My Three Agneses

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Bojaxhiu in 1910.  All my life, she has been the person I have most admired.  I have read many books and seen many movies about her.  And no matter how much I learn, I never cease to be amazed.

At the age of 18 she left her tiny village and traveled to Ireland to become a nun, never to see her family again.  She arrived in Calcutta in 1929 at the ripe old age of 19, to become the most famous missionary ever known.  And she did all that on one simple premise:  love.  She loved the people that nobody wanted, the dying, the orphan, the beggar.  When AIDS emerged, her order was the first anywhere to open a home for persons with AIDS.

Perhaps what is most extraordinary is that she ultimately became the CEO of a worldwide corporation.  At the time of her death, she ran 600 homes in 136 countries...with no debt.  And despite her celebrity of later years, she refused even the most modest of materialism.  I heard once that her entire estate consisted of two of the white habits she always wore, and a small cross.  She did not even own a Bible.  The Catholic Church, in an effort to collect "relics" to venerate her impending canonization, has been reduced to preserving the tin bowl from which she ate her breakfast.  I have looked at hundreds pictures of her face, and they are all quite beautiful.

A few years back, God blessed me with another Agnes.  By a series of circumstances that could only be the Lord, I was hired by the most influential public relations agency in my state.  Totally unqualified.  But God gave me a boss, a Godly boss, a loving boss that protected me and mentored me and sheltered me from the worst of the "machine" that ate people up in that place.  This Agnes was more of a Margaret Thatcher than a Mother Teresa.  She didn't swear, she didn't cave, and she carried her dignity like a banner.  Margaret Thatcher once said, "If you have to tell people to treat you like a lady, than you are not one".  This Agnes is always a lady.  And, she is also beautiful to me.

Loving these two Agneses, it was surely no surprise to learn that God had picked me a daughter named Agnes.  I felt called to learn the origin of this name...and stunned to find that it describes each Agnes perfectly.

The girl's name Agnes  is derived from Greek ‘αγνος (hagnos) meaning "pure, holy".

Despite the severity of her circumstances, my daughter Agnes has a sweetness that is pure as new snow.  Yesterday, I received this note from the woman I have never met who has opened her home to my Agnes, as she has "aged out" of the orphanage.

Yesterday evening Agnes and I had a good long talk about how she's doing and feeling. She's missing her grandmother and says she knows she will die soon. She told me about her sister Ruth and how she has a sad heart and how much Ruth adores your daughter, and she told me all about Nathan and how playful he is. She is an incredibly observant and compassionate young lady.

The first day I met this third Agnes, we slept side by side in little cots.  With all I had heard about "bonding" issues with adopted children, I wondered if this 13-year-old head-of-household would have any regard for me.  As we lay in the dark, she took my hands, and looked deep into my eyes, and asked "What is your dream?"

"I was traveling by train to Darjeeling when I heard the voice of God.  I was sure it was God's voice.  I was certain it was a message for me.  The message was clear.  I must leave the convent to help the poor by living among them.  This was a command, something to be done, something definite.  The call was something between God and me.  What matters is that God calls each of us in a different way.  In those difficult, dramatic days I was certain that this was God's doing and not mine and I am still certain.  And it was the work of God.  I knew that the world would benefit from it." --Mother Teresa