She put it simply and so truthfully: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
As we approach Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s feast day on September 5, we reflect on the saint whose life continues to inspire every Catholic missionary who answers the call to serve.
Her life speaks directly to the calling so many of our missionaries carry with them into clinics and hospitals around the world. Mother Teresa lived this out every day in Calcutta: seeing Christ in the person who is suffering, and responding not with grand gestures, but with the next right act of care. That’s the heart of medical mission work. It isn’t about the scale of what any one missionary can accomplish in a short-term trip. It’s about showing up, again and again, with skill and love, for the patient in front of you.
Mother Teresa often said that the biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but the feeling of being unwanted and uncared for. Our missionaries encounter that reality too in patients who haven’t seen a doctor in years and in communities where basic care is simply out of reach. In every exam room and operating theater, MDA missionaries have the chance to say, through their skill and their presence: “You are not forgotten.”
As we mark her feast day this year, we’re grateful for the example she left behind, not just for men and women in religious life, but for every layperson who has ever wondered whether their ordinary skills could be put toward something extraordinary. Her answer, and ours, is yes.
Is God Calling You?
If Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s example stirs something in you and if you are a doctor, dentist, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant wondering whether your skills could serve a greater purpose, we’d love to talk with you about what that could look like.