罗马天主教会纪念特蕾莎修女

AS IT IS 2016-07-17 Roman Catholic Church Prepares to Honor Mother Teresa 罗马天主教会纪念特蕾莎修女

The Roman Catholic Church is making plans to honor Mother Teresa during a special ceremony at the Vatican.

Mother Teresa was a religious worker. She spent most of her working life helping¹ the poor in Kolkata, India. During her lifetime, she was given many awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in 1997.

On September 4th, Pope Francis will officially recognize Mother Teresa as a saint. That means church leaders recognize her as a holy person and believe she joined Jesus Christ in Heaven immediately after her death.

Many people believed Mother Teresa had an unlimited² capacity to give people unconditional³ love.

She once said there are two kinds of poverty -- “the poverty of material, for example, in some places like India, Ethiopia or some other places, where people are hungry for bread, real hunger. But there is much deeper hunger, and that is hunger for love.”

Mother Teresa was born Anjeza Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia. She was the third child of Albanian parents. When she was 18, she decided⁴ to become a nun⁵ -- a Catholic religious worker.

She joined a religious group as a student and then became a teacher at a Roman Catholic school for girls in Kolkata, formerly⁶ known as Calcutta.

Professor G?zim Alpion has studied the life of Mother Teresa and written about her. He worked for many years to persuade the church to recognize her as a saint. He says Mother Teresa left her teaching position to work among the poor in the slums of Kolkata. She began a religious group she called Missionaries⁷ of Charity.

Alpion says “what Mother Teresa put in practice was different from the European orders in Kolkata and India at that time. She believed she could serve the people better by living like them, in the poorest areas of Kolkata. And she did this with that kind of integrity which is impossible not to admire,” he says.

Mother Teresa had to fight hard with church officials for permission to begin her humanitarian⁸ work. Then she had to fight with officials in India who were worried that she was trying to spread Christianity. They soon understood that all she wanted to do was live among the poor and help them.

G?zim Alpion says Mother Teresa’s beliefs could be seen in her work.

“Yes, there are two sides of Mother Teresa, if you like -- the religious aspect of her work, as well as the humanitarian aspect. Both of them are linked together, and Mother Teresa had the ability to express her philosophy of life, her theology, if you like, through simple words but which have, if you like, a deep philosophical⁹ meaning.”

Mother Teresa was given the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. At the ceremony, she talked about the joy of spreading peace and loving one another. She said there was joy in realizing that the poor are “our brothers and sisters.”

Archbishop Engj?ll Masafra is an Albanian church leader.

“That a small woman physically¹⁰, but in fact a great person, who has been called the Mother of Humanity, of the World, becomes a saint, it’s a great honor, as well as an obligation for us Albanians, that in spite of the religion they belong to, like Mother Teresa to be as a model for the love of God and to help others.”

The Missionaries of Charity -- the organization Mother Teresa launched with 20 nuns¹¹ -- now has 4,500 nuns who work in more than 130 countries.

Words in This Story

Heaven – n. the place where God lives and where good people go after they die according to some religions

capacity – n. the ability to do something; a mental, emotional, or physical ability

slum – n. an area of a city where poor people live and the buildings are in bad condition

integrity – n. the quality of being honest and fair

aspect – n. a part of something (usually + of)

in spite of – n. without being prevented by (something); “despite” -- used to say that something happens or is true even though there is something that might prevent it from happening or being true

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

3 unconditional   

adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的

参考例句：

• The victorious army demanded unconditional surrender.胜方要求敌人无条件投降。
• My love for all my children is unconditional.我对自己所有孩子的爱都是无条件的。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

6 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

7 missionaries   

n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some missionaries came from England in the Qing Dynasty. 清朝时，从英国来了一些传教士。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The missionaries rebuked the natives for worshipping images. 传教士指责当地人崇拜偶像。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

9 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

10 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

11 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句