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Book Notes: Works of Love are Works of Peace
By Barb Szyszkiewicz, OFS on	 August 18, 2016 Articles from Our Contributors, Book Notes
While biographies are a wonderful way to get to know a person, they don't always tell the whole story. Photographer Michael Collopy proves that images can say much more than words in the newly-reissued photobook from Ignatius Press, Works of Love are Works of Peace, which documents the work of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Missionaries of Charity. Originally published in 1996, the large-format book has been updated with an appendix containing the contents of the Missionaries of Charity daily prayer book as well as a most personal and profound letter on the interior life written by Mother Teresa during Holy Week of 1993 and addressed to her entire order.
Described by the publisher as an "illustrated prayer book," Works of Love are Works of Peace is an extended photo essay that brings home the radical life of service modeled by Blessed Mother Teresa and the Sisters.
The black-and-white photos are nothing short of striking. The book's layout is spare: one large black-and-white photo on a page, with the location noted at the bottom. Some pages contain a prayer, quote from Mother Teresa or note from the photographer; on other pages, the images speak for themselves.
More compelling than the faces in the photographs are the hands. Caring hands. Whether it's the hands of Mother Teresa clasped in prayer around a rosary or the hands of the Sisters and volunteers ministering to the poorest and most vulnerable by feeding, washing, tending to wounds or simply embracing those in need, those hands stand out.
Photobook on #MotherTeresa from @IgnatiusPress emphasizes loving service. @franciscanmom reviews
This quote from Blessed Mother Teresa sums up the message of the book:
We must not drift away from the humble works, because these are the works nobody will do. It is never too small. We are so small and we look at things in a small way. But God, being Almighty, sees everything great….There are many people who can do big things. But there are very few people who will do the small things. (p. 135)
How will this book change the way you serve? The personal touch is what Mother Teresa's kind of service is all about, and Works of Love are Works of Peace underscores this fact in a powerful way.
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Copyright 2016 Barb Szyszkiewicz, OFS
Barb Szyszkiewicz, OFS
Barb Szyszkiewicz is a wife, mom, Secular Franciscan, managing editor for Today's Catholic Teacher magazine and editor at CatholicMom.com. Her three children range in age from high school to young adult, and she enjoys writing, cooking, and reading. Barb is a music minister at her parish and an avid Notre Dame football and basketball fan. Find her blog at FranciscanMom and her family's favorite recipes with nutrition information for diabetics at Cook and Count.
Susan Andersonn on September 6, 2016 02:41
I am drawn to black and white photography. It seems that the details are more defined without the clutter of color. Mom T's greatest influence on me was through a black and white sketch of a photo of her holding a baby girl that had just one arm. You can't see that in the photo, because her little dress was long sleeved, but the caption moved me so much, that I framed the picture and hung it in my laundry room. It helped me not fall apart among the dirty laundry.
But I love color too. Her simple blue band says much about the small things done with great love. It's so glorious that we can call Mother Teresa, St. Teresa now!