Spiritual Battles

Paul and I have just returned from a little bit of a tour of the posher bits of Kolkata in search of coffee, which I have not had since leaving home on Monday. For a self confessed coffee addict that’s a long time without a cup of Joe. After a quality Latte, Paul then put his hand in his pocket again and it was KFC for brunch, a welcome change from curry and that set us up for the long walk back. On the way there all five of the chaps jumped into a cycle rickshaw just to experience the terror of riding in such a flimsy vehicle in Kolkata’s nightmare traffic. Honestly it wasn’t too bad although at times it did feel a bit like a scary fairground ride.

It is Good Friday today so not only is it a holy day for us Christians, but it is also Friday so a day for Muslim prayers. Our hotel is next door to “Mother Theresa House” the place where she lived and prayed with the nun’s of her order. A few doors down is a small mosque so walking back to our hotel we had to pass dozens of Muslim’s kneeling in the street, an overspill from the mosque. As we made our way past the back of this crowd the spiritual tension was almost electric and when we entered Mother Theresa’s House and sat silent before her tomb you could sense the spiritual warfare that was going on. I could see “the faithful” out of the window but could sense the immense power of the one true God resting in this place of peace, hope and love. I think both Paul and I were overawed by this simple yet deeply spiritual place, and the opportunity we had to go into the chapel and join the novice nun’s in prayer just added to the spiritual beauty of the time we spent there. It is a tremendous privilege to be on this trip, visiting Mother Theresa House has been an unexpected bonus.