page of an American magazine called Jubilee: A Magazine for the Church
and Her Peoplein 1958, which introduced her at least to the American
Catholic community.
That October, Mother Teresa arrived in Los Angeles; from there she
traveled to Las Vegas in the company of a former volunteer with the Mis-
sionaries of Charity, Katherine Bracken. Mother Teresa was to give a
speech entitled “These Works of Love,” in which she outlined the work of
the Missionaries of Charity.
Mother Teresa had never spoken in public before; previously she had
relied on others to do her talking for her. But speaking before 3,000
women, she discovered that what might have been a disadvantage actu-
ally was an advantage. Instead of a professional giving a polished speech,
Mother Teresa showed herself to be a natural orator. She spoke easily of
her life’s work and that of the Missionaries of Charity in India. She stated
she was not there to beg for donations; instead she continued to rely on
God’s providence for help. But she did remind her audience that they, too,
could participate in doing something beautiful for God. As she was to dis-
cover, this approach proved far more effective in raising money than a di-
rect appeal ever would. Afterwards, sitting in a booth in the convention
hall, she watched as person after person stopped to put cash in a bag she
carried with her. During the course of the day, the bag was emptied several
times. Mother Teresa had discovered a powerful and successful way in
which to raise funds for her projects. It was a formula from which she
rarely deviated in the following years.
During her time in Las Vegas, Mother Teresa was less interested in the
goings-on in the nearby casinos and nightclubs than she was to traveling
in the desert. When asked what she thought of the city, she replied that
the neon lights of the city’s casinos and hotels reminded her of Dewali,
the yearly Hindu festival of lights. As a souvenir of her visit to Nevada,
she took some long cactus spines that she found in the desert. These were
later twisted into a crown of thorns and placed on the head of the cruci-
fied Christ hanging behind the altar in the novitiate chapel of the Mis-
sionaries of Charity in Calcutta.
A WHIRLWIND TOUR
From Las Vegas, Mother Teresa went to Peoria, Illinois, where she
spoke to yet another group of Catholic women. Then it was on to Chicago
and New York City. In each city, she was welcomed warmly and had little
trouble in gathering more monies for the Missionaries of Charity. One
disappointment in her itinerary came when a planned meeting with the
THE GROWTH OF A MIRACLE 93