The Viatorian Community — along with the rest of the world — will watch in wonder and reverence on Sunday when Mother Teresa of Calcutta is canonized a saint. Mother-Teresa-and-the-Express-Novena

Fr. James Michaletz, CSV, remembers when Mother Teresa addressed members of the National Catholic Educational Association in 1981 in Chicago.

Fr. James Michaletz, CSV

Fr. James Michaletz, CSV

“She told us, ‘What you’re doing right now, is the best way to minister to people. It’s what you’re meant to do,” Fr. Michaletz remembers.

He and other Viatorians stand in solidarity with Mother Teresa’s work with the poorest of the poor, as it carries out one of their most basic missions: to embrace “those accounted of little importance” by some.Fr. Mark Francis, CSV

Fr. Mark Francis, CSV, president of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago never met Mother Teresa but he believes she inspires the impossible in all of us.

“The fact that this little nun, who after working in the slums of Calcutta, and after struggling with faith all her life, has grown the Sisters of Charity to nearly 5,000 sisters in 14 countries — it all sounds impossible,” Fr. Francis says. “But that’s just the point. Mother Teresa, despite her tests of faith, took up the cross and was faithful. She was able to accomplish the impossible.

“We are called to do these same impossible things in our own way, in our own time, despite doubt and despite a lack of clarity,” he adds, “to take up our cross out of love, in order to bring the presence of Jesus into our world.”