The Humble Servant by Melvyn Brown

On the eve of her canonization I find that Mother Teresa has left behind many gifts of peace, love, caring and inspiration. As a young freelance journalist I had many blessed moments with Mother discovering the flashes of her wisdom, ostensibly to inspire people of all generations. She once said against a backdrop of increasing conflict between youth and the pace of a fast-growing society with often warped visions : “ The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love; hungry to be wanted, to be loved.” Someone once light-heartedly knighted her, the saint of the gutter. A year later Mother received the Noble Peace Prize. “The poor are very good people”, she once said, adding, “ they can teach us many beautiful things.” I can also recall reading the words she most believed in: “We can do great things; only small things with great love.” Today’s children receive far more freedom than their predecessors did. Not long ago the ‘saint of the gutter’ had said: “Love begins at home.” There is one saying of Mother which I keep in my wallet: “Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”