.............................

Mother Teresa

1910 - 1997

Sisters

This Letter was written by Mother Teresa for all Women.
What more fitting place to lovingly reproduce this letter, than where
Christian Women can see and learn from it.

Missionaries of Charity
54A A.J.C. Bose Road
Calcutta, India 700016

A message from Mother Teresa for the World Conference on Women in Beijing

Dear Friends,

I am praying for God's blessing on all who are taking part in the Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing. I hope that this Conference will help everyone to
know, love and respect the special place of women in God's plan so that they may
fulfill this plan in their lives.

I do not understand why some people are saying that women and men are exactly the
same, and are denying the beautiful differences between men and women. All God's
gifts are good, but they are not all the same. As I often say to people who tell me they
would like to serve the poor as I do, "What I can do, you cannot. What you can do, I cannot.
But together we can do something beautiful for God." It is just this way with the differences
between women and men.

God has created each one of us, every human being, for greater things - to love and to
be loved. But why did God make some of us men and others women? Because a
woman's love is one image of the love of God, and a man's love is another image of
God's love. Both are created to love, but each in a different way. Woman and man
complete each other, and together show forth God's love more fully than either can
do alone.

That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she
becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women. How grateful we must
be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy to the whole world, women
and men alike! Yet we can destroy this gift of motherhood, especially by the evil of
abortion, but also by thinking that other things like jobs or positions are more
important than loving, than giving oneself to others. No job, no plans, no possessions,
no idea of "freedom" can take the place of love. So anything that destroys God's gift
of motherhood destroys His most precious gift to women-the ability to love as a woman.

God told us, "Love your neighbour as yourself." So first I am to love myself rightly,
and then to love my neighbour like that. But how can I love myself unless I accept
myself as God has made me? Those who deny the beautiful differences between men
and women are not accepting themselves as God has made them, and so cannot love
the neighbour. They will only bring division, unhappiness and destruction of peace to
the world. For example, as I have often said, abortion is the greatest destroyer of
peace in the world today, and those who want to make women and men the same are
all in favour of abortion.

Instead of death and sorrow, let us bring peace and joy to the world. To do this we
must beg God for His gift of peace and learn to love and accept each other as brothers
and sisters, children of God. We know that the best place for children to learn how
to love and to pray is in the family, by seeing the love and prayer of their mother and
father. When families are broken or disunited, many children grow up not knowing
how to love and pray. A country where many families have been destroyed like this
will have many problems. I have often seen, especially in the rich countries, how
children turn to drugs or other things to escape feeling unloved and rejected.

But when families are strong and united, children can see God's special love in the
love of their father and mother and can grow to make their country a loving and prayerful
place. The child is God's best gift to the family and needs both mother and father
because each one shows God's love in a special way. The family that prays together
stays together, and if they stay together they will love one another as God has loved
each one of them. And works of love are always works of peace.

So let us keep the joy of loving in our hearts and share this joy with all we meet.
My prayer for all of the delegates, and for every woman whom the Beijing Conference
is trying to help, is that each one may be humble and pure like Mary so as to live in
love and peace with one another and make our families and our world something
beautiful for God.

Let us pray.
signed:
All for the glory of God and Good of souls.
God bless you
Mother Teresa mc