Beyond Blue: August 2007 Archives

After Eric read the latest story about Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith, he turned to me and said, "I don’t get it. All you religious types are depressed. What came first? The depression or the religion? . . . And another thing, you all love your desserts."

If you’ve ever attended a religious convention, you would appreciate the validity of those claims. The waiters always run out of key lime pie. And, well, you observe quite a few blank expressions and pasty-white faces when you walk the exhibition aisles of the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit.

How is it that we depressives tend to be more spiritual? Or is it that the more religion you get in your life, the more depressed?

A year ago Beliefnet approached me to write Beyond Blue because they learned that so many of their readers suffer from depression. Articles published on depression and anxiety were among their most popular.

Back in 2003, Beliefnet's Rome correspondent Father Raymond J. de Souza interviewed Brian Kolodiejchuk, the Missionary of Charity priest who is advancing Mother Teresa's sainthood cause and the editor of the new compilation of Mother Teresa's writings.

Here are a few excerpts from the interview. To read the entire article, click here.

What did you learn about Mother Teresa in the course of preparing her cause? 

Even though she was a public person, she managed to keep her interior life private. She hardly ever said anything about her personal life. She wasn't interested in a biography, as she did not see that as important. Her focus was always that everything she did was God's work. She would always say that to anyone who spoke of her success: "It's God's work." People saw her holiness - it was evident - but now we realize that her simplicity hid a real profundity. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of the more profound aspects of her soul. I think we will see that she is one of the greater saints, but time will tell as we begin to understand more of her.

This morning I read the following hymn in my devotional, "Magnificat." The words could have been composed by Mother Teresa, because, like her most personal writings edited and compiled by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., they speak of finding the light in our darkness:

O Light that knew no dawn,
That shines to endless day,
All things in earth and heav’n
Are brightened by thy ray;
No eye can to thy throne ascend,
Nor mind thy brightness comprehend.

Thy grace, O Father, give,
That I might serve in fear;
Above all gifts, I pray,
Grant me thy voice to hear;
From sin thy child in mercy free,
And let me dwell in light with thee.

Fellow Beliefnet blogger and bestselling author Bruce Feiler believes that Mother Teresa's crisis of faith makes her more human. To read his blog post about the modern saint, click here.

I was moved by these words Rod Dreher wrote on his blog post about Mother Teresa:

Verily, verily I say unto you, Mother Teresa of Calcutta is the patron saint for a world that has lost its ability to believe, but hungers desperately for belief. We knew when she was alive that a spiritual hero lived among us. But really, we had no idea at all what this little nun was capable of. Blessed Mother Teresa, pray for we who believe but struggle all the same with unbelief.

His column for the Dallas Morning News on the modern day saint, and his Beliefnet blog post on her is worth your time (you can get there by clicking here). He mentions the difference between hope and optimism, an ongoing debate on this blog.