The famous phrase that immortalizes Mother Theresa’s order, the only writing in the Missionaries of Charity chapels is, “I Thirst!”
What do we thirst for? Physical thirst? Yes, when you are in 95-degree weather, on your feet rocking and cradling babies, or chasing toddlers around on the courtyard – yes, a drop of water would be heavenly! But what do we really thirst for? Happiness – deep down we are all thirsting for it.
The crying babies “thirst” for arms to hold them and “quench” their need for love and attention; the missionaries “thirst” to discover why here, in the midst of all this, life can be so bright, beautiful and meaningful, and smiling is “in fashion.” The sisters “thirst” for God, the only One that can actually help them to 
carry on their mission.
Today, two emergency baptisms took place. Little Leonardo and little Madeline were welcomed into the Catholic family. When I asked Sr. Marie Philippe, MC, if they were going to make it, she looked at me, smiled, and pointing to heaven and told me: “Only their Father knows. He asks us to do our very best, and He will take care of the rest.”
What about you and me? What’s our thirst? What’s the water that will satisfy my thirst? It is Christ? He is the Living Water, as He told the Samaritan woman.
Here in our second day of missions, all of us — missionaries, orphans, sick babies, sisters and consecrated women — were trying to be a drop of water to one another and at the same time, drinking in the water that quenches our own thirst.
Count on our prayers, and don’t forget us in yours.
