North Macedonia: Visit to the Mother Teresa Memorial (7 May 2019)

On Tuesday morning, 7 May 2019, the Pope visited the Mother Teresa Memorial in Skopje where he offered the following prayer, thanking God for the life of the Saint and invoking her intercession for the city and people.

God, Father of mercy and all goodness, we thank you for giving us the life and the charism of Saint Mother Teresa. In your boundless providence, you called her to bear witness to your love among the poorest of the poor in India and throughout the world. She was able to do much good to those in greatest need, for she saw in every man and woman the face of your Son. Docile to your Spirit, she became the prayerful cry of the poor and of all those who hunger and thirst for justice. Taking up the words uttered by Jesus on the cross: “I thirst” (Jn 19:28), Mother Teresa sated the thirst of the crucified Lord by accomplishing works of merciful love.

Saint Mother Teresa, mother of the poor, we ask for your special intercession and help, here in this city where you were born, where you had your home. Here you received the gift of rebirth in the sacraments of Christian initiation. Here you heard the first words of faith in your family and in the community of the faithful. Here you began to see and meet people in need, the poor and the helpless. Here you learned from your parents to love those in greatest need and to help them. Here, in the silence of the church, you heard the call of Jesus to follow him as a religious in the missions.

Here in this place, we ask you to intercede with Jesus, that we too may obtain the grace to be watchful and attentive to the cry of the poor, those deprived of their rights, the sick, the outcast and the least of our brothers and sisters. May he grant us the grace to see him in the eyes of all who look to us in their need. May he grant us a heart capable of loving God present in every man and woman, a heart capable of recognizing him in those who experience suffering and injustice. May he grant us the grace to become signs of love and hope in our own day, when so many are poor, abandoned, marginalized and migrants. May he grant that our love not only be on our lips, but that it be effective and genuine, so that we may bear credible witness to the Church whose duty it is to proclaim the Good News to the poor, freedom to prisoners, joy to the afflicted and the grace of salvation to all.

Saint Mother Teresa, pray for this city, for this people, for its Church and for all those who wish to follow Christ, the Good Shepherd, as his disciples, by carrying out works of justice, love, mercy, peace and service. To follow him, who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life for many: Christ our Lord. Amen.