The following are direct quotations from some of Mother Teresa’s speeches the world over.
On abortion:
“We are precious to Him … Every single child that he has created, every unborn child in the womb.”
” … Abortion has become the greatest destroyer of love, of peace. Millions of little children are being killed.”
“… And to make it easy for us to love another He said something very beautiful, something real: ‘Whatever you do to the least of My brethren, you do it to Me.'”
“If you give a glass of water in My name, you give it to Me. If you receive a little child … If you receive the little unborn child, you receive Me.”
“The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child … And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
“The life of a child that still has to be born or the life of the poor whom we meet in the streets in Calcutta, Rome or anywhere else in the world, the life of children or adults is the same life. It is our life, it is a gift from God.”
“Every abortion kills two – the child and the conscience of the mother. She will never forget that she herself has killed her own child.”
“How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that loves means willing to give until it hurts.”
“By abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.”
“We are fighting abortion by adoption – by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals, and police stations: ‘please don’t destroy the child; we will take the child.'”
“Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child.”
“The fruit of abortion is nuclear war.”
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On the poor:
“The poor are great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things … These poor people maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich. Those who are materially poor can be wonderful people.”
“The poor gives us much more than we give them. They’re such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We don’t have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.”
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On her work:
“We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of some people, but we must be contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we must bring that presence of God into your family … There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home. Love begins at home.”
“I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper’s wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord Himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?”
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On the death of Princess Diana:
“Diana helped me to help the poor and that’s the most beautiful thing. She was very much concerned about the poor and her attitude towards the poor was good. That’s why she came close to me.”