12.29.2010 MOTHER TERESA'S CO-WORKERS

CONSTITUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CO-WORKERS OF MOTHER TERESA AFFILIATED TO THE MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY

1...consists of men, women, young people and children of all religions and denominations throughout the world, who seek to love God in their fellow men, though whole hearted free service to the poorest of the poor of all castes and creeds and who wish to unite themselves in a spirit of prayer and sacrifice with the work of mother teresa and the missionaries of charity.

2. mother teresa's desire is that all co-workers, sisters and brothers, and the poor unite themselves to each other in prayer and sacrifice:
-by helping people recognize God in the person of the poor
-by helping people love God better through works of charity and service to the poor
-by uniting the missionaries of charity and co-workers throughout the world in prayer and sacrifice
-by keeping the family spirit
-by fostering aid between various countries and by eliminating dupliction of effort and aid for individual centers of the missionaries of charity MOC

3. by 'the poor' is meant those who do not have enough to eat, whose living conditions are incompatible with the dignity of the human person and who are seriously deprived, materially, spiritually or socially, in relation to their neighbors. while hearing the cries of the poor, the co-workers will have a special concern for those who are unwanted and unloved.

4. all co-workers express their love of God through service to the poor, as Jesus Christ himself has said: whatever you did to the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. (matthew 25.40) for I was hungry and you gave Me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink. I was homeless and you took Me in, naked and you clothed Me, sick and you visited Me, in prison and you came to see Me. (matthew 25.35)

5. while remaining sensitive and responsive to the needs of the poor who are near to them, the co-workers..give their support to m. teresa and to her MOC in their mission of love to the poorest of the poor wherever they are found and thus share in the 'whole hearted free service to the poor' which the sisters and brothers vow to God.

6. they recognize the dignity, the individuality and the infinite value of every human life.

7. the keynote of the giving is love and service.

8. the co-workers..recognize that all the goods of this world - including gifts of mind and body, advantages of birth and education - are the free gifts of God and that no one has a right to a superfluity of wealth while others are dying of starvation and suffering from every kind of want. they seek to right this grave injustice by the exercise of voluntary poverty and the sacrifices of luxuries in their way of life.

9. at the same time and in the same spirit, co-workers..make available to the MOC whaterver time and material help are withing their power to provide.

10. co workers..unite in prayer with the MOC by saying the following prayer daily:
make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow men throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. give them, through our hands, this day their daily bread and byour understanding love give peace and joy.
Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace, that

where there is hatred i may bring love
where there there is wrong, i may bring the spirit of forgiveness
where there is error, i may bring truth
where there is doubt, i may bring faith
where there is despair, i may bring hope
where there are shadows, i may bring light
where there is sadness, i may bring joy

Lord, grant that i may seek rather

to comfort than to be comforted
to understand than to be understood
to love than to be loved
for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. amen

11. co-workers should emulate the spirit of poverty and humility of the MOC and should avoid unnecessary expenses at their meetings and should conduct all their business affairs with economy and austerity.

12. as the MOC give whole hearted free service to the poor, so the co-workers also and all those in office will give their whole hearted free service.

13. in accordance with m. teresa's wish co-workers throughout the world should maintain contact with one another and exchange ideas and information through the international committee.