CTS Biographies - Ignatius Press

S ISTER T ERESA, LORETO N UN 23The girls’ dormitories became hospital wards. The Sistersevacuated most of their charges to other convents andconverted hotels throughout the province.Sister Teresa, though, as headmistress and the sisterresponsible for the Daughters of St Anne, remained inCalcutta. She oversaw the removal from Entally to abuilding on Convent Road in Calcutta. She continued toteach geography, catechism and history, and alsoEnglish. It was at this time that she met the BelgianJesuit priest Father Celeste Van Exem, who wouldbecome her spiritual director.Extraordinary Private VowAt the end of 2002, the Postulator of Mother Teresa’sCause published information about a key event inMother’s life which took place in 1942. It was in thenature of a ‘private vow’, made with the permission ofher spiritual director, and would remain secret untilMother referred to it again in 1959 - in relation to thefounding of her Congregation - to a priest and to theArchbishop of Calcutta.Towards the end of her annual retreat in 1942 thethirty-two-year-old Loreto nun, as she later explained it,“wanted to give Jesus something very beautiful ...something without reserve”. In accord with her spiritualdirector, Sister Teresa bound herself “to give to Godanything that He may ask - not to refuse Him anything”.