Rome – Italy (Tuesday, 06/23/2015, Gaudium Press) The news from Mumbai (AsiaNews) inform us that the first Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcuta, Sister Nirmala Joshi, has died.

The story of Sister Nirmala is worthy of being remembered. Born in a Hindu family, she was educated in different Catholic schools, as these are generally the best teaching centers in many countries in which majority are pagan. His father, originally from Nepal, was an army officer, and she graduated in political science and worked as a lawyer for several years. But she met a person who changed her life: Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It was like meeting the “rich young man”, with the difference that in this case the “rich girl” says “yes”, and left everything to follow Jesus poor, chaste and obedient. Thanks to the personal apostolate of Mother Teresa, Nirmala became Catholic.

As a professed in the Order of Mother Teresa she was sent as a missionary to Panama, but feeling the need for a life of greater prayer, she asked, and obtained, from the founder the permission to open a branch dedicated to meditation and contemplation.

But after the death of Mother Teresa, the sisters recognize the intense inner life of Sister Nirmala and that she could be the right person to lead the whole Congregation. She was elected as Superior General in 1977, both for the “contemplative” and “active” branch, a position she held until 2009, when for health reasons she resigned.

After a long ordeal with heart and kidney problems, the doctors advised her to stay in a special room in the hospital, but having chosen the religious life she decided to face the situation surrounded by her sisters in religion. She died in a house of her order.

Rather than talking about herself, she loved to tell live stories of her founder. She gave some interviews to journalists, always referring to Mother Teresa’s quotes: “The Eucharist is what makes our lives exciting,” “Mother encouraged children and adults to go to Sunday Mass in their own parishes, an attending Eucharistic adorations “,” in each of our houses we always have chapel, where anyone is welcomed to pray to Jesus in the Eucharist, “” the sacredness is part of our human nature: we are created by God for us to become holy as He is holy, destined for eternal life full of love, peace, light and joy! “

By José Manuel Jiménez for Gaudium Press