Joy is Half the Gift You Bring

As part of their Lenten activities, Bishop Feehan High School recently welcomed missionary, author and television hostess, Susan Conroy, to share life lessons learned during her 11-year experience in working with Mother Theresa. A native of Portland, Maine, Conroy was seventh of 10 children and a graduate of Dartmouth College when she decided to travel to India in 1986 where Mother Theresa welcomed anyone with “hands to serve and a heart to love.” 

While in Calcutta, Conroy worked in orphanages and homes for the dying.“When I first came to India in 1986 at the age of 20, all I had was myself to give,”Conroy said. “Nothing I ever witnessed in my upbringing had prepared me for the poverty of Calcutta. I remember having to walk in the gutters because there were so many people actually sleeping and living in the streets.” Conroy’s sense of humor was also tested in India. “I’m not like St. Francis of Assisi; I don’t like bugs and in India, there are lots of cockroaches and lizards,” she joked. “Of course, when the other volunteers I worked with pointed out that the lizards ate the cockroaches; I grew to appreciate the lizards.”

The opportunity to learn spiritual lessons from modern day saint Mother Teresa, was a definite highlight of Conroy’s time in India.   “In working with Mother Teresa, I saw how her extreme humility, willingness and love transformed the lives of others. From Mother Teresa I learned, ‘Joy is half the gift you bring.’” 

These experiences are the basis for her book, Mother Theresa: Lessons in Love and Secrets of Sanctity. Conroy has also recently signed a contract with EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) to host a mini-series on the lives of saints.

PHOTO: Guest speaker and author, Susan Conroy, uses a slide presentation at Feehan to speak about life lessons learned first-hand from Mother Theresa.