10 Years Since Death of Mother Teresa

The nameplate at the door still announces "Mother Teresa, MC- IN". Ten years after her death on September 5 1997, there are very few visible signs of change that meet the eye at Mother House, 54 Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road, Kolkata.

As always, the place comes alive with the 6 o'clock morning mass. It is also a time when it prepares itself for the steady trickle of visitors that continue late into the evening. A decade has gone by since Sister Nirmala took up the baton as Mother Teresa's successor and hundreds of citizens from India and abroad still find solace at the Mother House, the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Kolkata.

For them, the spirit of the Blessed Teresa of Kolkata lives on to guide the work of the sisters of the order. And it has given the volunteers all the more reason to stand by the sisters in their efforts to support Mother Teresa's legacy.

Inspiring

To ask them what makes them come to Mother House is to be greeted with amused expressions, as if it were the most obvious choice on earth. "I had come in March this year with a friend who was a volunteer. It was inspiring. So I decided to come back and volunteer," said Yumi Aihara who has come all the way from Japan.

For her companion, Yukiko Kasuya, it was the spirit of Mother Teresa that made her come: "I had seen photographs of Mother Teresa. She is no more but I wanted to come and experience what it feels to serve the poor," she explained.

Pedro Jara Vera from Spain spent the summer of 1997 in Kolkata. The experience left an indelible impression on his mind. Ten years later, he returned with 32 volunteers from his country to share, what he said was "the most humbling experience of his life".

"I had met Mother Teresa and even ten years after her demise, her charisma still lingers on. This is a blessed place," he added.

Foreign volunteers

The Missionaries of Charity have always drawn foreign volunteers and their number has doubled, if not trebled, in the past decade. The order always played host to volunteers from European nations but recent years have also been witness to a noticeable rise in the number of volunteers from the Far East such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Sister Nirmala, who took over as the Superior General of Missionaries of Charity six months before Mother Teresa's death, has proven to be a worthy successor. A good amount of her time is spent travelling, as she shuttles between the 757 Missionaries of Charity centres spread across 134 countries.

"I do miss her, physically. But then she is always with us in spirit, giving us the strength to go on," Sister Nirmala said.

Canonisation

People all over the world are now praying for Mother Teresa's early canonisation, after her beatification in 2003 by Pope John Paul II .

The Catholic Association of Bengal (CAB) has dedicated the year 2007 in honour of Mother Teresa and has lined up prayers and services for her early sainthood.

Both Kumar and the CAB say that many miracles have already been reported to the Mother House.

"The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints at the Vatican are already considering it and we are hopeful that the sainthood will come along in another two or three years," said Eugene Gonsalves, President of CAB.