Forty Weeks

For Missionaries of Charity

De: William Watson, Dario Dentino

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

I met Mother Teresa in Washington, D.C. in 1997, the summer before she died at the age of 87. The occasion was a vow Mass with Missionary of Charity Sisters living and working in DC and East Coast. I concelebrated the liturgy. Concelebrating priests were told they could meet Mother in the sacristy after the Mass. I was at the end of the line.

When it came time for me to greet her, I asked her for her blessing as I bowed my head. She rushed out the door of the sacristy without speaking to me or blessing me. I realized that I, as the priest, was to offer her a blessing. I thought at that moment, that the one time I had to speak to a living saint, this Jesuit blew it!

Then she rushed back into the sacristy and said: “Give me your card – give me your card!” The card in question was my business card. Her assistant said: “That means Mother is going to reach out and ask you to do something for her.” Well before that day came she passed away several months later and I never knew what she was going to ask me to do.

Nearly twenty years later, Fr. Dario Dentino, MC, reached out to me to say he was using my Forty Weeks program. He wanted to know if I could come and do some workshops for the MC Fathers community in Tijuana. I happily obliged.

Some years later, Fr. Dentino said he had written forty reflections for the Forty Weeks program incorporating the spirituality of Mother Teresa for St. Ignatius methods. He offered them to me to create this unique version of the Forty Weeks. Of course I said we would love to publish the book. I smile as I think about this. Perhaps, from her perch in heaven, Mother said: “Well I said I was going to ask you to do something but I did not say it would happen when I was still on the earth!” Mother, this book is for you and all your wonderful apostles to the “little ones.” I did my job!