone yet another rebranding beginning in the 2020’s including some new titles available in the series. Eight volumes have released since 2020.
I must admit I do not recall running across this series prior to that first volume on Joan. I have however added all of them to my ‘to be read list’. And as of the reading of this I am down to 3 left to go. I love the recent rebranding, and hope Ave Maria completes the rebranding across all volumes. I hope also that Ave Maria brings back into print some of the volumes currently not available; specifically the volumes on John of the Cross, Evelyn Underhill, this volume on Mother Theresa and others.
The sections in this volume are:
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
How to Pray This Book
Thirty Days With Mother Teresa
One Final Word
While reading this I highlighted numerous passages, some of them are:
“Love cannot remain by itself, it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service.”
Mother Theresa
“Whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you do for me.”
Jesus Of Nazareth
“The purpose of this book is to open a gate for its readers, to make accessible the spiritual experience and wisdom of one of the modern world’s best known spiritual teachers—and practitioners, Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Specifically it is designed to spell out her special message—the inseparable roles that faith and service must play in any healthy spirituality.”
“This modern Teresan spirituality is an ongoing dialogue of street service and scripture, an ongoing dialogue of faith and works, an unapologetic dialogue of a nun and belief in Jesus.”
““The world today is hungry,
not only for bread
but hungry for love,
hungry to be wanted,
to be loved.””
“But for now
come to me
in the silence of this night
and bring to me
the courage I need
here in the darkness,
the courage of Mother Teresa,
her love, :
her willingness to serve.”
““We are precious to him.
that man dying in the street—precious to him,
that millionaire—precious to him,
that sinner—precious to him.””
“Mother Teresa did not bring hope to the dying.
She announced its presence,
celebrated its reality,
released its power,
became its servant.”
“This long day,
this long year has
all but eaten away my fragile hope.
One headline at a time,
it has left me wordless in the dark.
As this night begins
I look for some way
to silence its dark message.”
“There are two ways in which Mother Teresa saw Jesus at work
in everything she did.
She saw Jesus present
in everyone to whom she reached out.
But on the other hand she knew
that in everything she did,
it was Jesus reaching out through her.”
““Every person is Christ for me
and since there is only one Jesus
that person is the one person
in the world at that moment.””
“God’s other name is generosity.”
“Love is not for hoarding.”
“Show me how to live without the conditions,
that color and flood my every prayer,
all the days and nights of my life.”
“Since I was a small child
with nothing but memorized words
to grow on,
I have been asking you to forgive
my trespasses
as I forgive those
who trespass against me.
Such big words for a child.
Words that need to be grown into.
And I wonder here in the night:
“Am I there yet?””
“Be with me then,
As I beg you to be with me now.
I need not be alone.
I am not dreaming
You are here.
It is your strength, not mine.”
“The fire must be tended.
I must do my best to keep the fire alive,
the lamp burning.
I will.”
“You are the fire.
It is you who lights up the night.
It is you who gives us hope
in the darkness.”
“But, “If you are really in love with Christ,” she said,
“no matter how small your work,
it will be done better.
It will be wholehearted.””
“But if I have really put my heart
at your service,
my whole heart,
however unnoticed my day,
it will have been done better
for having been done for you.
It doesn’t matter whether anyone noticed.”
“On any given morning
when it seems that the best we can hope for
is just another unpromising day,
being told not to get discouraged
can sound like so much pious chatter,
a vacuous substitute
for the reality out of which
we must carve some kind of spirituality.
Our task is to get up on that morning—
on this morning—on any morning—
when everything in our soul tells us to stay in bed,
when everything in our soul
tells us that we cannot even think
about the street and its poverty.”
“A character in one of Samuel Beckett’s plays says:
“You must go on,
I can’t go on,
I'll go on.””
“Another silent night has come.
It is time to put the day to rest,
time to let this night’s darkness
surround me
with its silence.
It is time to let God speak,
time for me to listen for him,
in the hunger of my soul,
in the voices of the voiceless
in the patient silence of the night.
It is time to let go of the day,
time to silence my heart.
It is time to pray.
Not with words
But in silence.
With silence.
Let us pray.”
“This book has been written not as a final word but as a gateway to the spiritual wisdom of a specific teacher, a gateway opening up our own spiritual path.
Some, inspired by her example, may choose a life of service, following her step by step into the streets of the world’s great and troubled cities. For most of us, however, it will be enough to discover and live the truth that love and service cannot be separated. That there is love, peace, and joy even in the world’s most troubled streets.”
Each day follows the same format with three main sections:
OUR DAY BEGINS: “As the day begins set aside a quiet moment in a quiet place to do the reading provided for the day
The passages are short; they never run more than a couple of hundred words. They have been carefully selected, though, to give a spiritual focus, a spiritual center to your whole day. They are designed to remind you, as another day begins, of your own existence at a spiritual level. They are meant to put you in the presence of the spiritual master who is your companion and teacher on this journey. This is especially true of this journey with Catherine of Siena. The readings are her report of God’s words to her, God’s side of the dialogue. And since the purpose of the passage is to remind you that at every moment during you are in the presence of a God who invites you continually, but quietly, to live in and through him, what better source than the words of God himself?”
ALL THROUGH YOUR DAY: “Immediately following the day’s reading you will find a single sentence, a meditation in the form of a mantra, a phrase meant as a companion for your spirit as it moves through a busy day. Write it down on a 3" x 5" card or on the appropriate page of your daybook. Look at it as often as you can. Repeat it quietly to yourself, and go on your way.
It is not meant to stop you in your tracks or to distract you from responsibilities but simply, gently, to remind you of the presence of God and your desire to respond to this presence.”
AS YOUR DAY IS ENDING: “This is a time for letting go of the day, for entering a world of imaginative prayer … This exercise is not meant to last more than a few minutes. End it when you are comfortable doing so. It has two parts. The first, in keeping with Catherine’s model, is a personal response to the words spoken by God in the day’s reading. Just as God has spoken to you, so you speak to God. Second, you are invited to turn to the familiarity of a prayer based on Catherine’s own words. It is an act of trust and confidence, an entryway into peaceful sleep, a simple evening prayer that gathers together the spiritual character of the day that is now ending as it began—in the presence of God.
It is a time for summary and closure.”
A sample day is:
“DAY 13
My Day Begins
“Intense love does not measure. It just gives.”
Because we have been told in a hundred ways that nothing is more important than love we can spend a good part of our life looking for a definition of this love that is so important, so central to our lives, but so hard to find.
It’s even hard to recognize. Is this love, we wonder. Is that? Mother Teresa points out the way of her love. Intense love, she says, or any degree of love for that matter, does not measure, or for that matter, define. It just gives.
Love is giving without measuring. There, we tell ourselves, must be more to love than this. But there isn’t.
We spoil love by cutting corners, by holding back, by measuring out our love in cautious bits.
It is only slowly, that we come to understand and accept that what Mother Teresa is telling us is that love’s other name is “generosity.”
Which is also God’s other name.
All Through the Day
God’s other name is generosity.
My Day Is Ending
Here in the deepening silence of this night it is easy for me to love without measure. Generosity comes easily in the dark. But a few hours from now, in the light of another day, I'll begin to ration love. I'll begin to act as though there is not enough love to go around. I know better. But only in the dark. By light of day I am cautious, stingy, afraid to spend my love. Please, in that moment, stop me in my tracks. Remind me that for Mother Teresa there was always enough love. Remind me that I live through the generosity of God, that the gift he has given me is meant to be given away. Love is not for hoarding.”
I hope those quotes and sample day give you a feel for this volume. I have now read 23 books in this series from the 25 I believe have ever been in print. And this is one is a great volume in this excellent series. I highlighted more sections in this volume than most. I was really blessed by this volume. I have recommended it to a number of friends, if they can track it down.
I have benefited from every volume I have read in the series and I have now completed most of them. I have now read 23 volumes in this series, and currently working on a twenty-fourth I can state this is another great offering in the series. I find that some speak to me more than others. I can state I benefited from the month with each person being profiled. If I went back and did a volume again at a different point or season in life I might interact with it differently. I already plan to circle back to the volume on Joan and some of the others and reread them once I have completed the series, and this would be one on that list.
This is a great read, it is one I really enjoyed reading. I can easily recommend this volume, and the series as a whole.
