For You Have Received Not to Keep but to Share

The commencement address Mother Teresa gave to the twenty-two graduates of Thomas Aquinas College, California, in 1982, one of three American college campuses she visited that year, at the request of her friend Fr. John Hardon, S.J.; the college gave her its Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion. Taking Mary's visit to Elizabeth as her starting point, she tells the graduates that they have received in order to share, that a pure heart comes from prayer, that people are created to love and be loved, and that in America the poverty is spiritual rather than material. The address was printed the same year as a booklet by the National Committee of Catholic Laymen, and the college publishes its full text on its website under the title Light a New Light.