This week’s Time magazine features an article about letters written by Mother Teresa over a 66-year period that are being published for the first time in a new book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light.

Consisting primarily of correspondence between her and her confessors and superiors, the letters “reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever,” says the story.

Teresa writes to the Rev. Michael van der Peet: "Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."

In another 40 different communications she is said to bemoan her "dryness," "darkness," "loneliness" and "torture."

“She compares the experience to hell and at one point says it has driven her to doubt the existence of heaven and even of God,” says Time. “She is acutely aware of the discrepancy between her inner state and her public demeanor. ‘The smile,’ she writes, is ‘a mask’ or ‘a cloak that covers everything.’ Similarly, she wonders whether she is engaged in verbal deception.”

Teresa writes to an adviser, “I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God — tender, personal love. If you were [there], you would have said, ‘What hypocrisy.’ ”

In a 1956 letter to an Archbishop, she confesses, "Such deep longing for God — and ... repulsed — empty — no faith — no love — no zeal. — [The saving of] Souls holds no attraction — Heaven means nothing — pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."

A 1959 letter asks, “What do I labour for? If there be no God — there can be no soul — if there is no Soul then Jesus — You also are not true."

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The bottom line is "Mother" Teresa was a worshipper of Mary ("Mary ... is our patroness and our Mother, and she is always leading us to Jesus") who, from all accounts, did not believe in the Bible’s most basic gospel message of eternal salvation through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

In a well-documented “expose” appearing on Biblical Discernment Ministries’ website, Teresa is quoted saying in a 1985 speech before the United Nations: "We gather to thank God for the 40 years of the beautiful work of the United Nations for the good of the people. No color, no religion, no nationality should come between us—we are all children of God.”

Revealing her wholesale pantheistic bent, she is quoted in a 1986 Time article saying, "Every AIDS victim is Jesus in a pitiful disguise; Jesus is in everyone.. ... [AIDS sufferers are] children of God [who] have been created for greater things."

Another quote from her testifies, "I love all religions. ... If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there."

She goes on, "All is God—Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc.; all have access to the same God."

In her own book, Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, and Prayers, Teresa relates, "We never try to convert those who receive [aid from Missionaries of Charity] to Christianity but in our work we bear witness to the love of God's presence and if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men—simply better—we will be satisfied. It matters to the individual what church he belongs to. If that individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her or him, this is the way God comes into their life—his life. If he does not know any other way, and if he has no doubt so that he does not need to search, then this is his way to salvation."

According to the BDM website article, Teresa, in an interview with a nun who worked with her, actually instructed dying Hindus to pray to their own Hindu gods!

When asked by the nun, "These people are waiting to die—what are you telling them to prepare them for death and eternity?” Teresa replied, “We tell them to pray to their Bhagwan, to their gods."

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For many years now, I’ve had people express shock and/or disgust when I’d tell them that Mother Teresa would go to hell no matter how closely her life seemed to outwardly mimic Jesus Christ’s because she is a pantheist pagan New Ager and not at all a true Believer.

As Gail Riplinger writes in her 1994 book New Age Bible Versions, “Both monism and pantheism are technically called Visistadvaita qualified non-dualistic Hinduism, as developed in the 11^th century by Ramaniya. Scholars describe it as an ‘elastic’ philosophy because it accepts all gods and theologies. It states, ‘The One Power manifests itself in various ways.’

“This schizophrenic philosophy is perfect for the New World Religion which will try to embrace and marry the many religions of the world. . . virtually all exposes on the New Age Movement observe that ‘the One’ is this movement’s object of worship.

“. . . The Hindu belief that God is in all things leads logically to the notion that it is he who is inspiring every action in the world—both good and evil. . . Islam has recently adopted this view and the evil which has ensued has global effects.

“. . . The Hindu ‘bible’, the Bhagavad Gita meaning ‘Song of the Divine One’, is currently very popular among New Agers. It is a lengthy tale in which ‘the One’ tells Arjuna to be ‘utterly passive’ as he kills in God’s service. ‘The One’, that is, the universe, is merely ‘cleansing itself.’ ”

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As for Teresa’s worship of what she calls a “sinless Virgin Mary,” Riplinger confirms that the “image of ‘the Virgin’ is the universal icon of pantheism.” She adds, “Consequently, this goddess could be the yoke pulling pantheists (i.e., Hindoos, animists, Buddhists, Native Americans) and non-pantheists (Muslims, Catholics) to the altar of the false prophet.

“. . . New Ager Madeline L’Engle’s book, A Cry Like a Bell,’ suggests that ‘the Virgin’ may be the focal point of worldwide ecumenical unity. Almost 100 years ago, religious historian Alexander Hislop concluded that ‘the Virgin’ would be the ‘image of the beast’ worshipped during the great tribulation.”

When it comes specifically to the Catholic Church’s role in all of this, Riplinger writes, “The Pope’s popularity among New Agers stems from their common mystical and ‘Babylonian’ bloodlines. The seeds of Hindu occultism grow well on Roman soil which has for centuries cultivated Constantine’s crossbreed of Christianity and paganism. . . The universal Hindu mantra OM is now right at home in ROMe.”