12 Quotes by Kathryn Spink

she had seen the poverty of the rich and the wealth of the poor, and the value of bringing the rich and poor together

Smile at Jesus in your suffering - for to be a real Missionary of Charity you must be a cheerful victim.

The communist authorities told Mother Teresa that they had no poor in China, because in China the government looked after the poor, whereupon Mother Teresa informed them that she was delighted to hear that they had no poor but that she thought perhaps there might be some people who were disheartened and in need of a little encouragement. She and her Sisters would like to bring hope to the discouraged. That much the Chinese government was prepared to allow them to do.

she had also witnessed a courage which far exceeded endurance, a joy which transcended pain and the manner in which suffering could be the medicine which deepened people's humanity

to her Christ was actual and real, and for those prepared to perceive this reality suffering need be neither senseless nor solitary

She wanted them to live in union with God and with one another. Silence was at the root of that union, for God was 'the friend of silence':

We need silence to be alone with God, to speak to him, to listen to him, to ponder his words deep in our hearts. We need to be alone with God in silence to be renewed and transformed. Silence gives us a new outlook on life.

Of necessity, theirs must often be an interior silence, surrounded as they were for much of the time by noise and restlessness. To make possible true interior silence she told her Sister they would practice

Nuns who looked sad were, she pointed out, the greatest stumbling block to vocations because young people, like God, loved a cheerful giver.