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Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service

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Deep down, my absolute favorite thing to do is shop. As I write this, I'm internally scheming how to get the biggest bang for my buck on my next errand. I like things, especially pretty ones, and acquiring them makes me feel good. As I've come to recognize this passion of mine, I've found it nagging at me a bit. I know people who hate to shop. On top of that, they also hate to accumulate clutter. Their personality enhances their ability to live simply. Not me. I feel better with full bookshelves, cupboards, and drawers. I find malls comforting and thrift stores exhilarating. Quite likely, my pension to store up treasures here on earth runs a bit too deep.

Enter: Mother Teresa, Mary Poplin, Ron Sider, and Shane Claibourne. Since recognizing the grip that my materialism has on me, I've embarked on a slow (and slightly reluctant) quest to examine it. I owned the book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (by Ron Sider) for about five years before I had the guts to actually read it. Then I joined the crowd reading Irresistible Revolution to find myself completely captured by its fresh and clear vision. This fall, I came across Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa taught me about meaningful work and service by Mary Poplin. I've long admired Mother Teresa's work and wisdom; and have also wanted to hear more from Mary Poplin since she spoke on education and poverty at the university where I teach. In spite of my reluctance, my worldview is being reshaped by such books, and my shopping habits are certainly being redefined!

Whereas Rich Christians is factual and data-full, Irresistible Revolution is passionate, funny, and, well, irresistible and revolutionary, Finding Calcutta is simple and focusing. It seems hard for these traits to not follow anything touched by Mother Teresa. Mary Poplin, an education professor, spent her sabbatical as a volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity in 1996, a year before Mother Teresa died. Her book is a reflection on how her time in Calcutta shaped her newly found Christian faith. Writing on themes such as "the church as flawed and finite", "the vow of poverty and service to the poor", and "do all things without complaining or disputing", Poplin provides a glimpse into the daily world and perspective of the Missionaries of Charity.

While Mother Teresa's words often pierce to the core of an issue, her simple lifestyle illuminates what our complicated lives lack. "There were few toys or books at the centers," writes Poplin. "The lack of toys concerned no one except an occasional volunteer, like me. I realized more clearly how Americans are accustomed to having so many things that we have trouble coping without them. In the United States, we are entertained day and night; we can hardly live our own lives for living others' lives - fictional or real - through movies, television, and the news. Both children and adults who have many things constantly want more, and then in a short while, we are restless and bored again."

While acknowledging the need for Christians to live the type of "revolutions for love" that the Missionaries of Charity practice, Poplin also recognizes that this won't look the same for everyone. She calls the Sisters of Charity "a class unto themselves", but also believes that "there are ways we would need to imitate the missionaries in order to be effective". How does this look? A few of her observations:

* Commit their lives to God and the Holy Spirit
* Follow a leader with a distinct call and submit themselves to this
* Keep themselves from worldliness while working "deeply in the troubled heart of the world"
* Love selflessly
* Pray, worship, and study unceasingly

While on one level, Finding Calcutta is a reflection of one woman's interaction with Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity, it is also a deeper call to the readers to discover their own `Calcutta' and to live there with the same measure of abandon. With shocking statistics and passionate pleas, Claiborne and Sider's books stirred me out of a numb slumber. I am grateful for their perspective, but also left overwhelmed by what to do next. The charge is large and my capacities are small. The simplicity and focus of the sisters in Finding Calcutta helped me acknowledge that the small ways I move toward offering my life (even addressing those darn shopping addictions) can be as "beautiful for God" as those irresistible revolutions.

Mary Poplin went to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. This is her story of what she learned while there. It is an excellent introduction into the life and spiritual insight of Mother Teresa. The book is well written and conducive to a small group study if one uses the questions in the back of the book.

She would probably hate me saying this, but Mary Poplin is one of my heroes. She was a radical feminist who comes to faith in Jesus and is radically changed. She has a winsome and beautiful personality that comes through clearly in her personal testimony[...]

Many have written about Mother Teresa and her work in the very needy city of Calcutta and across the world. This author, a new Christian,and teaching in an American, university, took her sabbatical to work with Mother Teresa for several months. Her intent was to learn how to apply these princpals of working for Jesus to her own life.
The author describes her spiritual journey during the sabbatical and how
returning to the teaching world in the US she was able to apply these principals to the university world in which she was living and teaching.
It is simply written, but deeply spiritual. For anyone wanting to serve Christ in their own career path, this is the book to read.

I found this book extremely valuable for the inspiring (and challenging) real-life picture it offered of what a life of service in Christ can be. Poplin's transparency in her own journey allows you to walk along with her in humble astonishment at God's work through Mother Teresa and the sisters, and through Poplin herself as she opens her life to God's shaping hand. I've already given copies of this book to about 7 different female friends who are in the medical field, in ministry, teaching, or just at home with children, and several of them have not only told me in raving terms how much they are enjoying it but that they've already recommended it to friends themselves. For Christians in academia, Poplin's appendix suggesting a new vision for the university will also be of special interest.

Mary Poplin invites you to take a journey with her. Two or three hours of your time could hardly be more wisely invested. She tells a story of how she found a clear calling in her own life through a brief period of volunteer service with Mother Teresa.

When you read, don't expect a prescription for your own life. Expect to follow a pathway of reflection, even mystery as you stand before the One Who Calls each of us. Mother Teresa's God-directed ways are not familiar. Self-imposed poverty. Love through care for the poorest of the poor. All done without grumbling, rather with prayer and praise.

Let Dr. Poplin take you along in Finding Calcutta; you may find your own calling.

Amazing book, amazing story about the wonderful sacrificial love Mother Teresa had in her life. She is a worthy example to all of us of what it means to love even the unlovable. Her trust in God, her faith, her ability to cope and her ability to inspire us all was wonderfully communicated through this book. It was such an inspiring book I have written about it several times at [...]

I would highly recommend this book for people who want to grow in their walk with God. It presents important principles for living by faith told as a first-hand testimony of a relatively new believer. The author lived much of her life discounting the reality of Jesus and Christianity. She saw it only as a religious creation of humankind. In Finding Calcutta, she shows how faith and religious practice are to complement one another as she learns from one of the most sincere and transparent disciples of our generation - Mother Teresa.

This book is a quick read of short vignettes covering Mary Poplin's religious observations about the three months she spent volunteering with Mother Theresa.

One of her central arguments is that you cannot understand Mother Theresa outside of her Christian component and she makes an interesting case for how secular views of the world have trouble coming to terms with Mother Theresa.

The chapters themselves a quick stories of her observations and are easy to read and decently insightful. This is a good book that I would recommend to anyone looking to get religious insight into Mother Theresa.

I'm so grateful I purchased this book. Although it is a "can't put it down" book and could be read in two or three evenings, I deliberately read it slowly in order to savor the message of each chapter. One particular chapter (chapter 15), spoke to me very deeply and still haunts me. The author has helped me to see Calcutta right where I am, even within myself. This book is truly food for the soul.

Finding Calcutta provides amazing insight into the motivation behind Mother Teresa's work, as well as, insight into transferring God's love in action to individual communities around the world.