Freely Giving to Mother Theresa

Mother Theresa is a widely revered and quoted figure among Catholics, Protestants, and many other faith traditions. But what was she really like? And what was it like to follow her? In An Unquenchable Thirst Mary Johnson gives us her story.  Taking the the name Donata (meaning "freely given"), she takes us over 20 years from her training in the South Bronx to the nerve center of the Catholic Church in Rome. The only ambition allowed a Missionary of Charity, as the order Mother Theresa founded is known, was to be a saint. Donata works hard at this, wanting to spend all her time not praying on the ground ministering to the poor.  However, she is selected for higher education and administrative work.  This means she gets to spend some time with Mother Theresa, who is elderly and seems to want to turn leadership over to younger, more energetic hands.  Unfortunately, Mother Theresa  is manipulated by a few in the echelon for their own ends. It's a bit as though she has created a creature she can no longer control. Eventually, Donata realizes her own calling is elsewhere and leaves the order.

There are certain points in the book where you find yourself saying "really?" or, "what century are we in, again?" but Mary Johnson is never bitter. Johnson gives an insider's view of questions like celibacy and sexuality inside the Catholic Church, which should be fascinating to outsiders. She has regrets, no doubt, but she has the quintessential spiritual quality, compassion, for everyone she writes about.   It doesn't matter what faith if any you belong to, this is compelling reading.