# Day 31 – Mother Teresa: Thirst, Heart, Covenant
*2018-05-09*

> Bill Young reflects on Mother Teresa’s spirituality, focusing on three key words—thirst, heart, and covenant—and offers prayers that draw us into deeper communion with the Holy Spirit and Mary.

## Opening and Context

Welcome to Prayer & Lunch. Today is Pentecost Sunday, and we are on Day 31 of our 33‑day DIY retreat, “Morning Glory.” As we approach the final days, we turn to the example of Saint Mother Teresa, asking the Holy Spirit to guide us as we contemplate her life.

## Thirst

Mother Teresa was the first to hear Jesus cry, “I thirst,” on the cross (John 19:28). Because Mary was present at the crucifixion, she fully understood the depth of Christ’s longing for love. She intercedes for us, pleading that we recognize and respond to that same thirst for love. Let us ask Mary to help us feel Christ’s pain and to quench his thirst with our love.

## Heart

A central element of Mother Teresa’s consecration is the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She prayed, “Mary, lend me your immaculate heart; keep me in your most pure heart, that I may please Jesus through you, in you, with you.” This prayer seeks not only to receive Mary’s heart but also to be united with it—loving Jesus through the perfect love of his Mother. Mother Teresa believed that by sharing Mary’s heart, we can satisfy Christ’s thirst for love.

## Covenant

Mother Teresa lived a covenant of total dependence on Mary. She distinguished between Mary’s duties—giving her spirit, protecting, guiding, sharing prayer, sanctifying, providing for spiritual and material needs, purifying, and disposing of graces—and our duties—offering all we have, responding to her spirit, being faithful in prayer, trusting her intercession, accepting all that comes through her, sharing her virtues, remembering her presence, and entering into her interior life. This reciprocal covenant deepens our union with Christ through Mary.

## Prayer for the Day

Let us pray, asking the Holy Spirit to pour out the gifts of knowledge and love, that we may follow Mother Teresa’s example of thirst, heart, and covenant. May we grow in gratitude, examine our conscience daily, and unite our lives more fully with the Son through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.

*By embracing thirst, heart, and covenant, we draw nearer to Christ through the loving intercession of Mary.*