What Is Joy?
Christians around the world know Saint Mother Teresa as woman of inexorable Love. Seeing each human being as a priceless creation of Our Father GOD, Mother Teresa stood on a stool at the pulpit of the United States National Prayer Breakfast on February 3, 1994 before President William Clinton1 and other distinguished guests to ask Americans to give Life.
With all sincerity, she said, “And also I offer you, since our Sisters are here, anybody who doesn’t want the child, please give it to me. I — I want the child.. . . . We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: ‘Please don’t destroy the child. We will take the child.’ So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble, ‘Come, we will take — take care of you. We will get a home for your child.’ And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child. But I never give a child to a couple who have done something not to have a child. Jesus said, “Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me.” By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.’
“Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to [a] married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.”2
Sung to ease memorization is a quotation from a woman who knew well His Joy unspeakable and full of Glory.3
Music © 2026 by Ellen Richardine Evans, M.D. PLLC. All Rights Reserved.
JOY Is Prayer;
JOY Is Strength:
JOY Is Love;
JOY is a net of Love by which you can catch souls. [Emphasis mine].4
Mother Teresa.
- 1994Feb03-PresBillClinton-NationalPrayerBreakfast Retrieved 2026July02. ↩︎
- St-MotherTeresaOfCalcutta-NationalPrayerBreakfast1994 Retrieved 2026July02. ↩︎
- I PETER 1:8 (ASV) I-PETER-Chapter1-ASV Retrieved 2026July02. ↩︎
- Mother Teresa. JOY. BrainyQuote-MotherTeresa-JOY Retrieved 2026June16. ↩︎