Page 7

Volume2 Issue3

Response To Love Center Newsletter

Continued from pg 6…

 

At first, Mother Teresa maintained her long standing policy of not allowing any pictures of her work. Eventually, Schaefer proved her seriousness by putting down her camera and going to work in an orphanage in Calcutta. This in turn led to the creation of a level of trust between the two that resulted in the publishing of a remarkable book.

 

"Linda Schaefer's book, 'Come and See: A Photojournalist's Journey Into The World of Mother Teresa,' is just such a beautiful book which lets the reader into the world of Mother Teresa in a very real and loving way," says Director Sister Mary Johnice of the Response to Love Center. "Of course, I had the opportunity to meet Mother Teresa when I was attending St. Charles Borremeo Seminary in Philadelphia.

 

“When I met Linda recently at an appearance she made in Buffalo, she gave me a copy of her book and I have really enjoyed it and been inspired by it....I would recommend it to everyone, especially those who have a special devotion to Mother Teresa," said Sister Johnice.

The book is a vivid 138 page portrait of both Mother Teresa and the poverty stricken world in which she lived and worked. Enhanced by a Foreword by the late Coretta Scott King, it tells the story of the life of the most saintly woman in the world and also the story of how its author came to know her so well.

 

"Come and see' were the words Mother Teresa said to me in one of the most intimate moments I had with her," Schaefer recalls as she begins her journey, a spicy mix of both journalistic and spiritual elements. "There are already too many books," Mother Teresa told her at one point. But, Schaefer promised her that this would not be "that kind of book."

 

This remarkably beautiful and touching volume features many poignant photos of its subject, but also many remarkable pictures of the City of Calcutta in various moods and guises. There are as well many pictures of its much harried inhabitants looking alternately hopeful, cheerful, and

sad.

In the end, the book's gifted and endlessly insightful author comes to the same conclusion about Mother Teresa as most of us have reached:

"If there is a prize for Woman of the Century, I believe it would go to Mother Teresa," she writes. "She embodied the message that we hope will grow more prevalent...the message of love."