It’s 7.30 am and we are already on the streets of Ambaulim. The otherwise quiet road that connects Quepem to Cuncolim was flooded with processions from St Joseph’s chapel to Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Ambaulim-Quepem. With candles in their hands and singing hymns and a portrait of St Teresa in their hands, a solemn march was organised in respect of St Teresa of Kolkata.
Simultaneously, the St Joseph’s Home for the Destitute, was being thoroughly cleaned, breakfast being served to the 59 inmates and medicines distributed. The centre was preparing the activity room to setup a large TV screen to watch the screening live from Vatican. One of the elderly Missionaries of Charity nuns was receiving frantic phone calls from benefactors who wanted to donate lunch, ice-creams, dinner and make the day special for the inmates.
“Today is a very special for me. I worked for two years with Mother Teresa in Kolkata. Meeting her was a dream come true and working with her and serving the poor was more than a blessing in my life,” explained Sister Lucy Jose from Kerala, who joined the Missionaries of Charity in the 1990s and moved to Kolkata to serve with Mother Teresa, the Mother General of their congregation before she was posted to Goa.
Sr Lucy explains how her childhood was inspired by reading a book on Mother Teresa and how Mother left the Loreto nuns and chose India to serve the poor and Mother’s compassion, love, joy and zeal to serve the poor.
“Today, Mother becomes Saint and I worked with her, isn’t that so special in my life, that I served with Mother for two years? I recall how mother made time for everybody, blessed everybody, prayed for everybody and still attended to the poor and spend hours with them. I live each day to be like Mother Teresa and I am glad that she’s a saint and is confirmed to be in heaven watching over us.
Sr Lucy and five other Missionaries of Charity nuns under the aegis of their Mother Superior Sister Loureena serve poor destitute homeless old men at the destitute centre that begun in 1988 and was visited by Mother Teresa herself on her visit to Goa.
“Five years I worked with Mother and all she taught me was to serve the poor and homeless with a smile and love them and that’s been my motto for life. It’s heartening to see mother canonized today and is very special here in Quepem,” explains Sr Loureena.
Sr Loureena and the other five sisters have setup the day for the canonisation and taken turns and visited all the nearby parishes and churches and been a part of the celebrations across Quepem on Sunday, while they’re now ready spend time with the homeless and destitutes and watch as their loving Mother Teresa who lives in their hearts get venerated as a saint, a moment of Joy for all of us.
Back in the Church at the 8.30 am mass, we can hear a special mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Ambaulim for St Teresa and the church packed with families wanting to be a part of this proud moment for all Indians.
