26.12.2012 Views

My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Ano<strong>the</strong>r feature <strong>of</strong> our membership is that we accept women while<br />

most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r academies do not. In fact, we have more women<br />

than men in our academy. We organize a few events each year<br />

with music, folklore and o<strong>the</strong>r entertainment. It's fun and<br />

gratifying that we are able to help a noble cause.<br />

Our chapter was founded in my backyard. <strong>My</strong> mo<strong>the</strong>r, who was<br />

watching our first meeting, made a funny remark, "Academy <strong>of</strong><br />

Codfish? What is that?!" I told her that that it was what I said when I<br />

first heard about it.<br />

<strong>My</strong> Four Idols and Heroes<br />

MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA was born in <strong>the</strong> very old city<br />

<strong>of</strong> Skopje, Macedonia on August 26, 1910. Her family was <strong>of</strong><br />

Albanian decent. At age twelve, she strongly felt a call to do<br />

missionary work, spreading <strong>the</strong> love <strong>of</strong> Christ. At eighteen, she<br />

joined <strong>the</strong> Sisters <strong>of</strong> Loreto, an Irish community <strong>of</strong> nuns with<br />

missions in India. She took her vows on May 24, 1931 and started<br />

teaching at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta. During this time<br />

she witnessed <strong>the</strong> horrendous poverty in <strong>the</strong> streets. She obtained<br />

permission from her superiors to start an open-air school in <strong>the</strong><br />

slums <strong>of</strong> Calcutta for poor children.<br />

In 1950 she created her own order, The Missionary <strong>of</strong> Charity<br />

dedicated to love and care <strong>of</strong> those people that nobody cared for!<br />

Her new organization provided help to <strong>the</strong> poorest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> poor and<br />

spread all over <strong>the</strong> world including <strong>the</strong> former Soviet Union and<br />

several Eastern European countries, Asia, Africa, Latin America<br />

and Australia. Today, her world organization provides relief work<br />

for natural catastrophes, epidemics, famine, alcoholics, aides and<br />

<strong>the</strong> homeless, in more than 40 countries. Today, <strong>the</strong>re are more<br />

than one million organizations Mo<strong>the</strong>r Teresa inspired to help<br />

people in need. For many years I was also inspired by her<br />

119

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!