I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: My son did this to me. I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to make her say: I forgive my son. Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand.

There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter.

In Calcutta alone, we have given more than 1,000 children in adoption. I cannot calculate how many babies we get a year. But we never refuse anybody. Everybody is most welcome.

Let us preach you, Dear Jesus, without preaching.... not by words but by our example.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

You can pray while you work. Work doesn't stop prayer and prayer doesn't stop work. It requires only that small raising of the mind to him: I love you God, I trust you, I believe in you, I need you now. Small things like that. They are wonderful prayers.

What we sometimes consider a stumbling block is rather a rock we can step on.