Among the hundreds of fine biographies, pictorial essays and meditation-based books about Mother Teresa of Calcutta, this book Mother Teresa’s Prescription: Finding Happiness And Peace in Service is refreshingly unique.
Paul Wright, a highly successful doctor, tells the story of his life-changing, five-year friendship with this saint-in-the making. The reader encounters Mother Teresa and her prophetic message for a busy modern world through the eyes and memories of an American cardiologist who seemed to have it made.
With wonderful anecdotes and personal reflections, Wright tells us how unhappy and unfulfilled he was in the midst of professional prominence and financial success. Recalling his encounters with Mother Teresa and her work in Tijuana and Calcutta, the author leads us to conclude that Mother Teresa had a prescription for happiness and peace, a universal message for all of us. She pointed Wright to the mandate issued by Jesus in Matthew 25 — Just as you did it for o, ne of the least of my brethren, you did it for me.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, admired by believers and non-believers alike, bears witness to having suffered intense depression as she experienced profound isolation from God. Such agony persisted for decades. Like Christ on the cross, who cried out to his Father, “Why have you abandoned me?”, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, too anguished in her loneliness.
Richard N. Ostling, a religion writer for the Associated Press and was formerly senior correspondent for Time magazine, observes “the phenomenon of darkness — feeling keenly aware of God’s silence or absence — has been experienced by saints and mystics through the ages. Paradoxical as it seems, confidants of Mother Teresa say she came to understand that such suffering was a necessary aspect of her heroic vocation.” To learn about eight saint who also suffered from depression, check out the article “8 Saints who were depressed but never gave up”