Speakers tell how two saintly lives were shaped by love for Eucharist

Published: 2004-09-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The lives of both Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Vietnamese Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan were shaped by devotion to the Eucharist, two speakers recalled at a eucharistic congress Sept. 25 in Washington. In separate presentations, Sister Nirmala Joshi, superior of the Missionaries of Charity, and Elizabeth Nguyen, Cardinal Thuan's youngest sister, described the central role of the Eucharist in the lives of the two courageous religious leaders. The Sept. 24-25 eucharistic congress -- with the theme, "Heaven Unites With Earth" -- was sponsored by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and The Catholic University of America. In her presentation, Sister Nirmala spoke of Mother Teresa, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity and a candidate for canonization. "Our mother (said), 'The closer we understand the living bread, the (more) fervent will be our adoration,'" Sister Nirmala recalled, adding that Mother Teresa had "boundless confidence in the power of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."

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