Recently the twenty year anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa (also known as St. Teresa of Calcutta) passed. Mother Teresa lived from August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997. She died of congestive heart failure.
Mother Teresa left behind a beautiful legacy of compassion, faith, and generosity, and is especially known for her work for many years among the slums of Calcutta. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity – which grew from 13 people at the time of its founding to over 4,000 sisters – who managed hospitals, orphanages, and charity centers. The Missionaries of Charity were founded over 65 years ago and now operate in dozens of organizations. There is also a brother organization called the Missionary Brothers of Charity, which was jointly founded by Brother Andrew and Mother Teresa herself. The Missionaries of Charity are particularly known for their vows of poverty and it takes nine years to join the community.
Throughout her life and work, Mother Teresa maintained her pro life witness, including in the speech she gave when she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
The following are some of Mother Teresa’s most inspiring pro life quotes:
1. “How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.”
2. “I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.”
3. “And if we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
4. “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
5. “We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, of killings, of wars, of hatred. If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other.”
6. “By abortion the mother does not learn to love, but kills her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women to the same trouble. So abortion leads to more abortion. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.”
7. “Any country that accepts abortion is the poorest of the poor.”
8. “Many people are concerned with children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is the greatest destroyer of peace today—abortion which brings people to such blindness.”
9. “We must remember that life begins at home and we must also remember that the future of humanity passes through the family.”
10. “How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts.”
Abortion doesn’t just affect a mother or even a mother and her child. It affects the father. It affects other children the mother may have or has already birthed. It will have inter-generational affects upon an entire family. Mother Teresa understood this and conversely proclaimed the fact that that every child deserves a chance at life. If denied this God-given right, all of society will suffer.
