Mother Teresa's Jokes

SMILE and LAUGH OUT LOUD!

One joke concerned a traveler whose car broke down at the edge of a lonely, barren region.  The only refuge was a monastery and the only transport the monks could offer the man was a donkey.  The traveler insisted on continuing his journey, so the monks explained that to manage the animal, the man must remember to say, "Amen, Amen," when he wanted it to stop, but "Thank God, thank God" when he wanted it to go forward.  All went well until a precipice loomed before him, and the nervous man remembered just in time to shout "Amen, Amen."  The donkey stopped at the very edge of the precipice.  The relieved man said, "Thank God, thank God," and over they plunged.

There is a true joke in Calcutta about abortion and children:

"In Calcutta, Mother Teresa told a large audience, "every night we send word to all the clinics, to all the police stations, to all the hospitals: "Please do not destroy the child.  I will take the child."  So our Children House is always full; full of children.  What's so funny is Mother Teresa is always talking about family planning and about abortion, but everyday she has more and more children. 

Only Mother Teresa could make a joke about death.  There was a civil war going on in Amman, Jordan in September 1970.  Mother Teresa and the Sisters had just founded a house  in the Arab community - the first in the Middle East.  Mother Teresa, after staying for six weeks left for India.  Back in Amman, the violence was raging on and one night the bombing got too close.  The Sisters got hold of a phone and called Mother Teresa long distance.  They told me about the violence, and they wanted to know if they should stay.  I listened to them and we talked it over.  They were willing to stay there.  Before hanging up, I said, 'Call me up when you are dead.'

LOL!

Gutsy Mother Teresa with wry humor: Terence Cardinal Cooke informed her that the Archdiocese of New York was ready to give a grant for their support at South Bronx, mostly helping Hispanics from Puerto Rico and blacks.  He would give five hundred dollars a month for each Sister. Mother Teresa, rejected the offer and said to him, "Do you think, Your Eminence, that God is going to become bankrupt in New York?"  Well, God did not declare bankruptcy but New York did and had to be bailed out by the U.S. Government.
[Mother Teresa was very explicit in not soliciting and collecting money for work.  She said, I don't want it to become a business, but to remain a work of love]

Mother Teresa - Her Empty Heart

RUNNING ON EMPTY

MOTHER TERESA, THE STRONG, DEDICATED AND SHORT WOMAN HAD A BIG HEART.  So big it was always empty.

Critics and everyone, upon the release of a few letters by her Vatican postulator and author of "Come Be My Light', Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC,  in preparation for her path to sainthood were surprised and confused because of what she wrote about her "emptiness" and "darkness."

"Violence of the tongue is very real - sharper than a knife."

I think they are over-analyzing her.  Indeed, it is very hard to write about a phenomenon that is Mother Teresa.  How so?   Here goes again the ignorance about religious people - the way they think; the way they write; and the way they work.  Mother Teresa was one of those religious people.  She thought of herself transfigured as the body of Jesus Christ, the human being, full of sorrow and suffering on the cross.  As a young teen, Mother Teresa was a poet.  I've read one of her so-called agonizing letters and I've interpreted it differently.  Those who have read it probably have not been to a Catholic confession.  It could sometimes be...overly dramatic, the crying and may be even gnashing of teeth.  It was just her way of saying to her priest confessor mea culpa.
In a letter, Mother Teresa the little pencil of God, talked of being empty.  Her emptiness made it possible for her to be full of gladness and fulfill all her busy schedules and  hard work everyday.  A heart should always be empty so that it can be filled up again and again.  How can you go on if your heart is full?  Mother Teresa wrote further, "God cannot fill what is full - He can fill only emptiness - deep poverty - and your yes (to Jesus) is the beginning of being or becoming empty.  It is not how much we really have to give - but how empty we are - so that we can receive fully in our life and let Him live His life in us."  
Mother Teresa never said, "I feel your pain."  She said, "Suffering itself may be nothing but suffering shared with Christ's passion is a wonderful gift.  Our Lord must love you so much to give you so great a part of his suffering."  Again, in one of her letters to Reverend John Myers of Chicago, she wrote, "Pray much for me and for our people.  Who are "our people?"  Our People are the POOR.
Mother Teresa is one miracle away to canonization.  I think her number one critic Christopher Hitchens is dead.  (I have to verify when did he die).  I'll pray to Mother Teresa to raise him from the dead and tell her again and again she is just a "confused old lady." 



Exclusive Mother Teresa 1974 1-2 Video

A wonderful interview.  Kudos!

Mother Teresa's Birthday Video

AUGUST 26 SUNDAY

It's Mother Teresa's 102nd birthday celebration in heaven.  Everything is planned in the Book of Life and Death and there are no coincidences.  While living on earth she was a gift from God that keeps on giving to humanity - the sick, the poor, the abandoned, the unloved, the refugees and the dying.  She was a walking angel on the streets of loneliness and destitution.  The very personification of love.

Her spirit lives on with the "Running Sisters" of her pontifical congregation all over the suffering world - the Missionaries of Charity.  The vocation is not for everyone - a life of chastity, poverty, obedience and wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor.  Who would have such a vocation in this day and age?

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." 

Mother Teresa never judged anyone.  Her "friends" that I've read about had an abortion, an agnostic and an anarchist.  Since she did not beg for donations and did not receive government grants, she solely depended on Divine Providence.  Yes, she accepted gifts from anyone who would give - Baby Doc of Haiti, Charles Keating among many others.  She once said, good or bad, we were all made by the hand of God.  Do not judge.

She spoke of the "Fear of the child."  In some places (all?) of the world, if you have an abortion, you don't have to pay.  But if you give birth, you have to pay.  Very ironic.

I'm so happy Mother Teresa got born and lived.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

BLESSED TERESA OF CALCUTTA

SHE IS A FIRST-CLASS MIRACLE FROM GOD. 

A God's gift to humanity.  She was born to be a saint.  It was her fate and destiny. 

At age 18, she did not want to become a nun at first and leave her family in Skopje, Yugoslavia (now Republic of Macedonia).  But she heard the call of God loud and strong and her interest in the mission in India became more than an interest.  It was her karma.  She wanted to be a missionary - to go out and give the life of Christ to the people.  A Yugoslav priest in Bengal, India, wrote that the Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly known as Sisters of Loreto, were quite active in the area.   She applied for entry and her mother Drana accepted what was to be about little Conxha (rosebud) and be separated from her, maybe forever.  She boarded the train at Skopje Railroad Station going to Zagreb and met Betike who also wished to be a Sister of Loreto.  The train chug-along passed Austria onto Paris where they have to be interviewed at the Loreto House.  Thereafter, they were permitted to go to Loreto Abbey in Dublin, Ireland, where they spent six weeks of novitiate training and studied English most of the time.  They left for their long voyage to India about mid-November 1928, taking them to Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and arriving at the Bay of Bengal seven weeks later, around first week of January 1929.    

Mother Teresa's early years in Calcutta can only be told in a book for they were a lifetime of teaching, helping and caring with love and smile to the poorest of the poor; picking up men, women and children in the gutters and streets because in each of them she saw the face of Jesus.  Calcutta in imperial India was a "steaming pit of misery" in those days.  Until 1912, Calcutta was an imperial city - the capital of British India.  She said, "Our work calls for us to see Jesus in everyone."  That the good that is possible is obligatory.

"If I had not picked up that first person dying in the street, I would not have picked up the thousands later on."

Mother Teresa, with permission from the Vatican, founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta on October 7, 1950.  She told the Vatican from the very first time that she did not want to be involved with financial accountability.  There lies the absolute ignorance of her critics, who did not know any better, who failed in shaming the hard works of Mother Teresa in future times.  An old abandoned Hindu temple of Goddess Kali located at 54A Lower Circular Road became the motherhouse of the House for the Dying (Nirmal Hriday Ashram).  Kali was the wife of Siva, the Destroyer.  In the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses, the trinity is composed of Brahma the Creator, Siva the Destroyer and Vishnu the Preserver.  Only the providence of God would give a Catholic nun who hailed from a Communist country a Hindu temple a place of faith and hope. 

The Mission:

• Nursing the sick and dying destitutes of leprosy, tuberculosis, cholera and malaria.  As a microbiologist, who wears mask and gloves to touch and test known bodily specimens,  it's beyond words how Mother Teresa and the Sisters don't seem to notice the stench, the sores of cadaverous patients with bare hands and the miasma of death.  Their complete dependence on the providence of God must have been their saving grace. 
• Gathering and teaching little street children at the Children's Home (Shishu Bavan)
• Giving shelter to the homeless
• Caring for the unwanted, the unloved, and the lonely
• Proclaiming the word of God by our presence and spiritual works of mercy - the Sisters of Missionaries of Charity are called "Running Sisters" because they walk so fast.  They are also known as "Preachers of Love."  There is a Hindu saying: When you pray, you must move your feet.  The Sisters when they walk the streets of Calcutta to visit and care the women and children usually pray the Rosary not only once but five times.
• Adoration of Jesus in and by the Blessed Sacrament

I usually get in my mailbox about 20 to 30 letters a week from charitable organizations in the United States and as far as Africa but none from Missionaries of Charity.  Now I found out why.  She said in a speech at the convention of the National Council of Catholic Women in Las Vegas, October 1960,  that people only needed to know the needs of their fellow human beings. 

"I don't beg.  I have not beg from the time I started the work.  But I go to the people - the Hindus, the Mohammedans, and the Christians - and I tell them: I have come to give you a chance to do something beautiful for God.  And the people, they want something beautiful for God and they come forward."

There are Missionaries of Charity worldwide (Incomplete List):

1965 - Cocorote, Venezuela

1968 - Rome, Italy

           Tabora, Tanzania

1969 - Melbourne, Australia

1970 - Amman, Jordan

            Southhall, London, England

1971 - Bronx, New York, USA

1972 - Dacca, Bangladesh

            Mauritius

            Belfast, Northern Ireland

1973 - Gaza, Israel

            Hodeida, Yemen

             Lima, Peru

             Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

1974 - Hanuabada, Papua New Guinea

            Palermo, Sicily

1975 - Naples, Italy

1976 - Mexico City, Mexico

            Guatemala City, Guatemala

1977 - Manila, Philippines

            Haiti, West Indies

            Rotterdam, the Netherlands

1978 - Metro-Manila, Philippines

            Zarate, Argentina

            El Dorado, Panama

1979 - Beirut, Lebanon

            Essen, West Germany

           Zagreb, Yugoslavia

           Nairobi, Kenya

           Salvado Bahia, Brazil

           Kigali, Rwanda

1980 - Ghent, Belgium

           Katmandu, Nepal

           Marseilles, France

           Skopje, Yugoslavia

           Madrid, Spain

           Santiago, Chile

1981 - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

           La Paz, Bolivia

           Cucuta, Colombia

           East Berlin, Germany

           Cairo, Egypt

           Belabo, Cameroon

           Tokyo, Japan

           Seoul, South Korea

           Macao

 1982 - Gangtok, Sikkim

            Setubal, Portugal

            Dublin, Ireland

            Giteranji, Burundi

1983 - Kowloon, Hongkong

            West Berlin, West Germany

            Livingston, Scotland

            Davao City, Philippines

            Calbayog, Philippines

            Tegucigalpa, Honduras

            Port Victoria, Seychelles

1984 - Mokochung, Assam

           Warsaw, Poland

           Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

           Colombo, Sri Lanka

1985 to 1986 - Damascus, Syria

                        Lahore, Pakistan

                        Singapore

The number of houses, including those in India and the inner cities of the United States, Latin America, Australia and Africa rose to 330 .  By 2012, the 13 Sisters of Missionaries of Charity multiplied to 4, 500 in 133 countries. 

"God doesn't require us to succeed, he only requires that you try."

She must be thinking of her 3-day trip to Communist China on January 20, 1985.  The party leader was Deng Xiaoping, who was demoted for a while but welcome back to the fold with open arms.  He was very much credited for making China into a somewhat capitalistic society that is today.  Mother Teresa attended a Latin Mass celebrated by an old priest (Chinese?) at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Peking (Beijing) with many people attending.  I know the spot for our tour bus passed it by in 2005.  The government let her get in touch with Deng Pufang, son of Deng Xiaoping, who was handicapped, being thrown out of a window by the Red Guards during Mao's Cultural Revolution.  After much niceties, and touring the collective welfare for the blind and handicaps, Mother Teresa asked if the Missionaries of Charity could provide love and care also.  No invitation came.  She was hoping for the best even when a blind man she met at the workshop factory she visited told her, "We owe everything to the Communist Party."
Mother Teresa, the faithful servant, became the citizen of Heaven on September 5, 1997.  The Mother of Bengal, if not the world, was at peace.



R & R

ROMNEY & RYAN

What a great team! Mitt made an excellent pick in Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.  Both good-looking guys who knows the values of free enterprise and empowering individual American.  America needs a true leader to bring back the American Way of Life.  With Romney as President, the American people won't have to spend so much in providing hard-earned tax money to the Obama Family, including Michelle's 22 make-up and make-over entourage, because he's already rich and came from a good family. 

How about that? I have something in common with Obama, the man Romney is hopefully going to unseat as CEO of USA.  He was a FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT from Indonesia at Columbia University.  Indeed, there's nothing wrong with that.  And then, with affirmative action, nothing wrong with that either, he got admitted to Harvard where he studied law and graduated as a "magna cum laude."  I've been waiting for quite sometime now for Obama to release and unseal his college records which are kind of dubious and mysterious according to many.  I was an exchange student for a year, also.  I remember years back my two roommates from Hongkong who were enrolled free at Northeastern University and University of Illinois as Foreign Exchange Students.

How about this? I agree with the others in the media that if Obama would release his college grades then Romney would release his 10 years of IRS tax records also.  Isn't that too long? I thought you can save your IRS records for seven years only?  I betcha the Obama handlers will say, "Now way, Mitt!"

Folks, this time, believe in Romney.

R & R

ROMNEY & RYAN

What a great team! Mitt made an excellent pick in Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.  Both good-looking guys who knows the values of free enterprise and empowering individual American.  America needs a true leader to bring back the American Way of Life.  With Romney as President, the American people won't have to spend so much in providing hard-earned tax money to the Obama Family, including Michelle's 22 make-up and make-over entourage, because he's already rich and came from a good family. 

How about that? I have something in common with Obama, the man Romney is hopefully going to unseat as CEO of USA.  He was a FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT from Indonesia at Columbia University.  Indeed, there's nothing wrong with that.  And then, with affirmative action, nothing wrong with that either, he got admitted to Harvard where he studied law and graduated as a "magna cum laude."  I've been waiting for quite sometime now for Obama to release and unseal his college records which are kind of dubious and mysterious according to many.  I was an exchange student for a year, also.  I remember years back my two roommates from Hongkong who were enrolled free at Northeastern University and University of Illinois as Foreign Exchange Students.

How about this? I agree with the others in the media that if Obama would release his college grades then Romney would release his 10 years of IRS tax records also.  Isn't that too long? I thought you can save your IRS records for seven years only?  I betcha the Obama handlers will say, "Now way, Mitt!"

Folks, this time, believe in Romney. 

Skokie Sculpture Park 2012

ARTS OF SKOKIE NORTHSHORE SCULPTURE PARK

I just can't help but wonder at the artistic change every time I drive along McCormick Boulevard in the Skokie-Evanston border.  Yes, the drive-in theater from many years ago is gone now and yes, the foul odor from the sewage treatment plant still permeates the nose of drivers rushing by in the evening.  As a resident of the village, let me remind all drivers not familiar with Skokie that it value human lives and should not race fast and furious along the boulevard.  I know where the police is hiding, particularly not under the bridge because there's no bridge in Skokie.  The approximate time is usually in the evening, between 8 pm to 11 pm.  I get to notice this since both cars stop right in front of my house. In 2011, there were 10,283 ticketed drivers in Skokie - the highest in Lake and Cook Counties.

Oops! Ah yes, my mind tend to wander in the labyrinthian maze.  The 2-mile Sculpture Park has 65 sculptures and is set from Dempster on the north and Touhy on the south.  This Sunday, August 19, the Art in the Park activities for young boys and girls of school age will be able to create with clay, beads, feathers and art materials, and express their own artistic talent.  Sculpture Park docents and volunteers will be on hand to help.  It will be held from 10 am to 1pm east of McCormick in Section 1 - between Dempster and Main St.  The Music Institute of Chicago will also be at the Park to show the children musical instruments and provide hands-on instruction.

                                    

The park is open all-year round to everyone, rain or shine, with biking, jogging and just walking in the well-paved paths.  (Watch video).  Once in a while, you might see a little turtle along the river's edge.



CHINA'S NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIER

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China is a world power. BTW, Snopes.com says this is "undetermined."

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From: jpl
Subject: FW: [MAA2001] Fw: CHINA'S NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIER
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 20:34:23 -0500

Incredible & scary should China become the world power.

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CHINA'S NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIER ? You may have no interest in modern weapons but........here it is! ? ? THIS IS QUANTUM LEAP ABOVE ANYTHING WE HAVE ON THE? DRAWING BOARD.  THEY HAVE THOUGHT "OUTSIDE THE BOX" ON THIS ONE.?  BETTER SPEED, LARGER CAPACITY, MUCH MORE STABLE, ETC.  DEFINITELY A "? BLUE-WATER " LONG REACH VESSEL.  PLUS THEY CAN SERVICE THEIR NUKE SUB? FLEET IN-BETWEEN THE TWIN HULLS ( SIGHT UNSEEN ) OR EVEN LAUNCH? AMPHIBIOUS OPPS FROM SAME.? IT WILL BE LAUNCHED IN HALF THE? TIME IT TAKES THE USA ? AT JUST ONE-THIRD? THE COST.  ADD THE NEW CHINESE STEALTH FIGHTER BOMBER ( NAVAL VERSION? ALREADY FLIGHT-TESTING ) IN THE MIX AND YOU HAVE THE MAKINGS OF A? FORMIDABLE WEAPONS SYSTEM INDEED. ALSO LOOK AT THAT EXTRA ''PARKING? AND READINESS'' STATION BETWEEN BOTH?? HULL STRUCTURES.? AND OF COURSE THE? LAUNCHING AND LANDING CAPABILITIES FROM THE UTILIZATION OF TWIN? FLIGHT DECKS AT ONCE. P.S. SOME THOUGHT SHOULD BE GIVEN TO? ADVISING YOUR GRANDCHILDREN TO LEARN TO SPEAK MANDARIN ( FORGET? SPANISH ). MY VERY, VERY BRIGHT 15-YEAR OLD COUSIN HAS ALREADY BEEN? ADVISED TO DO SO BY PEOPLE WHO KNOW ABOUT SUCH? THINGS. P.S.? SIX OF THESE VESSELS ( TWO PACIFIC, TWO? ATLANTIC, ONE INDIAN OCEAN AND ONE ON THE?? MEDITERRANEAN?? SEA )? WOULD BE A PRETTY GOOD DIPLOMATIC " BIG STICK. "?  NOTE : THE? CHINESE ARE ALREADY DRILLING FOR OIL OFF CUBA ,?? BRAZIL AND?? VENEZUELA .?  CAN THEY BUILD A FLEET? OF THESE THINGS? A FEW FACTS:  THE CHINESE HAVE COMPLETED THE? WORLD'S BIGGEST DAM ( THREE GORGES ), THE WORLD'S LONGEST OVER-WATER BRIDGE ( 65 TIMES AS MUCH? STEEL AS IN THE EIFFEL TOWER ),??  CONSTRUCTED? A 15,000 FT. HIGH RAILROAD INTO TIBET (ALL CONSIDERED MAJOR ENGINEERING? FEATS). CHINA IS? THE ONLY NATION OTHER? THAN RUSSIA THAT CAN LAUNCH MEN INTO? OUTER SPACE (OUR CAPABILITY ENDED WITH THE LAST SPACE SHUTTLE? LAUNCH THIS MONTH ).  THEY HAVE ALSO SHOT DOWN A SURVEILLANCE? SATELLITE ( ONE OF THEIR OWN ) FROM THE GROUND.?  PLUS THEY PRACTICALLY OWN AMERICA IN THE INTERNATIONAL DEBT GAME. CHINA'S NEW A/C CARRIER COULD BE TWICE AS FAST AS ANYTHING WE HAVE, PLUS THE STABILITY OF A CATAMARAN TYPE HULL WILL GREATLY REDUCE THE PITCHING,? YAWING AND SWAYING COMMON TO OUR PRESENT DESIGNS.

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Stones of Tribune Tower

STONES OF TRIBUNE TOWER
The magnificent architecture of the Tribune Tower is located north of Wacker Drive just off the Chicago River bridge and Michigan Avenue on the other side.  The building is a collector of stone pieces from historic buildings anywhere in the world. I only have very few stone collections - Versailles, Mt. Sinai, Red Sea and Petra. Yes, everybody must get stone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTvXm7Npiz0