RE What does love your neighbour really mean
RE - What does ‘love your neighbour’ really mean? Year Four - Lesson 3
Agape - what does the term ‘agape’ mean? Agape is a Christian term for love and it means a selfless love of and for others. The word ‘agape’ originated in Greek and it translates to both ‘love’ and ‘charity’. In our previous unit, we looked at Oscar Romero and how his selfless love for others caused him to stand up against inequality and help poorer communities. Task 1 - Think about how we express agape in the things we do in our everyday lives. Talk with your partner (or have a think to yourself at home) and then jot down ways we selflessly love and help others in need?
The Life of Mother Teresa Today we are going to be looking into the life of Mother Teresa. We are going to find out who she was and what she did for those around her. Task 2 - Make sure you have your Mother Teresa fact file worksheet ready to go and fill it in as we go along. (If you are working from home and are unable to print the worksheet, you can write down the facts in your workbook)
Early life. . . Mother Teresa was born on 26 August 1910 She came from a deeply religious family who were devoted to the Roman Catholic Church and very committed to helping those less fortunate. Mother Teresa became one of the most well-known and beloved religious members that were devoted to the poor. She decided, at the early age of 12, that she wanted to become a missionary in India. (A missionary is someone who is sent to a foreign country to share and teach their religious beliefs with people who live there. )
Becoming a teacher. . . She made the decision to leave her family and become a nun at the young age of 18. Mother Teresa had a desire to become a teacher and she joined the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ireland. She hoped that as a teacher she would help to eliminate the poverty of girls through education. In December, she left Ireland to travel to India, arriving in Calcutta on 6 January 1929 to teach in a girls' school. The school was dedicated to teaching the girls of some of the poorest Bengali families and it was here that Mother Teresa learned to speak both Hindi and Bengali. She continued to teach in the school and in 1944 became the school headteacher and she was loved by many for her kindness and devotion to education.
The train ride that changed her life. . . From 1937, she became known as Mother Teresa, but it was a train ride on 10 September 1946 which would change her life forever. It is on this journey that Mother Teresa said she received her "inspiration" to carry out what she described as the work of God, devoting herself to helping people who lived in the slums of Calcutta. In 1948 she received her local Archbishop’s approval to pursue her new calling and in August, wearing the traditional blue and white sari that she would be known for, she left the convent and headed to Calcutta. She spent six months in basic medical training and then went to the slums to help “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for. ” In 1950, she founded an organisation called the Missionaries of Charity, which was a sisterhood dedicated to helping the poor.
Her legacy. . . By 1971, her organisation expanded internationally and to this day has around 4, 500 nuns and 400 brothers across 87 countries, all of whom look after the poor and the sick in the slums of around 160 cities across the world. Mother Teresa received the Jewel of India award which is the highest honour that an Indian civilian can receive. She also received the Soviet Union’s Gold Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee and in 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work “in bringing help to suffering humanity”. Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 at the age of 87, and was given a state funeral in India. Mother Teresa is remembered as an incredibly selfless person who wanted to help those less fortunate than herself. In 2016, Pope Francis recognised Mother Teresa as a saint.
As we continue in this unit, think about what we can learn from Mother Teresa. How did Mother Teresa embody the term ‘love your neighbour’?
- Slides: 9