04/09/2016 Songs of Praise


04/09/2016

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Her image is as unforgettable

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as her legacy.

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I'm Ann Widdecombe, and today I'm exploring the canonisation of

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the world's most famous nun, Mother Teresa.

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Even in her lifetime, she was known as the Saint of the Gutters.

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But, today, Mother Teresa has officially become

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St Teresa of Calcutta.

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I was blessed to meet her, and what I remember is the tiny stature,

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the deep humility, the profound holiness.

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She transformed many thousands of lives,

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and we hear the personal story of one of those.

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Mother Teresa is significant because she gave me a chance

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to have a second life.

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We meet the computer whizz

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whose idea is helping people to be more independent.

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And as it's back to school this week, Claire McCollum

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visits some teachers volunteering in Dunkirk's migrant camp.

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I want them to be safe and I want them to have a future.

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Mother Teresa is remembered for her service to others,

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and that's reflected in our music today.

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She once said, "If ever I become a saint,

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"I shall be continually absent from heaven,

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"to light the light of those in darkness on Earth."

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Today, Mother Teresa has become a saint of the Catholic Church.

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She was THE religious icon of the 20th century, known the world

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over for helping the disadvantaged while living among them.

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But it all began here in Dublin when, in 1928,

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a young Albanian woman called Agnes Bojaxhiu

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joined a religious order known as the Loreto Nuns.

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She famously lived out her calling in the slums of Calcutta

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and became known as "the Living Saint",

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after founding the sisterhood the Missionaries of Charity.

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Touching the lives of tens of thousands, the sisters built

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homes for orphans and hospices for the dying.

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Mother Teresa brought the plight of the poor to the world stage,

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and in 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

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I am very happy to receive it in the name of the hungry,

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of the naked, of the homeless,

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of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared...

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Such was her impact, that ever since her death in 1907, people have been

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debating how soon it would be before Mother Teresa was made a saint.

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I've got a special respect for her,

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and I've been one of many supporting the cause of her sainthood.

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But the processes of that sainthood are not straightforward.

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A saint isn't sort of a posthumous knighthood,

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that somehow or other, after you're dead, you get this little title.

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A sainthood is something that people notice in the life of someone.

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And when they die, there's an attempt to say,

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how can we ascertain, was the sainthood there?

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As well as gathering personal testimonies,

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there also has to be evidence of miracles.

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Miracles aren't easy to come by, and a Vatican commission

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investigated claims of unexplained medical cures brought about

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by prayers to Mother Teresa, before two were given papal approval.

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Sainthood is a recognition that this person is holy, and a believer

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can turn to them and ask them to intercede for them with God.

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But, for most people, her saintliness lay in her humility.

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If she went for a television interview, she wasn't looking

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at what blouse to put on today or what jacket to put on today.

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She always appeared the same, in this very unworthy dress.

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What do you think she would make of her sainthood?

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That she lived her life according to her insights, her principles,

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and if she found that being a saint could maybe help other people,

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then she would be delighted to do that.

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Despite her association with India,

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her religious training began here in Dublin in the Loreto Abbey.

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Sister Philomena also began her vocation there, and she met

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Mother Teresa many times.

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I followed the same route as Mother Teresa. I joined Loreto

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in Rathfarnham, Dublin, and I was assigned to India.

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And I worked there in our orphanage in Loreto Entally,

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and many of Mother Teresa's children were brought to that orphanage

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to be educated.

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So I had the privilege of meeting her through those little children.

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I also met her on occasions when we had religious celebrations.

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Did you think she was a saint?

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Er, in those days, she was just an ordinary sister, like all of us.

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But we were always aware of the great work she was doing,

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and that she was fulfilling the precept of the gospel.

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"As long as you did it to one of these my least, you did it to me."

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Not only did she do that herself, but she led others.

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# Lord, for tomorrow and its needs... #

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Mother Teresa spent many years in Calcutta,

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teaching some of the world's poorest children.

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The need to educate those on the margins of society is still

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a problem today, as Claire McCollum has been finding out.

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CLAIRE: There's been a refugee camp just outside Dunkirk since 2006,

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but in the last year, the number of migrants

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has grown from around 100 to 2,500, including 200 children.

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And a group of British teachers have come to the camp on a mission.

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They're determined to give those children an education in the

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most difficult circumstances,

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and I've come to find out how they're doing it.

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Six. Two times six.

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12. Three times six...

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'So, you were teaching back in the UK...'

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Why did you decide to make the move here?

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I think I came here in the middle of winter and there wasn't

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anything for the children. They were surrounded by mud.

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They were literally wading through mud that was going up to the top

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of my Wellingtons, and everything about that day,

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I remember so clearly as just wrong.

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And we had an opportunity from Christmas to be able to do

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something about it, so that's what we did.

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We came and we said,

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"We're teachers, we can teach, we can educate,

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"we can give them a reason to get up in the morning and just try."

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Yeah, just give them the best of education

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and just do what we can do.

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So, who actually is in the camp here and who comes to the school?

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Largely, we have got a lot of Kurdish people here in the camp.

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When we sit with the children and talk to them about why they're here,

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how they've got here, they are from northern Iraq, from Iran,

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from Turkey, from Syria,

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and they will say, "I'm here because of Daesh."

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And that's their answer.

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And they'll tell you stories about how their village

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has been flattened or how Isis were in the hills behind the village

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and that's why they have left.

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We will see children for two weeks

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or sometimes we will see them for six months.

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We've got a few families that have been here a long time.

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And then suddenly, they're just gone.

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When I'm hearing some of the back stories of the families,

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it's very, very difficult to keep faith with humanity sometimes.

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And how has your own faith been tested, would you say?

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I don't think it's been tested. In fact, almost quite the opposite.

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I've had to just give it to God to sort out and do what I can,

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but know, actually, there's so much that I can't help.

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What do you want for the children here?

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I want them to be safe and I want them to have a future.

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They've started to get used to French life, French culture,

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and being introduced to actually being in France.

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We're working with the French authorities at the moment and the

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local mayor's office to actually have more places available in

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French schools for them.

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And, from September, having the children all having places

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available in the local primary and secondary schools, which

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would be a fantastically successful end to this project here in France.

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# When I am down and, oh, my soul, so weary

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# When troubles come

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# And my heart burdened be

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# Then I am still

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# And wait here in the silence

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# Until you come

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# And sit awhile with me

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# You raise me up

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# So I can stand on mountains

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# You raise me up

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# To walk on stormy seas

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# I am strong when I am on your shoulders

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# You raise me up to more than I can be

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# You raise me up so I can stand on mountains

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# Stand on mountains

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# You raise me up to walk on stormy seas

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# Stormy seas

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# I am strong when I am on your shoulders

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# Ooh, ooh

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# You raise me up

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# To more than I can be

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# You raise me up so I can stand on mountains

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# Stand on mountains

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# You raise me up to walk on stormy seas

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# Stormy seas

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# I am strong when I am on your shoulders

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# You raise me up to more than I can be

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# You raise me up

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# To more than I can be. #

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Coming up later,

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two very different people whose lives changed forever when

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they met at one of Mother Teresa's homes for orphaned children.

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The words to our next piece of music were written by another Teresa -

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St Teresa of Avila - nearly 500 years ago,

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and they have a resonance on this very special day.

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# Christ has no body now

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# But yours

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# No hands

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# No feet on earth but yours

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# Yours are the eyes with which he sees

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# Yours are the feet with which he walks

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# Yours are the hands

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# With which he blesses all of us

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# Yours are the hands

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# Christ has no body now

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# But yours

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# No hands

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# No feet on earth but yours

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# Yours are the eyes with which he sees

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# Yours are the feet with which he walks

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# Yours are the hands

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# With which he blesses all of us

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# Yours are the feet

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# Christ has no body now

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# But yours

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# No hands

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# No feet on earth but yours

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# Yours are the eyes with which he sees

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# Yours are the feet with which he walks

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# Yours are the hands

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# With which he blesses all of us

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# Yours are the hands

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# Yours are the feet

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# Yours are the eyes. #

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Saints are a source of inspiration to me.

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Especially when I'm feeling doubtful or downcast.

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Inspiration comes in many different forms,

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and from many different places.

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Our next story was inspired by the basic need to feed oneself.

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Grant Douglas is a computing expert

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with a successful career in IT support.

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He also has cerebral palsy.

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This lifelong condition

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makes seemingly simple everyday tasks very difficult.

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But that didn't stop Grant designing something beautifully simple

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that has helped him and hundreds of others.

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When his mum had to stop to answer the phone,

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Grant began to wonder how he could eat his cornflakes by himself,

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without spilling the cereal.

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This spark of an idea remained in his mind

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until the church's Christmas fair.

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Fellow church member Rosi overheard him talking about his great idea.

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I thought, "I've got a friend who has a design technology company,"

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and I thought, "Well, I might approach him

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"to see if he could help."

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Soon, Grant had a prototype spoon.

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Grant decided he was going to try to bring his new spoon to market,

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but that would take ?16,000.

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Again, the answer came from Grant's church,

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which raised the funds through donations.

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Pat Morrison was one of the first customers.

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Well, I suffer from Parkinson's disease,

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and it's wonderful for eating rice,

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or something of that nature.

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And it does give you more confidence.

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But the S'up Spoon's success has not been limited to Edinburgh.

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I've never heard Grant be angry with God,

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or resent the fact that he has this disability,

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and I think it's his faith that inspires us all.

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I visited Mother Teresa's mission in Calcutta,

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where she and her Missionaries of Charity

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touched the lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable people.

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And, next, a remarkable story of two individuals

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from very different worlds, whose paths crossed at that orphanage.

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Gautam Lewis was abandoned by his birth parents as a small child.

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He was suffering from polio, and was taken in by Mother Teresa.

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Because of my disability, it meant I couldn't just run around.

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So there was many days and hours of just being in the cot,

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and not really having a childhood

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like you would imagine someone at kindergarten to have.

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Dr Patricia Lewis, then volunteering in Calcutta

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at a rehabilitation centre for children,

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regularly visited Mother Teresa's children's home.

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When I met Gautam first, he was five years old

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and he had had polio, probably since he was about 18 months,

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and so he was immobile most of the day.

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And I had worked out that this foreign person...

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..I could get her attention by playing with the cats.

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His favourite way was to grab the cat

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because he knew I loved the cat, so he would make me come running.

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I soon started to form a nice bond with her, and I don't know,

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but maybe, because I was so used to surviving,

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I saw her as my way out.

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So maybe I made her want to love me.

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If I can say that!

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Why would I, in my sort of mid-20s,

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single person, just about to begin her career, adopt a child?

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But I loved him. He was lovely. He was such a cute kid,

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and he was so funny and intelligent and sweet

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and, yeah, it just made sense.

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Everything that Patricia has done for me is beyond amazing and

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if I could be a little bit of what Patricia is, then I'd be very happy.

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Patricia's choice changed Gautam's life beyond recognition.

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He was educated at England's best schools and would later work

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as a pilot and a photographer.

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I was once one of India's poorest,

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with very little hope of a future.

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But I became one of England's luckiest.

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There has to be some form of a miracle that connected my life path

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to cross with Mother Teresa's at that point in time.

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When I went to visit Mother Teresa's tomb,

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I found it very hard to hold back the tears.

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There was a very strange...

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It's almost like an electrical...

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There was some electricity feeling that was going around my brain,

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and I don't know what it is. Maybe she knew I was sitting there

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and she was just trying to say hello.

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Mother Teresa had the spiritual connection with people

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that she saw in them the life of Christ, the suffering, the spirit,

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and connected with that.

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And I am just one of thousands of children around the world

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who has been given a place of feeling safe and loved.

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Yeah! You've done it!

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# Wonderful...

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# No eye...

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# Beautiful one...

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# Beautiful...

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# Beautiful one... #

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Next week, the 15th anniversary of 9/11,

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Sally meets Christians who have responded with faith, hope and love

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in the face of attacks on their freedom.

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But until then, on the day that Mother Teresa becomes St Teresa,

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a hymn that's a prayer for the world

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of which she would certainly approve.

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ORCHESTRA PLAYS: CARMEN - PRELUDE BY GEORGES BIZET

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HE PLAYS RANDOM NOTES

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ORCHESTRA CONTINUES WITH RANDOM NOTES ON DOUBLE BASS

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Coming soon, our Virtual Orchestra world premiere

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at the Last Night Of The Proms celebrations.

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HE PLAYS DISCORDANT NOTES

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