Doubts and Service to Humanity
Brusque, opinionated, hard-headed and not the best listener I've ever met, Sister Mary Rose had an agenda, and I think she viewed mere mortals like myself who crossed her path as either people who could help or hinder her mission. Of course, she figured that I could help her get the word out about the plight of children and families in her adopted country and town. She put me up for a few days in a spare apartment and let me talk to her at length. But it wasn't until her driver took us to Riul Vadalui, the orphanage she had worked at, did I begin to understand Sister Mary Rose's amazing gift.
Sister Mary Rose never told me that it was her faith in God that gave her the capacity to love these children so fully. For all I know, she may have shared Mother Teresa's doubts. And considering the tragedies these women saw daily, who could blame them? But I do suspect that whether they sensed God's presence or not, it was both women's will to believe, no matter how difficult, in the existence of an ultimate source of goodness that drove them to love so
deeply those whom others had abandoned.
This week, I tried to call Sister Mary Rose at the Sisters of Mercy residence in Burlingame, Calif., where she lives. I wondered what she would make of the Mother Teresa story. But I was told that she was too frail to talk. The truth is, I'm pretty sure I know the answer: The dark night of the soul is no reason not to act as if the good can outweigh the bad. By the way, her organization in Romania still flourishes.
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