Mother Teresa is synonymous with love and service.  

So many people across the world would recognize her smile and be able to identify the blue-and- white habits that her congregation wears. She was a woman of intense sacrifice for God and for others. She had a way of looking at people that made them feel like they were the only person who mattered in the entire world.  

If you are like me, you might ask: How can anyone ever be like that? How can you live so radically for God and for others like Mother Teresa did? 

I believe the secret is found in the depths of her prayer life. Mother Teresa spent her entire day serving the poorest of the poor and those who were dying in Calcutta. The rest of her time was given to prayer and a few hours of sleep. Many great works have shown that it was the intimacy of Mother Teresa’s prayer that fueled her life.  

Most notably, it was my encounter with a letter that she wrote to her community toward the end of her life that has changed my view on prayer and holiness. It is called the “Varanasi Letter,” and it was written on March 25, 1993. The entire letter would be worth reading (I recite a portion of it each morning), but a constant theme is her pleading with her sisters that they must “meet Jesus as a real living person, not just an idea.” 

In the beginning lines of her letter, she states that she is worried that her sisters “have never really met Jesus, one to one, you and him alone. … [W]e may spend time in chapel but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how he looks at you with love?” she writes. 

In so many words, Mother was challenging her sisters to reflect on what they do when they pray. Now, these sisters had given up families and money and so many liberties to serve the poor — but had they fallen in love with Jesus Christ? This was the concern of her letter.  

These words truly personify the personality and wisdom of Mother Teresa. She was always willing to “go there” when talking with others; and she was always consumed with preaching the personal love of Jesus. She had experienced the depths of Jesus’ love for her, and she knew that he desperately desires to share this with others. It was divine intimacy that she was calling her sisters to experience — and it all begins with acknowledging Christ as a Person present with us in prayer. 

Divine intimacy is not just for the saints, but for all of us. We must strive to be alone with the One who assures us that we are never alone.  

To honor Mother Teresa and to accept her invitation to know Jesus “as a real living person,” make the commitment to pray differently this week. Place yourself at the feet of the God who simply wants you “to hear him speaking in the silence of your heart.” The God who desires for you to have “a daily intimate contact with him.”  

Accept the challenge to pray like Mother Teresa and focus on the personal aspect of prayer, discerning how Christ is calling you to change the world one small action at a time — just like she did.