Mother Teresa, the Holy Eucharist, and the Mission to Serve the Suffering

The Source and Summit of Every True Work of Charity

Among all the saints of the modern age, few spoke about the Holy Eucharist with the clarity, conviction, and lived faith of Mother Teresa.
For her, the Eucharist was not simply a devotion among many — it was the center of her life, the strength of her mission, and the reason her work among the poorest of the poor did not become mere humanitarian effort, but an act of divine love.

The Church teaches:

“The Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.”
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1324

Mother Teresa lived this truth completely, and her example continues to guide missionary work today — including efforts to relieve suffering in places where mothers and children still die for lack of basic medical care.

The Eucharist Before Everything

In the religious order she founded, the Missionaries of Charity, the day always began with the Eucharist.

Before the sisters went into the streets to serve the poor, they first went to Jesus.

• Holy Mass

• Prayer

• Eucharistic Adoration

Mother Teresa insisted on this order because she believed that without Jesus in the Eucharist, charity loses its power.

She said:

“Without the Eucharist, we could not do what we do.”

For her, the Eucharist was not symbolic.
It was not only spiritual.
It was not only devotional.

It was Jesus truly present — giving strength to love beyond human limits.

The Same Jesus in the Host and in the Suffering

Mother Teresa taught that the same Christ present in the consecrated Host is present in those who suffer.

She often said:

“We must be able to recognize Jesus in the broken bread
and in the broken bodies of the poor.”

Because she adored Christ in the Eucharist,
she could recognize Him in the dying.

Because she knelt before the tabernacle,
she could kneel beside the abandoned.

Because she received Christ in Holy Communion,
she could give Christ to the world through charity.

This is the heart of Catholic mission.

Eucharistic Faith and Mission Today

The spirit that guided Mother Teresa continues to inspire missionary work throughout the world, especially in places where the suffering of mothers and children cries out for help.

In rural Tanzania, many women still face childbirth without access to proper medical care.
Complications that could easily be treated in developed countries often become fatal.
Infant mortality and maternal mortality remain high in remote regions where hospitals are far away or lack proper equipment.

In response to this need, the Mwanbani OB/GYN Labor and Delivery Center project in Tanzania has been developed to provide safe childbirth, emergency obstetric care, prenatal support, and life-saving treatment for mothers and newborns.

This work is being carried forward through LiftLife Global Health, a Catholic-inspired humanitarian initiative dedicated to reducing maternal and infant mortality through scalable medical missions rooted in faith, charity, and human dignity. www.liftlifeglobal.org

Like Mother Teresa’s mission, the goal is not only to provide services, but to serve Christ in the suffering.

The same principle remains:

Eucharist → Prayer → Mission → Charity → Life

Without the Eucharist, the work becomes only medicine.
With the Eucharist, the work becomes love.

The Secret of Strength: Adoration Before Action

When the work of the Missionaries of Charity became overwhelming, Mother Teresa did not reduce prayer.

She increased it.

She required every sister to spend one hour each day before the Blessed Sacrament.

After this change, she said the sisters had:

• more peace

• more joy

• more endurance

• more love for the poor

She explained:

“When you look at the crucifix, you see how much Jesus loved you then.
When you look at the Eucharist, you see how much He loves you now.”

This same truth sustains every real missionary effort today.

Hospitals can be built.
Funds can be raised.
Plans can be made.

But without Christ, the mission loses its soul.

The Eucharist Is the Heart of Every True Mission

Mother Teresa believed the greatest poverty in the modern world is not material poverty, but the loss of faith in the Real Presence.

When people no longer believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist,
they also lose the ability to recognize Him in the suffering.

Without the Eucharist:

• charity becomes social work

• service becomes activism

• mission becomes ideology

With the Eucharist:

• service becomes love

• sacrifice becomes joy

• mission becomes holy

This is why every true Catholic mission begins at the altar.

And this is why her words remain the clearest summary of missionary life ever spoken:

“Without the Eucharist, we could not do what we do.”
— St. Teresa of Calcutta

March 13, 2026

Pauline Jaricot founded the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, now part of the Pontifical Mission Societies. Learn how her vision continues today through Catholic missionary work, evangelization, and humanitarian projects including LiftLife Global Health in Tanzania.

The First Priority of Mission: Bringing Christ to Those Who Have Never Heard

From the beginning, the Church has understood that her mission is universal. Christ did not command His disciples to remain where the Gospel was already known, but to go outward—to the ends of the earth—to bring the saving message to those who had never heard His name.

Before ascending into heaven, Jesus gave the Church her missionary mandate:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”
— Matthew 28:19

This command has shaped the Church’s life for two thousand years. It is not an optional activity or a secondary concern. Mission is at the very heart of the Church’s identity.

The Apostolic Model

St. Paul expresses the missionary priority of the early Church clearly in his Letter to the Romans:

“I make it my ambition to preach the Gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on another man’s foundation.”
— Romans 15:20

Paul understood that the Gospel must move outward. His missionary journeys were directed primarily toward those who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ. He traveled immense distances, endured persecution, imprisonment, and hardship because he believed that every person had the right to hear the Good News.

The apostles were not motivated by cultural expansion or political influence. They were motivated by charity—the deepest love for souls.

For if Christ truly is the Savior of the world, then withholding the Gospel from those who have never heard it would be the greatest injustice.

The Teaching of the Church

The Magisterium has consistently reaffirmed this missionary priority throughout the centuries.

In Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), Pope Paul VI declared:

“The Church exists in order to evangelize.”

Evangelization is not merely one activity among many. It is the Church’s fundamental purpose. The Church lives to proclaim Christ.

The Second Vatican Council echoed this teaching in the decree Ad Gentes, which emphasizes the importance of the Church’s mission among peoples who do not yet believe in Christ. The Council taught that the Church must be present among these peoples, witnessing to the Gospel and inviting them to encounter the living God.

Perhaps the most powerful modern reflection on this mission came from Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990). There he reaffirmed that the Church’s missionary task remains urgent and unfinished:

“The Church’s first duty is the proclamation of Jesus Christ to those peoples and groups who do not yet believe in Him.”

John Paul II warned that in many places missionary zeal had diminished. Yet the need for mission had not decreased—in fact, it had grown.

Billions of people still live without knowing the name of Jesus.

The Missionary Heart of the Church

From the earliest centuries, the Church has been carried forward by missionaries who responded to Christ’s command.

Saint Patrick went to Ireland.
Saint Francis Xavier sailed to Asia.
Saint Junípero Serra traveled across California.
Missionaries crossed deserts, oceans, and mountains to bring the Gospel to peoples who had never heard it.

Their motivation was simple: love.

They believed that the greatest gift they could give another human being was the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

For Christ is not merely a teacher or moral guide.
He is the Savior.

And salvation is not found in programs, politics, or prosperity. It is found in Him.

The Forgotten Mission Fields

Today, the missionary call remains just as urgent.

While Christianity is well established in many parts of the world, vast populations still live without ever hearing the Gospel. Entire tribes, remote communities, and isolated cultures remain outside the reach of the Church’s witness.

Often these places are geographically difficult, economically poor, or politically unstable. They are the forgotten margins of the world.

Yet it is precisely to these margins that Christ sends His Church.

The Gospel must reach not only the comfortable centers of society, but the distant villages, the rural communities, and the forgotten peoples.

The Church must go where Christ is not yet known.

Charity and Evangelization

In our time, missionary work often includes humanitarian service—schools, clinics, hospitals, and care for the poor. These works of mercy are essential expressions of Christian love.

But they are never meant to replace the proclamation of the Gospel.

Authentic Christian charity always points toward Christ.

To feed the hungry, heal the sick, and care for mothers and children is a profound act of love. Yet the greatest gift the Church can offer is the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

As Pope Benedict XVI once wrote:

“The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by attraction.”

When people encounter Christ through the witness of Christian love, their hearts are drawn to Him.

The Mission Continues

The world does not need more comfort.

It needs the Gospel.

It needs the hope that only Christ can give.

Every generation of Christians must decide whether they will continue the mission entrusted to the Church. The task is unfinished. The harvest remains abundant.

And somewhere in the world, there are still people who have never heard the name of Jesus.

The greatest charity we can offer them is to bring Christ where He is not yet known.

The Martyrs of Aden: A Hidden Witness of Faith

On March 4, 2016, a small home for the elderly in Aden, Yemen became the site of a quiet but powerful witness of Christian faith.

Armed militants stormed a nursing home operated by the Missionaries of Charity, the religious congregation founded by Mother Teresa. Within minutes, 16 people were killed, including four Catholic sisters who had devoted their lives to serving the most vulnerable.

Their names deserve to be remembered:

• Sr. Anselm (India)

• Sr. Marguerite (Rwanda)

• Sr. Reginette (Rwanda)

• Sr. Judith (Kenya)

These women came from different nations, cultures, and backgrounds, but they shared one vocation: to serve Christ in the poorest of the poor.

The home they operated cared for elderly men and women who had been abandoned by their families. Many were sick, disabled, or forgotten by society. The sisters did not ask about religion or background—they simply cared for them with dignity and love.

That morning began as every morning did for the Missionaries of Charity.

After Mass, before breakfast, the sisters pray St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Prayer for Generosity, a prayer that captures the heart of Christian service. It may well have been the final prayer they prayed that day:

Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous.
To serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward…

Only hours later, those words would become their reality.

During the attack, militants moved through the compound killing staff and volunteers, including several Yemeni and Ethiopian workers who helped run the home. Yet in the midst of the violence, nearly 80 elderly residents were left unharmed, a small sign of mercy in the midst of tragedy.

Also taken during the attack was Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian priest who had been assisting the sisters after his church was destroyed earlier in the war. He was held hostage for 18 months before finally being freed.

When news reached Rome, Pope Francis spoke about the sisters with deep emotion. He called them “the martyrs of today.” Yet he also lamented that their deaths barely appeared in the world’s headlines, describing it as part of the “globalization of indifference.”

But the Church remembers.

Their witness reminds us that the Gospel is often lived most powerfully in places the world rarely notices. These sisters did not go to Yemen for recognition, safety, or comfort. They went because they believed Christ was present in the abandoned and forgotten.

This same spirit of service continues in mission efforts around the world today.

Organizations such as Caritas Veritate Missions and LiftLife Global Health seek to carry forward that same Gospel mission: serving vulnerable communities, building healthcare access, supporting mothers and children, and bringing dignity to those who are often overlooked. www.caritasvm.org and www.liftlifeglobal.org

From maternity care initiatives in rural Africa to community health programs that protect mothers and infants, these works reflect the same truth the sisters lived: charity rooted in truth must reach the most vulnerable.

The martyrs of Aden remind us that Christian service is never merely humanitarian work. It is a witness of love grounded in the belief that every human life carries the image of God.

The sisters gave everything in that mission.

And while the world may have moved on quickly from that tragic day in 2016, their sacrifice continues to speak.

Their lives ask a question that echoes far beyond Yemen:

How far are we willing to go in serving Christ in the poor?