Mother Teresa: Her 'thirst' and her teachings
Reviewed by Allan Wright

Mother Teresa's Secret Fire: The Encounter That Changed Her Life, and How It Can Transform Your Own
By Rev. Joseph Langford, MC. Our Sunday Visitor (Huntington, Ind., 2008). 312 pp., $19.95.

Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service
By Mary Poplin. InterVarsity Press (Downers Grove, Ill., 2008). 223 pp., $15.

I Loved Jesus in the Night: Teresa of Calcutta -- A Secret Revealed
By Paul Murray. Paraclete Press (Brewster, Mass., 2008). 125 pp., $18.95.

Much has been written in the past months concerning the interior darkness and long periods of spiritual dryness in the life of Blessed Mother Teresa, revealed through her private correspondence in the book "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light," by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, a Missionaries of Charity priest who is the postulator of her sainthood cause. Both the secular press and scholars alike have delved into the meaning of her letters and the long periods in her life when she no longer felt the presence of Jesus.

In "Mother Teresa's Secret Fire," Father Joseph Langford, a Missionaries of Charity priest and companion of Mother Teresa since the early 1970s, shares his personal encounters with Mother Teresa and sheds light on two words which can sum up her life: I thirst.

It is the thirst of Jesus on the cross that became Mother Teresa's own thirst and she spent the last 50 or so years of her life trying to satiate this thirst through her service to the poorest of the poor. It is this thirst that is at the heart of Father Langford's book.

Mother Teresa never spoke publicly about her experience on Sept. 10, 1946, when she had a personal and profound experience with Jesus. "Mother Teresa's Secret Fire" reveals the conversations that Father Langford had with Mother Teresa regarding that experience and sheds light on the intense periods of spiritual darkness which followed. "What had forged Mother Teresa's soul and fueled her work had been an intimate encounter with the divine thirst --- for her, for the poor, and for us all," he writes.

Father Langford illuminates the heart of Mother Teresa's call and in doing so further communicates the beauty of Jesus, Mother Teresa, her sisters and the poor.

"I Loved Jesus in the Night" by Dominican Father Paul Murray recounts in 24 short chapters his experiences and lessons learned from time spent with Mother Teresa. Since his first encounter with her in a university classroom, Father Murray was struck to the core by her "radiant joy" and the simplicity and candor that permeated his heart and mind.

This book is an easy read and gives the reader insights into the spiritual life and relationship with Jesus that drove this carrier of God's love to serve the poorest of the poor. On two separate occasions Mother Teresa took Father Murray's hand in hers and spelled out the Gospel passage that summed up for her the entire mystery of our lives: "You did it to me." This is an excellent meditative book that can be used for personal reflection.

The title of "Finding Calcutta," by Mary Poplin, is taken from one of Mother Teresa's most popular exhortations that "you can find Calcutta all over the world if you have eyes to see." Poplin, a professor of education at the University of Texas, shares her two-month experience serving with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, during the summer of 1996.

Poplin reveals not only her encounters with Mother Teresa and her sisters but also her own spiritual journey in which she discloses her life without God. The chaos and confusion which followed led to her conversion to Christianity. She aptly narrates the conflict that arose in the secular academic community which flatly rejects any notion of God and discounts Christianity outright and her newfound belief in Jesus.

The person who is unfamiliar with the work of Mother Teresa will gain valuable insights into her life and labor with the poor through this book as well as insights into the journey of a woman in the world of academia trying to find her way as a woman of faith.

Each of these books sheds light on a different aspect of Mother Teresa and reveals the visible work that people see and the inner thirst that continues to drive the Missionaries of Charity.
---CNS

Pope John XXIII:
A man of dialogue, not dictates
Reviewed by Mike Nelson

Meet John XXIII: Joyful Pope and Father to All
By Patricia Treece. Servant Books. (Cincinnati, 2008). 208 pp.; $13.99.

In October 1962, preparing to write his most famous encyclical, Pacem in Terris ("Peace on Earth"), Pope John XXIII was confronted with the delicacy of addressing the "balance of terror" that existed in those days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and --- not secondarily --- of how to address communism, the political system that harbored strong feelings, none of them pleasant, toward organized religion.

This was just days after the 81-year-old pontiff, suffering from terminal stomach cancer that would take his life the following spring, had presided over the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which he had promulgated on Jan. 25, 1959. It was his hope that the council would help the Church learn what he had already learned in his priesthood: that regardless of what the other person thinks, or thinks of you, you must accord him kindness and respect, as Jesus would.

Thus it was in the spirit of the Council --- and of the man himself --- that the Holy Father adopted a tone of optimism in his encyclical that was addressed to all people, not just Catholics, urging them to dialogue on issues of justice, to collaborate in promoting human dignity. Pacem in Terris became an appeal to the best qualities of every human being --- and, pointedly, a refusal to blame, castigate or condemn, not even practitioners and perpetrators of communism.

"I can't attribute ill will to anyone," Pope John told the monsignor helping him with the encyclical, "or there'll be no dialogue at all."

Such is the man portrayed, and celebrated, in Patricia Treece's "Meet John XXIII," a meticulously-documented yet concise biography. Utilizing documents and insights provided by (among others) Archbishop Loris Francesco Capovilla, the pope's personal secretary for the last decade of his life, Treece captures a man who rejoiced in his life of ordained ministry, but refused to regard himself as anything more than a servant of others.

Not surprising, given that Angelo Roncalli grew up in a poor Italian farming village with 10 siblings and other relatives jammed into a single homestead. Throughout his life --- as a young seminarian, priest, seminary professor, apostolic nuncio, diocesan archbishop and pontiff --- he practiced love, charity, faith and optimism.

"I never met a pessimist," he wrote in his diary, "who accomplished any good."

His selection by the College of Cardinals to succeed Pius XII in 1958 did little to change his self-perception that he was no better than anyone else. He was, Treece writes, never comfortable with deferential treatment ("I don't want any of this foot kissing!" he told Capovilla the day after his coronation as pope), and he opted for warmth over formality at every opportunity ("This is a sign of our humanity," he explained of writing personal notes next to the papal seal on "official" letters to old friends).

The fact that any Catholic leader --- nuncio, bishop or pope --- would so willingly and enthusiastically strike up relationships with so many who shared neither his faith, nationality nor politics was clearly an exception to the rule in the world of the mid-20th century. Yet Roncalli/John's outreach --- to Bulgarians, Turks, Jews, Muslims and more who, in that age, had "issues" with the Church --- repeatedly won friendship and good will from world political and religious leaders (both Nikita Kruschev and John Kennedy, both charmed in meetings with this Holy Father, had favorable reactions to Pacem in Terris).

Such actions, including and perhaps especially Vatican II, set a pattern since emulated by John's successors and Catholic leaders everywhere to engage (rather than fear) the rest of the world, to find ways to join together, to celebrate the life God has granted.

Treece, who has authored books on Saints Therése of Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe and Padre Pio (and whose columns on saints have appeared in The Tidings), has drawn a warm and accessible portrait of a man whose warmth and accessibility paved the way for a greater world understanding of Catholics, and the Catholic faith.

His qualities as leader and servant were perhaps most on display the opening day of the Council, in his off-the-cuff address to an assembled 200,000 gathered under the pope's window that evening. "Let us continue to love one another," he exhorted them, "making use of what unites us…. We are brothers!"

And then, he invited the throng, when they went home, to embrace their children, and to tell them, "This hug is from the pope."

Pope John Paul II: His pastor's heart
Reviewed by Agostino Bono

Meet John Paul II: The People's Pope
By Janel Rodriguez. Servant Books (Cincinnati, 2008). 156 pp. $12.99.
Pope John Paul II: An Intimate Life
By Caroline Pigozzi. FaithWords (New York, 2008). 278 pp. $21.99.

Feeding the nuanced, complex mind of Pope John Paul II was a pastor's heart longing to continue priestly ministry even on the world stage. His prolific writings and numerous papal duties didn't keep the late pope from throwing direct lifelines to individual Catholics.

History's first Polish pope reinstituted the papal practice of hearing confessions on Good Friday. He officiated at baptisms, confirmations and marriages. Once, in the pasturelands of Argentina he elbowed out of the way a policeman who tried to keep the striding pope from pressing the flesh with some of the tens of thousands of people who came to hear him.

A book delving into the pastoral nature and inner strength of the parish priest turned pope and a dominant world figure in the second half of the 20th century would be an important service. It would help establish the overlooked human and ministerial side of the man etched in history as a central figure in toppling the Soviet bloc and in cementing Catholicism's place in contemporary world politics.

"Meet John Paul II: The People's Pope" by Janel Rodriguez and "Pope John Paul II: An Intimate Life" by Caroline Pigozzi attempt to find the humble but strong-willed priest who filled the chair of Peter. They provide easy, breezy reading but offer a superficial glimpse of the man behind the pope.

The main problem is that both authors are overwhelmed by their subject.

Rodriguez unabashedly considers Pope John Paul a saint and her book is written in the form of a hagiography, a biography that aims to prove that the subject was saintly even to the point of letting literary license slip in. So we learn that when the future pope was ordained a bishop, "with apparent divine timing, light streamed down and bathed the new bishop in its radiance."

This is not to deny solid evidence for the pope's canonization; but Rodriguez, a New York freelance writer, takes his sanctity as a given rather than building a case for it. Her introduction is titled "Santo Subito," the Italian for "sainthood quickly."

Pigozzi is simply overawed by the pope's strong character and personality. A reporter for Paris Match, the glossy French magazine, she saw him several times in his Vatican residence as she accompanied photographers for photo shoots. She also covered several papal trips with the papal press corps.

But she presents less of the intimate life of Pope John Paul and more of the people and furnishings that surrounded him. We learn the names of his barber and haberdasher. We also get a detailed description of the pope's bedroom and his cabin on the papal plane.

Both books have their brief insights. Pigozzi poignantly reports on the elderly pope's 2000 trip to Israel. This was his lifelong dream and she describes how the pope valiantly struggled to fulfill it although humbled and crippled by age, illnesses and the wounds from a 1981 assassination attempt.

Rodriguez goes into the pope's early life quoting from his poetry to show his spiritualization of manual labor, noting how this view was forged when he was forced to work in a rock quarry under the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II.

For people unfamiliar with Pope John Paul, these are good starter books.

---CNS

The Reviewers: Allan Wright is the author of "Jesus in the House: Gospel Reflections on Christ's Presence in the Home" and instructs members of the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity in Plainfield, N.J. Mike Nelson is editor of The Tidings. Agostino Bono, a retired Catholic News Service reporter, worked in the CNS Rome bureau from 1984 to 1996 as bureau chief and European editor.