Mother Teresa once said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples”. This view on changing the world is what drove Mother Teresa in the ways she lived and the ways she led others. Mother Teresa, is best known for her efforts in serving others and her desire to aid the unwanted, the unloved, and the uncared for. When looking closer at her life, it’s clear that Mother Teresa’s historical, contemporary, and immediate context has influenced her to be a servant leader, charismatic leader, and transformational leader. To fully understand her leadership, it is important to know what leadership is, how context is important, who she is, and how she led.
The idea of leadership itself is broad and …show more content…
This time period was one of disorder and frustration for Albanian nationalists who by the beginning of the twentieth century had a visibly developed sense of their own cultural identity but lacked an independent state. Agnes was the youngest of three children to a successful businessman and a religious, loving housewife. In 1919, when Agnes was nine her father was poisoned and killed due to his high profile as a nationalist and a councilman of the city government (Spink, 1997). The death of her father left their family in hard financial circumstances when her deceased father’s business partner completely took over their business. Agnes’ mother worked as a dressmaker and weaver in order to provide for her family during these difficult times. Two qualities of Agnes’ mother that greatly influenced her was her faith and quickness to help those in need (Stevenson, 2017). Despite these difficult times, the family remained strong in their faith, attending church every day and Agnes living out her love for singing by singing in the church choir (Tucker, 2000). Her mother selflessly volunteered in the neighborhood, cared for an invalid alcoholic woman, and had later taken six orphaned children into her home (Tucker, 2000). This example of servanthood did not go unnoticed by …show more content…
She had experienced a “vocational crisis” and wanted a “total self-surrender to the service of the poor… to a mission of charity” (Youssef, 2004). Mother Teresa had left the Sisters of Loreto and went to Patna and studied at the school for nurses of the Medical Mission Sisters (Youssef, 2004). While she felt called to do so, leaving Loreto was not an easy think for Mother Teresa to do. While reflecting later in life, she had said, “to leave Loreto was my greatest sacrifice, the most difficult thing I have ever done. It was much more difficult than to leave my family and country to enter religious life. Loreto meant everything to me” (Tucker, 2000). Several months later, she had returned to Calcutta and lived with the Little Sisters of the Poor at Saint Joseph’s Asylum for the Elderly. She traded her traditional black and white nun outfit for the traditional saris of the Indian culture. Day in and day out she tirelessly worked in the slums, to serve the poorest of the poor. In 1948, the Catholic Church gave her permission to begin a new religious order, called the Missionaries of Charity (Stevenson,
The idea of leadership itself is broad and …show more content…
This time period was one of disorder and frustration for Albanian nationalists who by the beginning of the twentieth century had a visibly developed sense of their own cultural identity but lacked an independent state. Agnes was the youngest of three children to a successful businessman and a religious, loving housewife. In 1919, when Agnes was nine her father was poisoned and killed due to his high profile as a nationalist and a councilman of the city government (Spink, 1997). The death of her father left their family in hard financial circumstances when her deceased father’s business partner completely took over their business. Agnes’ mother worked as a dressmaker and weaver in order to provide for her family during these difficult times. Two qualities of Agnes’ mother that greatly influenced her was her faith and quickness to help those in need (Stevenson, 2017). Despite these difficult times, the family remained strong in their faith, attending church every day and Agnes living out her love for singing by singing in the church choir (Tucker, 2000). Her mother selflessly volunteered in the neighborhood, cared for an invalid alcoholic woman, and had later taken six orphaned children into her home (Tucker, 2000). This example of servanthood did not go unnoticed by …show more content…
She had experienced a “vocational crisis” and wanted a “total self-surrender to the service of the poor… to a mission of charity” (Youssef, 2004). Mother Teresa had left the Sisters of Loreto and went to Patna and studied at the school for nurses of the Medical Mission Sisters (Youssef, 2004). While she felt called to do so, leaving Loreto was not an easy think for Mother Teresa to do. While reflecting later in life, she had said, “to leave Loreto was my greatest sacrifice, the most difficult thing I have ever done. It was much more difficult than to leave my family and country to enter religious life. Loreto meant everything to me” (Tucker, 2000). Several months later, she had returned to Calcutta and lived with the Little Sisters of the Poor at Saint Joseph’s Asylum for the Elderly. She traded her traditional black and white nun outfit for the traditional saris of the Indian culture. Day in and day out she tirelessly worked in the slums, to serve the poorest of the poor. In 1948, the Catholic Church gave her permission to begin a new religious order, called the Missionaries of Charity (Stevenson,