"The conditions in which the poorest of the poor lived in Calcutta at that time, and still live today, are unimaginable. The air in the city was so polluted that if you went out onto the street in the morning in a clean shirt to buy the Calcutta Herald Tribune, you returned with your sleeves and collar all dirty. The heat, the humidity, the dust and the dirt stirred up by the passing cars were indescribable. It was especially abd when there was no wind. Then the many, many burning garbage heaps produced smoke that hung over Calcutta as in a bell jar.
Cleaning was therefore part of the Sisters' daily life. They cleaned not only their own house, but also the houses of the poorest of the poor when they went to visit them. They cleaned ceaselessly. When they came home after a "cleaning project", the first thing they had to do was wash their own saris. All this dirt made it quite clear that cleaning can also be seen as the work of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it preserves life. In a city like Calcutta, life dies if you do not keep cleaning. Life becomes sick and ugly - and dies.
Cleaning is life-sustaining. And everything that sustains life comes from the Holy Spirit. So by cleaning we encounter the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives!
Taken from the book: Mother Teresa of Calcutta by Leo Maasburg
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