I have to disagree with the assertion that she did not 'believe'. She believed fervently. What she did not have was any sense that her belief was justified, as she could never feel the spirit of god within her or in her life. In spite of this she continued to believe anyway. It was a false faith as it was unrewarded, and unreturned. Perhaps god would have been with her had she been ministering to his people and helping them, rather than enriching the coffers of Rome with their images and suffering and her celebrity status. Her emptiness was god's answer that she was on the wrong path. She never understood and chose to remain in the darkness.

Amen John!! She believed enough to think that suffering was a gift from God and that poor people were necessary. My favorite quote concerning her is when she told a man who was dying in agony that his suffering was bringing him closer to God and his pain was like Jesus "kissing him." The man responded "Then please tell him to stop kissing me!!"
She was a horrible bitch and the world is a better place without her.

Huh... honestly, I want a lot more context. Were these daily letters? Were they once in a while letters in which she showed her humanity and doubts?

Faith unquestioned, undoubted, is a weak faith. I think the fact that she doubted her calling, doubted her mission, doubted God, actually shows in her favor. What mature christian can honestly say they've never doubted God, never wondered if they were living the right life, if the big Sky Monster really existed? I don't think any can say that.

Whether or not Teresa was on God's path for her life is not something we can know here and now, but I know all christians can take comfort in knowing that even someone like her had doubts about it all. I know many christians who left their faith because they thought it was an all or nothing game. If they had doubts about God they couldn't be christians. It doesn't have to be that way.

What's the difference between "believe" and "REALLY believe"? One pretty much either believes or doesn't believe. It's like perfection... there are no degrees of perfection. It's either perfect or not. It's a yes or no.

Regardless, I find this news about Mother Teresa heartening. So there IS hope for Saintly Doubters!

@3,

They can say it all right. A Pew Center report showed that 83 percent of Americans never doubt the existence of God, or at least claim they don't.

wow @2, that was a whole lot of vitriol there about a nun who took vows of poverty and helped the poorest of the poor.

as a nominal hindu i wasn't a fan of the prostelytizing, but you can't deny the good she did in the world.

personally, i was very heartened to read this about her. to me, it shows an actual search for answers as opposed to a blind following of faith.

and here's a little rushdie for y'all:

"What's the opposite of belief? Not disbelief. Too certain. A belief in and of itself. The opposite of belief? Doubt."

Keter is the nothingness of beginning-creation. The all-void of Hegel, belief and non-belief fused into ONENESS.

The Sefirot of the Kabbalah flow from this non-belief. Had she been Jewish Mother Teresa might have been speaking of Keter non-belief=belief. Since Mother Teresa is an ignorant goi, she's your typical Christian idiot. Only 45 year old Jewish men can study Kabbalah. A woman like Mother Teresa is best left washing dishes for the poor.

@5 There's a difference between "83% of Americans" and "mature christians".

Many of my Jewish friends are athiests - believe there is no g-d. Yet they still believe that g-d gave Israel to our people. Dissonance is a sign of the maturity and sophistication of Judaism. G-d gave us Israel - There is no G-d.

This "revelation" is several years old; she wrote frequent letters and journal entries, and from time to time proved her humanity by, in difficult times, questioning her own faith. Sorry, Chaz, but your pseudo-intellectualism is behind the curve on this one, it's been examined to death and found devoid of the meaning you wish to insert.

Not very pretty -

Calling Mother Theresa a bitch - how terrible crude, rude, rube and stupid.

Assisting the dying in the gutters of India - a striated caste society - that alone is sainthood.

Name calling from a phony humanist who stresses over the cost of cocktails and chic underwear - not pretty.

Get a grip. The entire world honors the woman as a Saint, and that has little do do with Rome or Catholics.

She is the VERY best of the human spirit - lived and in action.

I love her and have had her pix on my office wall for years and I consider myself an agnostic with commie politics.

hey look-
more proof that organized religion, as it exists now, is a total joke.

am i the only one that is completely at a loss for what the actual message #9 was trying to convey?

If you don't believe in any thing anymore, you're pretty much fucked.

I am saying that Jews can be athiests and still believe that Israel was given to us by g-d. That's cognative dissonance is the sign of a mature religion.

Christians who doubt are simply idiots.

YOU'RE an idiot.
that's the most ridiculous thing i think i've ever read...