Students celebrate Mother Teresa's 100th birthday

Principal Robert Brodbeck talks about Mother Teresa  to students gathered in the Marian Shrine. The Rev.  Fr. Matthew Ischay look on.

Teachers and students gathered at the Marian Shrine to celebrate Mother Teresa's 100th birthday.

Carolyn, Marc and Lily with portrait

St. Paul students gathered at the Marian Shrine on Thursday afternoon  to sing “Happy Birthday” to celebrate the 100h birthday of Mother Teresa.  They also enjoyed ice cream at the celebration.

A portrait of Mother Teresa painted by Deacon Frank Lonteen was displayed in the entrance to the school office and students are making prayer cards for the Peter Maurin Center and learning about her life this week.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta is an “inestimable gift for the Church and the world”, Pope Benedict XVI said in a message to the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Blessed’s birth.

Born in Albania August 26, 1910, for over 45 years Mother Teresa ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.

The message, written personally by the Pope, was read out during Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Calcutta, Lucas Sirkar in the Motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity, the same house where on October 7 1950 she founded her order dedicated to the care of the sick, the destitute and the dying.

This morning’s celebration begins a special year dedicated to Mother Teresa, a year that Pope Benedict said he is confident will be “for the Church and the world an occasion of joyful gratitude to God for the inestimable gift that Mother Teresa was in her lifetime”.

She died on September 5, 1997. Following her death on October 19, 2003 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. 
[Photos by Christine Ehasz]