Love and Joy
By
City Year
Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is
service .I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that
service is joy.
- Mother Teresa
For more than 45 years, Mother Teresa comforted the poor, the dying, and the unwanted around the world.
Over the years, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity grew from 12 to thousands, serving the “poorest
of the poor” in 450 centers world-wide. She rescued homeless and dying people from the gutters and
garbage dumps in Calcutta. Her work spread from Calcutta to New York to Albania, and she was one of
the pioneers of establishing homes for people with AIDS.
Through her work, Mother Teresa was a living example of her belief that love is embodied, or given true
form, through service. At its most powerful, service is an expression of selfless love, care, empathy, and
concern for others. Although Mother Teresa encountered pain, sickness, and extreme poverty on a daily
basis, she also taught that the path of service is the path of joy. Joy emerges from new experiences and
new relationships that are built through service, from acknowledging the human dignity in all people,
from feeling personally useful in the world, and from engaging in service as an act of love.
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