St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa): Do It Anyway

St. teresa Of cALcuttA (MOtHER tERESA): dO it ANyWAy

“For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord;

I will set them in safety from those that threaten them.”

-Psalm 12:5

St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa): Do It Anyway

The verses below were written on the wall of Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta, and have been widely attributed to her.

Some sources say that the words below were found written in Mother Teresa’s own room. It is based on a composition originally by Kent Keith.

Apparently she had placed it on the wall for her own use, after re-writing parts of it in a more spiritual way.

Its association with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity has made them popular worldwide, expressing as they do, the spirit in which they lived their lives.

Both versions are shown below.

This is the Version found written on the wall in Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta:

Do It Anyway

________________________

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create Anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

________________________

This Version is credited to St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)

The Original Version: ________________________________________________

The Paradoxical Commandments

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

________________________

“The Paradoxical Commandments” Were written by Kent M. Keith in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders.

yOuR coMMeNtS: pOppy c. (LONdON, u.K.)

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to you because I am trying to establish who owns the Rights to a poem called “Life Is” by Mother Teresa.

We are making a charitable film about Life and would like to use this poem in the film.

However, we are having problems establishing who actually owns the Rights. If you could shed any light on this matter, I would truly appreciate it.

Many thanks,

Poppy C., The Edge Picture Company (London, U.K.)

yOuR COMMENtS: JOycE K. (cALifORNiA)

Dear PrayerFoundation Members,

Thank you ever so much for your research on the Mother Teresa poem.

I had been wondering for two years on how this poem came about, and then a friend asked me about it, but my own research found no answer. I am so grateful for your help. Thank you all, especially the one who took the time to research the answer for me.

God’s Blessings upon you all, always. Thank you also for dedicating your lives to prayer and praise to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sincerely,

Joyce K. (California)

your cOMMENtS: MaRty caRdiNAL MaLKiN

2/15/09

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Marty Cardinal Malkin, St. Philip Neri Archdiocese

MOtHER tErESA ON pRayER (QuOtES):

“Prayer is as necessary as the air, as the blood in our bodies, as anything to keep us alive – to keep us alive to the grace of God.”

“Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts.”

“I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks.

God is the friend of silence – we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say but what He says to us and through us that matters.”

“You can pray while you work.

Work doesn’t stop prayer and prayer doesn’t stop work.

It requires only that small raising of the mind to him: I love you God, I trust you, I believe in you, I need you now. Small things like that. They are wonderful prayers.”

“Love to pray. Take the trouble to pray. Prayer opens your heart until it is big enough to hold and keep God.

We must know Jesus in prayer before we can see him in the broken bodies of the poor.”

“And deep down in every human heart is the desire to communicate with Him.”

“If we neglect prayer and if the branch is not connected with the vine, it will die. That connecting of the branch to the vine is prayer.

If that connection is there then love is there, then joy is there, and we will be the sunshine of God’s love, the hope of eternal happiness, the flame of burning love.

Why? Because we are one with Jesus.”

“My secret is very simple: I pray. Through prayer I become one in love with Christ. I realize that praying to him is loving him.”

“Prayer must come from the heart and must be able to touch the heart of God.

See how Jesus taught his disciples to pray: Call God your Father; praise and glorify His name; do His will as the saints do it in heaven; ask for daily bread, spiritual and temporal;

ask for forgiveness of your own sins and for the grace to forgive others; ask for the grace to resist temptations and for the final grace to be delivered from the evil which is in you and around you.”

“Every moment of prayer, especially before our Lord in the Tabernacle, is a sure, positive gain.

The time we spend in having our daily audience with God is the most precious part of the whole day.”

-St. Teresa of Calcutta

(Mother Teresa)