A Time of Dark Isolation

Continuing through the book, Mother Teresa: Come be my Light, we see a deeply religious being living through a dark time of isolation in her ministry. Prior to being a servant to the poorest of the poor Mother Teresa heard Jesus say to her to, “Come, come, carry Me into the holes of the poor. Come be my light.” But after the ministry to the poor started Mother Teresa was herself in a time of darkness: isolated and separated from the felt presence of Jesus.

With regard to the feeling of loneliness, of abandonment, of not being wanted, of the darkness of the soul, it is a state well known by spiritual writers and directors of conscience. This is willed by God in order to attach us to Him alone, an antidote to our external activities, and also, like any temptation, a way of keeping us humble in the midst of applauses, publicity, praises, appreciation, etc. and success. To feel we are nothing, that we can do nothing is the realization of a fact. We know it, we say it, some feel it.

When I walk through the slums or enter dark holes—there Our Lord is always really present.

As for myself—there is but one desire—to love God as He has never been loved—with deep personal love.—In my heart there seems to be no other thing but He—no other love but His: the streets, Kalighat, slums, & Sisters have been places where He lives His own life of love to the full.


Mother Teresa’s desire was to satiate, satisfy the thirst of Jesus on the Cross: to bring souls to God and God to souls, despite her dark isolation.