Just as love begins at home, and evil begins at home…

Love and evil start at home
Today we witness the collapse of many families.

– we have many more families destroyed. Why? Because old mothers and old fathers must go to the elderly home. The father is busy, mother is busy, the child comes home and there is no one who loves him. Jokes, talks, smiles and so on, the child must search on the street.

Just as love begins at home, and evil begins at home, sin begins at home.

The world is in great mess

You and me can also provide the joy of the love and peace for the family. Today the world is in great mess, so much hate, so much killing, so many accidents because love, peace and joy in the family are ruined. Families don’t pray any longer. And because they doesn’t pray,  they can’t stay together. If they don’t stay together, they can’t love each other. And if a mother can kill her own child, what is then left to other people but to kill each other.

Happiness  begins at home

St. John said, “How can you say that you love God whom you don’t see when you don’t love your brother whom you see.” He uses very strong words, he says, “You are a liar if you say you love God, and you don’t love your neighbor.”I think this is something we all have to understand: love begins at home.

Today it is clear that all the suffering in the world started from home. Today, we have no time to even look at each other, talk to each other, to enjoy each other, and even less to be what our children expect of us, what husband expects from a woman, what a woman expects of her husband. And so we are getting more and more out of our homes and we are all less in touch with each other.

Love in the family

I never forget my mother. She was very busy all day, but as soon as night comes, she would usually be busy with preparing to meet with my dad. Then we didn’t understand, it was funny to us, we were laughing and teasing her, but now I understand the kind of infinite love she had for him. No matter what happens, she had always been ready to welcome him with a smile. We don’t have time nowadays. Today parents are very busy when kids come home. There is no one to love them, to smile to them.

So busy

In today’s world, married people have problems because there is no intensification of mutual intimate love – they are busy with so many things.

Today we witness the collapse of many families – we have many more families destroyed. Why? Because old parents must go to the elderly home. The father is busy, mother is busy, the child comes home and there is no one who would kiss him. Jokes, talks, smiles and so on, the child must search on the street. I don’t know if you saw it, but I’ve seen many, many young men and girls on the streets of London, Rome and the United States. Our

sisters are now everywhere and we come across this awful poverty and that is something that we have to understand  – that love and evil begin at home, love begins in our own community. We see each other very often here. And we can easily forget about ourselves if we don’t even have time for each other.

Love and peace begin with the child

I was surprised when I saw so many young men and girls in the west who surrendered to drugs and I tried to find out why is that happening. Why is this so when they in the west have much more things and solutions than young people in the east? Answer was: because there is no one in the family who would welcome them.

Our children depend on us in everything – will we give them safety, introduce them to God and teach them to love God. For all of this they look at us with confidence and hope. But often the parents are overwhelmed. They don’t have time for their kids. Maybe they are not married either or have given up on marriage so children go to the street and enter into drugs or anything else. We are talking about love toward the child and this is where love and peace must begin.

Pray together

One day I picked up a woman from a dumpster. She was blowing in the heat. I was sure it was over, but she was repeating all the time: “I was hurt, my son did it.” I took her to our house. It took me a lot of time to pray with her, pray and pray to forgive her son. It took a lot of time. If she would be hungry, I could give her bread – and done. But it took me a long time to help her say, “I forgive to my son. “ Thank God, just before she died, she said,” I forgive to my son.” Look at this terrible suffering. We can’t imagine it, but I have met such things, even in rich countries – that loneliness is terrible.

I think the reason we have gathered here today is that we should pray for patients, maybe we have such people even in our own family. Love begins at home. Love begins in our community. It begins at home. And how does it begin? It begins by praying together. Because the family that pray together, stays together. And if we stay together, naturally, we will love each other as God loves us. Those acts of love are acts of peace. Such a family, naturally, lives in peace.

Mother Teresa