After years of following Mother Teresa’s work, I thought I knew her. Unlike her
closest friends, whom I have been interviewing in preparation for a televised
conference I will anchor this weekend, I never had shadowed her as she nursed
lepers in Calcutta, or traveled with her to meet world leaders from Bill
Clinton to Fidel Castro, or nursed her as she struggled through the last months
of her life.

But I knew her works and her words, her infectious smile and the joy that
emanated from the countless photos and profiles she had inspired. I even knew
about her “dark night of the soul” — the interior abandonment she had felt in
the midst of her busy, cheerful service to the world’s poor. News of that
spiritual trial made headlines five years ago when the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk,
a priest of the Missionaries of Charity order who is promoting Mother Teresa’s
canonization in the Catholic Church, published a study of her interior life
based on her private letters.

Read more: http://www.colleen-campbell.com/P-D_Columns/PD071004MTeresa.htm

Colleen Carroll Campbell is a St. Louis-based author, former presidential speechwriter and television and radio host of “Faith & Culture” on EWTN. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.