Reprinted below is an article that appeared in the telegraph (of a highly respected newspaper in the UK) about the discovery of letters, previously unpublished, written by Mother Teresa, describing her own, considerable crisis of faith. Time (magazine) ran a similar article and included in their version additional observations from a constant critic of Mother Teresa and a confirmed atheist.

I find it interesting and perhaps indicative of our time, that there is so much controversy regarding these revelations. There are people who believe this should “cost Mother Teresa her sainthood.” There are those who say it makes her “real.”

Mother Teresa’s ‘ 40-year faith crisis’

By Malcolm Moore, Rome Correspondent

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who may be canonized as a saint by the Vatican later this year, had a deep crisis of faith in God for the last 40 years of her life, according to a new set of her letters.

The correspondence, which spans most of Mother Teresa’s life, shows that she felt alone and in a state of spiritual pain from around 1949, roughly the time when she started taking care of the poor and dying in Calcutta.

Although she publicly proclaimed that her heart belonged “entirely to the Heart of Jesus,” she wrote to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, a spiritual confidant, in September 1979 that, “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear. The tongue moves (in prayer) but does not speak.”

The letter was written just a few weeks before she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her charitable work.

More than 40 other letters, many of which she had asked to be destroyed in her will, show her fighting off feelings of “darkness” and “torture.”

The letters are published for the first time in a new book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, and are edited by the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, a close friend.

He wrote that during that period, Mother Teresa did not feel God “in her heart or in the Eucharist.”

Mr. Kolodiejchuk gathered the letters as part of the process to make Mother Teresa a saint, and is responsible for arguing in her favor. He said the letters would show people another side of her life, and said that the fact that she was able to continue her work during such torment was a sign of her spiritual heroism. Mother Teresa has been beatified, and is awaiting canonization.

The Vatican has insisted that the revelations will not obstruct her path to sainthood.

“Lord my God, you have thrown (me) away as unwanted – unloved,” she wrote in one missive. “I call, I cling, I want, and there is no one to answer, no, no one. Alone. Where is my faith? Even deep down right in there is nothing. I have no faith. I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart.”

She added: “I am told God loves me, and yet the reality of the darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?”

She even compared her problems to hell and admitted that she had begun to doubt the existence of heaven and God.

“The smile,” she wrote, “is a mask or a cloak that covers everything. I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God, a tender personal love. If you were there you would have said, ‘What hypocrisy.’

In the aftermath of this controversy, there are, for me, as usual, more questions than answers.

If, in the midst of my own doubt and concern, I continue to work toward doing good in the world, what does that say about my character?

If I am not sure there is a God and I do good work, does that make the work more or less valuable?

If no one ever sees my good deeds, does that mean they matter less or more?

From whence cometh the notion of sainthood, anyway?

When did my opinion about your actions or behavior become anything more than my opinion?

If I can perceive human suffering, how is that I believe I have no responsibility for its alleviation?

Since when did it become mine to judge you or attempt to determine how you will be treated by history?

Is it yet clear that I have a point of view?

We all have a point of view about almost everything.

Did you know that The Dali Lama has a collection of very expensive watches?

Have you ever seen a “holy man” have a tantrum?

No matter what work you do, there are frustrations.

Why should a custodian in a school clean up after children? Are they not capable of cleaning up after themselves?

Since 1979, I have known what causes violence in our society and what to do in order to have it ended. There are days when I wonder how I might have spent my life differently.

There are days I believe we will destroy ourselves before anyone might listen.

Mother Teresa passes my test for a spectacular human being.

I can see no harm she has created.

It seems that what she attempted to do was done in the belief that it would be of use.

What will I say today about how I have spent my time?

What kind of things have I encouraged and promoted?

In what way is the world a better place for my having drawn breath today?

It is my wish for you that every skill and ability you have, be used in a way that you experience the joy of pure contribution.