A person’s life can be influenced through various aspects of religion, whether it be certain beliefs and traditions or certain people throughout that person’s life. Mother Teresa, born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910 in Albania, had many influences through Christianity within her life and lived as a person of religion. At an early age, Agnes received a calling from God to help people, which then led to her leaving her home at the age of 18 and joining the Sisters of Loreto. Mother Teresa found meaning through her vocation and was influenced by many beliefs and teachings of the Church such as, the option for the poor and vulnerable, life and dignity of the human person and the two commandments spoken by Jesus.
A common principle that all Christians share within the Church is one of the seven Principles of Catholic Social Teaching, the option for the poor and vulnerable. This teaching states that followers of the Church have a right and responsibility to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable before their own and to create conditions for the marginalised voices to be heard. It calls upon the whole community assist those who are most vulnerable. The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable originates from many of Jesus’ teachings within the Bible, stating “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40) as well as “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). These statements state that Jesus’ mission when he appeared among man was to preach the good news of the Lord to the poor and needy and that all Christians must treat those who are poor like they would treat Jesus himself and therefore must not deny the...
... middle of paper ...
... http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Teresa/WhoWasTeresa.aspx.
Office for Social Justice. ’Notable quotations from Catholic Social Teaching on human dignity’. Retrieved
March 22, 2014, from www.osjspm.org/cst/q_dignity.htm.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2014). Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching. Retrieved
24/3/14, from http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm.
University of Notre Dame. (2009). CST - The Preferential Option for the Poor. Centre for Social Concerns. Retrieved 20/3/14, from http://socialconcerns.nd.edu/mission/cst/cst4.shtml.
Vatican Council. (2014). Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), biography. Retrieved 24/3/14, from
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20031019_madre-teresa_en.html.
Around the world,, there are those who don’t have access to food, shelter or even clothes. Although most people wouldn't lift a finger to help the situation, the work of Caritas, Oasis and the Brotherhood of St. Laurence has a major impact on the lives of these people and although they may come from different denominations, they still work towards a common goal: helping all those in need. Their work reflects the teachings of the New Testament as well as the Catholic Social teachings, this essay will have a look at how they do that.
...ess fortunate in their time and assist with having good practices with their neighbors. As today’s Christians, we can think of one of the great commandments in the New Testament, “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. (Matthew 22:39). When we care for our neighbor and help provide for the less fortunate, we display holiness as well as show our faith to the world. Matthew 25:37-40 states, “Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee? or thirst, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you. In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ye brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
The Catholic Church habitually donates billions of pounds to overseas charities – The Economist stated in 2010 that the American Catholic Church alone donated $4.7 billion to charities, not to mention the amount given to local charities through the Sunday collections in churches all over the world. 26% of all world HIV/AIDS help organizations are run in some way by the Catholic Church, and especially in Africa where Catholic missionaries and charities have successfully managed to greatly alleviate the rate of HIV/AIDS. It’s not only about the physical relief of the poor – it’s about the message that the Church preaches: a message of hope and
Jesus teaches that when his followers ignore the poor and marginalized, they ignore Jesus himself. Indeed he also teaches in the same passage (Matthew 25:31-46) that when his followers take care of the poor and marginalized, they take care of Jesus himself. Those who claim to follow and take serious the teachings of Christ, then, must necessarily care about the poor and marginalized. Thus the rising inequality of income in the United States today is not merely an economical issue to be kept separate from the Church, but a moral issue of which the Church must necessarily find ways to insert itself in the conversation.
“Americans are harder working and more productive than ever, yet the rewards of that productivity flow into the pockets of fewer and fewer people (Ketteler, 2006).” This relates to the previous articles in that the wealth are becoming wealthier, while the poor are becoming poorer, and this is something that goes against everything the common good stands for and the teachings of the church for so many years. As we can see over and over again, people become greedy and selfish and only do what is in their best interest, and this goes against the teachings and the actions of Jesus Christ. Father Ketteler writes that Jesus chose the poverty life, to be close to those who are in need most. “Jesus lived out a preferential option in standing on the side of those most in need, physically and spiritually (Ketteler, 2006).” Father Ketteler finishes with saying that when we love one another, nobody is a burden and everything that is produced is shared equally among all men and women, “civilizations of love abandons a mentality in which the poor as individuals and as peoples are considered a burden, as irksome intruders trying to consume what others have produced (Ketteler,
Christians wi... ... middle of paper ... ... e; for instance depending on their economic situation, or amount of free time and number of family commitments. Whether it be giving a few pounds a month to various charities, or getting directly involved in groups such as Chrisitian aid, God will honour all those who dedicate a fraction of their lives to the poverty stricken. God does not expect a million mother Teresa's, but what he does desire is that every Christian makes some sort of contribution.
Christianity propagated charity as one of the necessary acts that a good Christian should follow. Graham Gordon believes that in Christianity, "Charity is considered chief of the Christian virtues," and that "Charity is commended by St. Paul for being the true way to the end which religious practices seek"(10). We can see that in being a chief virtue, charity is highly encouraged in the sense that helping others is considered to be a great deed of good doing. Therefore, we can draw the notion that those who wish to follow the "true way to the end," are those that contribute the most to the poor, as opposed to those mentioned by Walsh who see themselves as "not responsible for the welfare of human beings.
Teresa builds her doctrines based on her experiences of divine origin. Teresa’s idea of humility is identical to that of Jesus’ teachings of a humble and loving life. Teresa helped build what it is today’s Church, evident of her title of the Doctor of the Church. For Teresa, “prayer must be the foundation in which this house is built.” To her prayer permits people to get to know God better in an intimate way. In my opinion, I agree with St. Teresa’s theological perspective of a humble and intimate life with God. She has greatly impacted the Church and is the inspiration for many, because of her spiritual ideals on her life and writings, for this she will always be remembered as the great Catholic
It all started in 1922 in Skopje, Yugoslavia. One day while, the soon to be known as, Mother Teresa was walking, she felt God call her to serve the poor at only the age of 12. Seven years later she discovered her calling was to serve the poor in Calcutta, India and prepared to leave her comfy nunnery in Loretto. As she walked through the beautiful garden in the nunnery, before she left, she questioned leaving all of this beauty for the slums of Calcutta.
There are countless social justice issues that Christian ethicists have the opportunity to address. The aim of Christian ethics is to determine one’s moral responsibility based off of a biblical framework. When discussing many social justice issues, it is easy to decipher precisely what scripture has to say, and what humanity’s moral stance should be. Yet, in many ways, humanity will still struggle to accept that moral and ethical responsibility, even when that moral stance is clearly mapped out in scripture. One such issue is poverty. This paper will look closely at the biblical teachings on poverty, the key ethical standpoints of sacredness of life, love, and justice, as well as the moral responsibilities Christians face. It seems,
The churches in the world play a huge role in the determination to access of food, clean water, and shelter. No matter what religious affiliation, people will donate money to churches to help this growing problem that has arisen. This is important because churches are a good way to give those in need the supplies they need. The churches give the money raised by the offerings that people donate. This is effective because there are so many churches around the world. If most people donate a little bit of money, a substantial amount of people will be helped. The Christ House is a p...
Catholic just one of many, excellent examples of the poor, and how easily we are
Mother Teresa is one of the most recognized women in the world. Teresa brought in a revolutionary change in the world with her positive thoughts and love for humanity. Her missionary work started way back 1931 when she was still a little girl. She joined the Nuns as a kid in 1931, and she was later named Teresa from Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. It was in respect and honor of the Saints of Theresa. Mother Teresa’s missions were concentrated around helping the poor people with their basic needs such as food, water and shelter. She also demonstrated a lot of interest in taking care of the weak and defenseless people in the society. For example, it has been recorded that she spent a lot of time caring for the elderly, disabled and injured. At the same
One of the most basic teachings in the Catholic Church is to ?Love one another as I have loved you.? This can be implied towards people living in poverty as we can follow the steps that Jesus had undertaken to love other people even if they are your enemies. By showing love and compassion we can create a world that is aware of poverty issues and help the declination of poverty. Countless organisations are heavily involved in carrying missions to help ultimately eradicate poverty. These charities and organisations include CARITAS, World Vision, Oxfam, St Vincent de Paul and many other non profitable organisations which help carry out work to help those who are in need.
As the practical influence was the more important of the two, the Catholic Church developed an extremely large practical role in the social services before it evolved. Today this order is being reversed. The church’s role as a service provider was deteriorating mainly because falling vocations left the church without suitable persons to sustain their roles. The reputation of the Catholic Church has also been stained by the found information of the shocking abuses committed by members of the Catholic Clergy on vulnerable people, particularly children, whom had been placed in their care. Despite the effects of these scandals, the new means of influencing social policy debate has a substantial effectiveness and may well offer a means by which the church can play an important role in the development of social policy in the future (Socialjustice.com. 2014).