Chaminade University professor emeritus Jon James watched the televised canonization of St. Teresa of Calcutta on Sunday at his Honolulu home, but he was at Rome’s Vatican City in spirit.
After first meeting Mother Teresa in India more than two decades ago, James still has the feeling of her watching over him.
Last weekend James brought a large framed picture of Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, to the Newman Center-Holy Spirit Parish at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. It’s now placed on a credenza near the entrance, bordered by Hawaiian foliage.
The tribute is “a way to show my honor to Mother Teresa for her canonization,” said James, who coordinates semiannual Taize “prayer-around-the-cross” services at the Newman Center.
In August 1994 James was working as an English professor at the Catholic university in Honolulu when he traveled to India, in part, to visit Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity operations. Upon arriving an hour too early for the day’s holy hour at the motherhouse, James sat down on a bench outside the chapel. Glancing around, he was stunned to see Mother Teresa seated about 3 yards away.
James said he then blurted out: “Hello, Mother Teresa. How are you doing?”
She replied, “I am doing fine. They have moved me to a bedroom next to the chapel recently, so I don’t have to climb stairs as my heart is so weak.”
James responded, “Oh, Mother, would you have some time to meet and speak to me?” She quickly said, “Yes, surely, my son. … We have 40 minutes before prayer starts.”
A 40-minute conversation ensued, during which Mother Teresa convinced James he was on the right track in his desire to dedicate himself to helping destitute orphans in India. Nine years ago — 13 years after the conversation — James took an early retirement from Chaminade to work full time for two orphanages and a nursery for the poor in India.
During that first meeting, which James views as providential, he said, “I just sank to my knees in front of Mother and said, ‘Oh, Mother, I am so humbled just being in your presence. I am not worthy of even being in your presence. Please place your hands on my head and bless me.’ Then I broke down in sudden tears, with my head bowed way down.”
Mother Teresa later sent him two handwritten notes, James said.
Among other things, he said, “Mother Teresa … told me that I was more than a humanitarian just raising money to help orphans and very poor kids and young adults in India. I must live among them and interact with them and concretely show them God’s love — see God in them. That will lead to my highest fulfillment and purpose in life.”
James was introduced to the poverty in India in 1988 while he was attending an international Taize pilgrimage at Loyola College in Madras (now Chennai). Years later at the motherhouse, he told Mother Teresa how he felt “traumatized by the poverty and suffering.”
“I told her how the seed was then planted in me to do something for the poor of India.”
In 1998 James met the Rev. Jojaiah Chopparapu, a priest with the Diocese of Nellore in India, who was building an orphanage at his parish. Later that year James and Chopparapu co-founded the Premananda Centre.
“’Premananda’ means ‘home of love and joy,’” James said. “That is exactly what our orphanage is.”
The center has since grown to include two orphanages, one for girls and one for boys, as well as a nursery school for poor children who are not orphans. James does all the fundraising for the center, and he has received assistance from networks in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Italy.
For more information visit orphancentre.org.
James now spends four months each year, January through April, with his “kids” in India. Last month 121 children were included in the Premananda Centre.
“I have personally experienced what she (Mother Teresa) told me to do and have found fulfillment in life by so doing. I was so blessed to have Mother Teresa in my life. Providential, indeed,” he said.
“Now from her eternal embrace in God’s love, she is surely watching over me. I sense her presence all the time, especially when I am on the scene in India. Even my kids in India notice her influence on me and have said so to me: ‘You have come to India to help us. You are in our skin. You simply love us.’ They thank me, many breaking down in tears.”
