Mother teresa: atheist or just troubled?

Answer 1

it doesnt matter either way she was better than you

Answer 2

Neither. Actually, this is somewhat misconstrued. What her letters revealed is what is commonly referred to as a "Dark Night of the Soul" this is something that many catholic saints have experienced.

It is rather difficult to explain a "Dark Night", but it consists in the passive purgation, where God by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul had begun of its own accord.

Exeprts from article concerning this issue:
"In letters to her spiritual director, Mother Teresa explained the "profound contradiction" her soul was suffering, and the "feeling of not being loved by God," something which accompanied her until her death in 1997.

"But there is an even more profound reason that explains why these nights are prolonged for a whole lifetime: the imitation of Christ, participation in the dark night of the spirit that Jesus had in Gethsemane and in which he died on Calvary," Father Cantalamessa continued.

Yet, it "would be a serious error to think that the life of these persons was all gloom and suffering," the Capuchin stressed. He quoted John Paul II's apostolic letter "Novo Millennio Ineunte," in which is expressed the "paradoxical blending of bliss and pain" that these persons experience.

Through such an experience "the mystics have arrived within a step of the world of those who live 'without God,'" to the extent that they become "the ideal evangelizers in the postmodern world, where one lives as if God did not exist."

Moreover, we believers "learn from the dark night of the mystics and, in particular, of Mother Teresa: how to behave in the time of dryness, when prayer becomes a struggle," Father Cantalamessa said. He pointed to the Gospel according to Luke, which tells how Jesus in his agony in the garden prayed fervently."

Secondly everyone has doubts, but she perservered in doing great works with continued prayer and faith. Not at all a woman who "lost faith" as you seem to suggest. I actually heard that she was blissful and glowing as she approached her final days. Please do some futher research.

My 2 cents. ^.^

Answer 3

Neither - Saintly! She was experiencing a 'dark night of the soul' as described by St. Therese and (I think...) St. John of the Cross. This is a state where you feel the absence of God. There's a difference between not believing in God (I'm a former atheist, so I know of what I speak) versus feeling his absence.

She kept to His Word and His Works all the while feeling deserted, like Christ on the Cross when He cried out 'My God, why have you deserted me?'

She was a better person than I, for sure.

Answer 4

To get media attention, of course. Why else would she do it? The only principle Mother Theresa had was to convert as many souls to her religion for the lowest possible price, regardless of the consequences. She was anything but a compassionate woman. If she had had some other principles, she would not have mixed with dictators like Papa Doc, or refused money from Mafia sources.

Answer 5

There are many atheists who use religious organizations to help those who need help. I doubt Mother Teresa was, but if so, what does it matter?

Answer 6

Agnostic here.

I used to love Mother Teresa... but I have to say: If she experienced conversations with Christ early in her life (as she says she did) then years later b/c those conversations stopped, she STOPPED believing. Well... that is just strange.

Answer 7

No matter if she still believed in God or not, her works in Calcutta and across the world are some of the bravest and kindest acts done by any human being.

Answer 8

IF they are giving us all the facts, the word I would call her is 'lost'. They said she had even stopped praying to God.
I can't understand how they think she could be a saint, if she was not believing in God or Jesus anymore?

Answer 9

OMG - leave mother teresa alone. She was a wonderful woman who gave totally of herself to help others. Shame on you.

Answer 10

She was an authentic fraud. She thought she was helping the suffering, but she created more suffering. At one point she literally lost her entire faith in Christianity. She was not deliberately a bad person, just brainwashed.

Answer 11

it proves even those who claim to be closest to god are shunned by him
she was a fraud from a religious point of view if she lost her faith
she will forever be revered for her humanitarian work